Merrill M.D. Prepares Healthcare Strategy

A.J. Rice, who spent eight years as a managing director for Merrill Lynch covering healthcare, has left to set up his own shop.

A.J. Rice, who spent eight years as a managing director for Merrill Lynch covering healthcare, has left to set up his own shop. According to an email written by Stuart Feldman, Rice’s partner and chief operating officer at the new firm, Pomeroy Capital, the New York-based startup will launch its Pomeroy Partners fund on Sept. 1.

The new fund “will emphasize the services side of healthcare, as opposed to the more heavily trafficked biotechnology and pharmaceutical space,” Feldman wrote. “We plan to be invested across the capital structure, and we have the mandate to consider over time the emerging international healthcare arena.”

Neither Rice nor Feldman returned calls. A Merrill Lynch spokeswoman did not return phone calls by press time.