American Healthcare Leader #31

The

How Roy Albiani safeguards Johnson & Johnson’s patients and its global identity through building a robust protection team  P10

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Knights in Legal Armor

Innovations and new treatments abound in the healthcare industry, whether it is the creation of a COVID-19 vaccine, gene therapy products, or new data privacy programs. But there are plenty of bad actors who want to take advantage.

Eleven legal leaders share how they are protecting not only the organizations but also the patients they serve. P8

in this issue

The Path

Jill Fragoso learned to take what the trail gives you as part of her trailrunning routine. She applies that same approach at Children’s Hospital of New Orleans. ▶ P82

As lead corporate counsel, Eric L. Weborg uses his front row seat in courtroom litigation to evaluate and manage risks incurred by Creative Solutions in Healthcare P92

At Bristol Myers Squibb, Eric Merin is building the next generation of legal leaders for the good of patients and society P96

The Issues

Joshua Bellamy likes to ask questions about his industry. The answers he found gave him HealthStrategy—and a reduction in pharmaceutical costs for millions of people. P100

With poise and grace, Tynina Lucas flourishes as a natural leader at EmblemHealth ◀ P108

As DCH Health System’s CFO, Nina Dusang inspires action while remaining grounded in solid data and business principles P118

Shaina Grace (Fragoso), Brian Cook (Lucas), Tyler Shannon (Brown)

The Reason

How Rekha Daniel-Kimani empowers BAYADA Home Health Care employees with empathy and compassion P128

Whether it’s in her own life or at Manulife, Shawna Oliver finds the benefits of any situation P134

With authenticity and diplomacy, Pawan Parihar proves that sound healthcare leadership should foster a culture of innovation ◀ P142

The Business

Lesley Leiserson’s creative pursuits give her the fresh perspective to make the Home Depot’s benefits program a true masterpiece P148

Thanks to Nastasja Robaina’s team, ChenMed now has an EHR system that supports its unique valuebased care model for seniors P158

John Brown helps GEHA develop leadership and opportunities as the organization’s chief people officer ◀ P162

The Impact

In her nearly twenty years at Moog, Kristine Karnath has worked to untangle its PTO policies and drive creative HR solutions P184

Joseph Koons’s consolidated healthcare billing system increases ease and accessibility for patients in Baltimore P188

Lora Lawler helps launch a new platform to provide Hilton team members the ability to attend to their own well-being while supporting their loved ones ▶ P196

On the Cover

Roy Albiani visited our Chicago office for his photoshoot with Senior Photo Editor Sheila Barabad Sarmiento in fall 2022.

Courtesy of Pawan Parihar (Parihar), Johnny Shryock (Lawler)

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Knights in Legal Armor

Innovations and new treatments abound in the healthcare industry, whether it is the creation of a COVID-19 vaccine, gene therapy products, or new data privacy programs. But there are plenty of bad actors who want to take advantage.

Eleven legal leaders share how they are protecting not only the organizations but also the patients they serve.

ROY ALBIANI DETAILS THE ROBUST

GLOBAL BRAND PROTECTION TEAM

HE’S BUILT AT JOHNSON & JOHNSON

A Pioneer in Protecting Patients from Dangerous Counterfeits

By Billy Yost

Portraits by Sheila Barabad Sarmiento

ohnson & Johnson (J&J)’s director of global brand protection for its multibillion-dollar medical devices business has a track record to match the company’s reputation (built over the last 136 years).

Roy Albiani is an award-winning leader with twenty years of experience protecting patients, brand reputation, and supply chain at J&J from illicit trade, including dangerous counterfeit, tampering, and illegal diversion.

More broadly, he also possesses decades of sales and marketing leadership experience from small start-ups, where he helped establish the global brand protection (GBP) function at one of the most well-known and reputable healthcare companies in the world.

Albiani’s entrepreneurial drive and spirit have moved him six times across four states, and he doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. The executive took a pause to speak with American Healthcare Leader about building out GBP programs, safeguarding patients, and the broader mission defining his career.

Could we delve into your pioneering the J&J brand protection function? There must be immense pride in building out this team.

Of course, I am very proud of what our GBP program at Johnson & Johnson has become today. But it certainly started humbly, and like many good things, by circumstance need, with many good people contributing along the journey.

I started our GBP function with our former J&J Diabetes Care franchise in 2003, when a marketing director for our market-leading diabetic test strip used to measure blood glucose for people with diabetes.

At the time, I was the only dedicated resource and initially had no budget. Additionally, there were virtually no brand protection professionals in the medical device industry. At best, it was considered part of the work of the security department, which depended on law enforcement that often did not prioritize it.

There were no standards on how to address illicit trade issues, and virtually no one for me to learn from in my industry. Accordingly, I learned a great deal from peers in California, primarily in the tech industry, along with emerging technology vendors and law firms adept at addressing illicit trade issues.

One of the catalysts for additional resources, however, was when we uncovered a large and serious

Roy Albiani Director of Global Brand Protection Johnson & Johnson MedTech

counterfeiting issue impacting the health and safety of people with diabetes. Accordingly, we made additional investments in people and operational solutions, which led to a great deal of success over the years. We not only protected patients but also drove significant value recovery back to the business.

Today, with the help of other pioneering leaders, J&J’s GBP program evolved from a single operating company to supporting our entire enterprise. Now, we serve as a thought leader in the space, having developed many solutions, practices, and standards to safeguard patients from illicit trade. Our broad, global, cross-functional team, led by a vice president, reports into the law department.

Could you talk about the proactive versus reactive elements of your work, and how you see your role as safeguarding patient lives from bad behavior?

My primary role is to lead, develop, and execute strategies for our MedTech segment to disrupt illicit trade to

safeguard patients and our business from illicit trade, including issues like counterfeit, tampering, and illegal diversion. Our GBP program comprises both a strong defense and proactive, preventative offense.

These elements include product security investigation and enforcement to disrupt global illicit supply chains; product protection technology to help identify suspect counterfeit; market monitoring and robust business insight data analytics to identify and act on concerns proactively; and external partnerships with law enforcement, regulatory agencies, industry, and academia.

As an example—in the case of recently counterfeited, dangerous medical devices—our counterfeit mitigation strategy had two goals: first, to safeguard patients quickly, and secondly, to destroy and dismantle the global illicit supply.

Our team executed a vigorous market intelligence campaign, allowing us to acquire hundreds of counterfeits and identify counterfeit suppliers.

In parallel with an investigation, our team executed a comprehensive market intelligence campaign, which

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I hope I’ve inspired others to lead with integrity, humility, and caring for others, while seeking diverse and inclusive perspectives to maximize results.

allows us to acquire hundreds of counterfeits, while identifying counterfeit suppliers.

To mitigate the imminent danger to patients, we pursued a civil enforcement remedy through outside counsel. Court seizure orders, injunctions, and asset freezes allowed us to take the counterfeits, the counterfeiters’ money, and shut down the counterfeiting scheme immediately.

In addition to our enforcement actions to disrupt the counterfeit supply chain, we also deployed a proactive, end-to-end, anticounterfeiting program. This helps minimize future impact to patients and protect the goodwill of our brands, which included many of the solutions described earlier. These programs are becoming a standard approach for how we address products at high risk for counterfeiting, which could cause harm to patients.

Team leadership and a strong regional, crossfunctional team is paramount when addressing

counterfeit. Diverse teams typically include representatives around the world from J&J’s GBP team, the law department, global security, quality, the business, and many important external partners, including outside counsel and intelligence agencies. Throughout our mission, all have been passionately dedicated to safeguard patients with urgency, while destroying and dismantling the global illicit supply chain across all borders.

At this point in your career, what continues to motivate you, and what does success mean?

As a pioneer in GBP, we continue to evolve as a business discipline, not only at J&J, but in industry, generally. It’s very satisfying to contribute to strategy and solutions that will continue to shape our future. I am excited about the many future possibilities in our space to help safeguard patients and protect the goodwill of our brands. I also enjoy sharing my knowledge with new people who come into our space, and it’s stimulating when there’s a passionate spark that translates into results. I love developing my team and others, as it’s very fulfilling to know that many individuals I hired throughout the years have advanced successful careers in GBP and other functions.

At this stage of my career, I am optimistic that I have left a path and legacy for others to follow. Most of all, I hope I’ve inspired others to lead with integrity, humility, and caring for others, while seeking diverse and inclusive perspectives to maximize results. AHL

In 2020, Roy Albiani was bestowed with the Brand Protection Hero Award by Michigan State University’s Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Brand Protection, the most prestigious industry recognition. “When I watched Roy receive the award, I was with dozens of other brand protection professionals that, like me, had benefited from his patient guidance and willingness to share his expertise,” said Geoffrey Potter, who, as head of the Anti-Counterfeiting and Brand Protection practice at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP, has worked with Roy for more than fifteen years.

“

I am excited about the many future possibilities in our space to help safeguard patients and protect the goodwill of our brands. ”

We are thrilled to congratulate our friend and colleague Roy Albiani of Johnson & Johnson on this well-deserved recognition of his leadership and accomplishments.

Pat terson Belknap

With 200 lawyers based in New York City, Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP delivers a full range of services in litigation and commercial law.

For more information, please visit www.pbwt.com.

AT FERRING PHARMACEUTICALS, AARON PEREIRA IS CLOSER

THAN EVER TO IP INNOVATIONS—AND TO THE REAL-WORLD IMPACT OF THOSE INNOVATIONS ON HEALTH OUTCOMES

Enriching Patient Lives through IP

By Natalie Kochanov

With a degree in chemical and biomolecular engineering, Aaron Pereira already had his eye on intellectual property (IP) by the time he got to law school.

“I didn’t necessarily know that I was going to end up in IP, but I had a good sense that it would be a fit in terms of both my technical background and what I wanted to accomplish in my career,” Pereira says. “My goal has always been to marry the science and the law and, more importantly, to leverage the two to enrich people’s lives.”

That is exactly what Pereira is doing in his current role as senior director of patents at Ferring Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company that shares his mission. Together with his colleagues, he aims to position Ferring for the future by leveraging new and existing IP assets, all while keeping patient well-being front of mind.

After specializing in IP in law school, Pereira jumped into patent prosecution as soon as he entered private practice. He gained experience drafting and filing patents before ultimately gravitating toward the litigation side of IP law—an area he explored from within both smaller firms and prestigious IP groups.

“I was the day-to-day lead on all types of IP litigation, from some of the largest pharmaceutical products to household items. I’ve litigated everything from insulins and DNA sequencers all the way down to dog toys and tennis rackets,” Pereira elaborates. “All of those cases give you great war stories, but more importantly, they give you a deep understanding of how each subslice of the economy works.”

Pereira brought that understanding with him when he moved in-house at Ferring in June 2022. He also carried with him an expertise in due diligence that has lent itself well to his new role. “Due diligence is an absolutely critical portion of the overall business case,” he says. “Especially in the life sciences world, you’re always thinking about where you fall in the competitive landscape and how you can strengthen your portfolio—either by in-licensing or by out-licensing and creating a revenue stream that you can then use for something else.”

Beyond meshing with his existing knowledge, the shift in-house has brought Pereira closer to the

innovation that sits at the heart of all IP. “For me personally, it was about getting to guide that innovation from the bench top in the lab to the actual marketplace,” he says. “And that’s a long, long timeline. It’s very rare as outside counsel to be involved through the full timeline of commercialization.”

By contrast, Pereira spends a significant portion of his time at Ferring trying to envision what the market will look like years down the line. “In addition to our core assets, we have a lot of drug candidates in varying stages of development. Some of those are on my plate, and it’s been a really fascinating yet challenging experience, because we’re looking at drugs that could

“

I didn’t necessarily know that I was going to end up in IP, but I had a good sense that it would be a fit in terms of both my technical background and what I wanted to accomplish in my career. ”

Aaron Pereira Senior Director of Patents Ferring Pharmaceuticals

Courtesy of Aaron Pereira

You have to keep your eye on the ball. We want patients to have better outcomes and better lives.

There is a great vision for the future at Ferring, and I’m glad to be a part of it.

potentially come to market twelve or fifteen years from now,” he explains.

Pereira balances long-term strategic planning with making the most of Ferring’s current IP assets. His team negotiates in- and out-licensing deals and supports IP litigation matters, all while facilitating breakthroughs by the company’s team of top-notch innovators.

“Ferring is a midsize pharmaceutical company on the innovator side, so there are always really interesting things going on here,” he says. “We recently launched the world’s first FDA-approved microbiome product. That was a very big victory for the company, and it was a tremendous project to be involved in.”

Pereira cites the additional recent approval of a gene therapy product, as well as the company’s interest in expanding into new medical indications and therapeutics, as further examples of Ferring’s potential to change the game in biopharma.

As he assists in securing the company’s position in its highly regulated industry, Pereira holds a deepening appreciation for the legal function’s relationship to the business at large. “The most important thing is to maintain context,” he emphasizes. “When you’re in-house, there are so many layers to what you’re doing that if you don’t keep things in context, it’s easy for them to get overwhelming or for you to lose sight of the big picture.”

For Pereira, the big picture does and will always come back to patients. “You have to keep your eye on the ball. We want patients to have better outcomes and better lives,” he says. “There is a great vision for the future at Ferring, and I’m glad to be a part of it.” AHL

A Trusted Advisor to the Pharmaceutical Sector

WITH RESILIENCE AND CREATIVITY, MEREDITH SPEECE LEVERAGES HER LEGAL EXPERTISE AT BETTERUP

Speak Your Piece

By Marcos Chisholm

Meredith Speece Head of Legal & Privacy BetterUp

rowing up, Meredith Speece was always on the move. She lived in eight states and two continents during her childhood, so she had to escape the “new kid” label each time she changed schools. Given that, it’s no surprise she figured out how to build relationships on the fly.

“I think you have to know yourself,” Speece says. “Early on, I found what I was good at, what I excelled at, and that was building relationships. I learned very quickly how to connect with people. I learned really quickly how to listen to people and learn what was important to them so that I could start building a relationship with them. And I think not everybody’s open

Gto that. So, being able to accept rejection . . . that’s how I got through it.”

Speece channeled her inner Socrates in more ways than one: she studied philosophy and political science at St. Ambrose University, graduating summa cum laude and going on to earn her JD at Western Michigan University’s Thomas M. Cooley Law School.

Speece started as an associate attorney at law firm Pierce & Associates in 2002. She advised over fifty lenders and argued on their behalf in court cases. But in 2007, bored by the predictability of her law firm work, she made the leap in-house to ZapLabs, FKA ZipRealty Inc., where she served as assistant general counsel for seven years. From 2015 to 2016, Speece was chief legal

LINKSQUARES CONGRATULATES

— Meredith Speece & BetterUp on their success

We are proud to be BetterUp's CLM platform

counsel at Manage.com, and later the data protection officer at Mixpanel.

Oh, and by 2019? Speece had joined BetterUp, a coaching and mental health start-up, as the head of legal and privacy. “I’ve seen great legal teams and bad legal teams, so being offered this opportunity to build a privacy program from scratch was great, because it allows for so much innovation and so much creativity,” Speece says.

Make no mistake—Speece arrived at the company during a critical time in data privacy history. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) had come into effect, and the start-up relied on her to ensure its employees and platform complied with GDPR requirements. She developed a privacy program and wore the hat of a teacher in the process.

“A company at that stage is totally different,” Speece says. “You definitely need the policies and procedures, but you have to do that in a way that supports the company growth and makes sense for where the company is. So I stepped in, and I was really just trying to educate the team to make sure they understood the ‘why’ behind the changes.”

Of course, as BetterUp entered a period of rampant growth, Speece stepped up as a leader. She built her legal team by hiring lawyers with business savvy, integrity, and subject-matter expertise. Plus, she empowered her team to think outside the box while bolstering the company with structure.

“I’m pretty hands off, and I allow them the flexibility to do what I hired them to do,” Speece says of her team. “I allow them the flexibility to go out on a limb and try something new and not be afraid to try new things. I’m always there to support them, but I really want to see what they can do.”

Whether Speece and her team negotiate revenue deals or partner with engineering and product teams on product launches, they deliver results across the company. She gives credit to her team for leaning into the chaos involved in helping to turn the start-up into a $4.7 billion juggernaut.

“It’s really easy for legal teams to be put in a box,” Speece says. “You hear all the time that nobody wants to work with legal. And that’s not the team that I have. I am part of a team where everybody trusts us and allows us to get creative and test new ways of working, and I

love that about them. I love giving them the opportunity to do that, because it’s not every day that a lawyer gets to be creative.”

Speece offers an invaluable blueprint for investing in like-minded talent. Even if her team brings different skills to the table, they embrace her ethos of resiliency, and they earn enough respect to lend their opinions on matters beyond their expertise.

Leave it to Speece to credit her comfort with change as the other key to her success.

“That ability to handle change and uncertainty, I think, has had the most profound impact on my career,” Speece says. “I am not one that gets rattled by reorganizations, acquisitions, or economic turmoil. I learned how to process that and deal with it.” AHL

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I’ve seen great legal teams and bad legal teams, so being offered this opportunity to build a privacy program from scratch was great, because it allows for so much innovation and so much creativity. ”

Wendy Petka VP of IP Horizon Therapeutics

AS VP OF IP, WENDY PETKA OVERSEES A COMPLEX PROCESS THAT INVOLVES COLLABORATION WITH MULTIPLE DEPARTMENTS TO PROTECT HORIZON THERAPEUTICS’ PRODUCTS

Making Connections

By Frederick Jerant

In the pharmaceutical world— and especially in the rare-disease arena—patents and other intellectual property (IP) are essential to the market viability of an emerging product. They also provide protections against theft, counterfeiting, and a host of other challenges.

As vice president of IP at Horizon Therapeutics, Wendy Petka is at the forefront of keeping those protections intact. Her path to IP work, however, was somewhat circuitous.

“Originally, I set out to be a medical doctor,” she recalls. Petka earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Chatham University, a small liberal arts school near Pittsburgh. “I worked part-time at nearby Presbyterian University Hospital as a virology technician and then a pharmacy technician. And it helped me realize that I really didn’t want to follow my intended career path.”

As an undergraduate, Petka spent approximately two years working in University of Pittsburgh’s on-campus chemistry lab facility, through a cross-registrational program with Chatham. There, she pursued her own research project (focused on various aspects of polymers) supported by a summer scholarship awarded from American Chemical Society Polymer Division. “The mix of chemistry, physics, mathematics and engineering fascinated me,” she says.

She went on to earn both a master’s degree and a PhD in polymer science and engineering from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Her doctoral research was in the genetic engineering of protein-based polymers,

including the design and manipulation of DNA, expression and purification of proteins, and characterization of protein properties.

Early in her career, she worked at Applied Biosystems and 3M’s Specialty Materials Division in scientific capacities, but also interacted regularly with the legal departments. “I was able to help write patents, and realized that patent law would enable me to work in an evolving story of innovation,” she says.

To achieve her new goal Petka earned a JD from the Fordham University School of Law while gaining experience in the legal world at Fish & Neave LLP. She built an extensive in-house resume at Sangamo Therapeutics, Cepheid, Theravance Biopharma, and Boehringer Ingelheim before joining Horizon in 2021.

In her current position, Petka and her team focus on patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and copyright protections. Petka sees herself as a sort of “connector,” because she’s involved in so many interdisciplinary activities.

“For example, my IP team will meet with our colleagues in research and development [R&D] to get a sense of how their work is shaping up,” she says. “But we also collaborate in process development—how the product will be produced—with regulatory experts and medical team members. And as a product nears its launch date, we’ll also be involved with the marketing department.”

As a patent for a new product develops, Petka’s work melds science and law. “R&D is a big part of our equation,” Petka says. “They might start with a large group of molecules—perhaps as many as one hundred different types—that show promise for curing a disease or pathology. As R&D designs experiments and develops

I was able to help write patents, and realized that patent law would enable me to work in an evolving story of innovation.

hypotheses, they’ll whittle that initial group of molecules to just a few, and then down to one.”

She explains that the intellectual property group will follow each step of the R&D process so they can understand and thoroughly document each phase of development. “Even the failures can be important,” she notes.

That work becomes the basis for the patent application, which Petka describes as “an innovative story that explains ‘here is what I created, and this is how I want to protect it.’ It’s a challenging job, because science and the law are always changing.”

The protections that patents and trademarks grant are essential in this highly competitive marketplace. “Brands can develop strong associations with their products,” Petka explains. “But a brand can fall into such common usage—Kleenex, for example—that a person might think they’re buying the actual brand, even when they aren’t.”

Patents and trademarks provide a degree of risk mitigation against offshore companies producing imitation versions of patented products. “It also promotes consumer safety,” Petka adds. “Adulterated drugs, especially those not approved by the FDA [Food and Drug Administration] or other regulators, often make

“

it into the marketplace. Our trademark protections, for example, can assure customers that our medications are of high quality, and made with proper regulatory oversight.”

Petka’s colleagues outside the company have been impressed by her work. “She brings a sense of clarity, organization, and insight to a patent portfolio covering multiple life-enhancing commercial products and early-stage drug-discovery programs,” says Michael Hostetler, patents and innovations partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. “The ability to provide valuable counsel in both of these realms definitely sets Wendy apart.”

Horizon’s rapid growth—in 2021, it attained net sales of $3.23 billion, an increase of 47 percent over the previous year—is primarily driven by net sales of two Horizon medicines, KRYSTEXXA and TEPEZZA, and expansion of its pipeline.

“While some companies focus on only small molecules or certain types of antibodies, Horizon takes the big-picture view,” Petka says. “We look at a disease or an unmet medical need, and then figure out how to best serve the situation. We’re looking for the best science, regardless of the source.”

A good part of the funding for new innovative products and acquisitions comes from product sales themselves, but the exclusivity of a patent is limited. “The clock is ticking on a patent from the moment it is filed and subsequently issued, not when the product finally reaches the marketplace. That gives pharma companies only a limited window to recoup their initial investment,” she notes.

And that’s a key reason for the industry pushback on Congressional efforts to control drug costs.

“Before passage of the Inflation Reduction Act [IRA], Congress had been signaling to the FDA and the US Patent office that they suspected misuse of the patent system was contributing to rising drug costs,” Petka says. “Provisions in the IRA seem to weaken the relationship between patent and regulatory exclusivities, and removes some financial incentives to invest in future innovation.”

She explains that some pharma companies are concerned that the new regulations might prevent them from recouping their development investments before the patent protection expires, which could lead to a loss in innovation overall.

“It’s an interesting time,” she says. “We must take a hard look at how we will protect innovation in the future.” AHL

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Even the failures can be important. ”

For more than 60 years, Wilson Sonsini has owed its success to being as innovative as the enterprises we represent. With more than 300 public and 1,000 private company clients spanning countless industries, our depth and breadth of experience make us uniquely qualified to provide counsel to transformative businesses like Horizon Therapeutics.

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Wilson Sonsini has 19 offices in technology and business hubs worldwide. For more information, visit wsgr.com/offices.

We are proud to partner with Wendy Petka, whose expertise empowers Horizon Therapeutics to deliver life-changing care to patients living with rare, autoimmune, and severe inflammatory diseases.

By Billy Yost

t a time when Tim Stow’s law school cohorts were just trying to keep their heads down in junior associate positions at their first law firm, Stow effectively served as a general counsel of an $800 million business division. This was not the plan.

“I just always felt impatient to break out and live my life,” Stow says. “My career seemed to play out consistently with that mantra.”

Stow, currently global head of ethics and compliance at Galderma (where he brings twenty-five-plus years of leadership experience), was raised in the UK, but was an international business partner before he was old enough to rent a car in the US. He defied the norms of his peers and bypassed the traditional firm years of his youth to go in-house. He’s worked in Belgium and Switzerland twice and effectively toured the US with roles in Philadelphia, Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta (also twice).

But it’s not just the geographic locations. It’s the diversity of the roles. In Philadelphia, Stow was doing strict M&A work. In Boston, he was suddenly a compliance lawyer. In Atlanta, a much broader GC role. But again, how?

“I guess I’ve just backed myself,” Stow says simply. “I’ve always had good mentors and coaches, who would take me under their wing and allow me to grow into a role.”

Stow says that throughout his career, he’s taken several different roles based only on the trust he placed in his mentors. Had it not been for a past coach who saw him operate in London and Brussels, Stow never would have been able to assume M&A duties in Philadelphia.

“But that person knew what it took, and he could see in me that I could make it work,” Stow says. “It was the same for Atlanta. I don’t think I fully appreciated just what it meant to be a US general counsel, but I took it on faith from a mentor whom I place a high premium on their understanding of me. You put your faith in someone’s judgment of you and just go with it. I think other people’s default might be to talk themselves out of it.”

Coming to Galderma wasn’t quite the kind of leap of faith of previous moves, but Stow still had a very significant task ahead of him. Galderma spun out of Nestle in 2019 and in 2020 Stow was brought in to completely reset the compliance function.

The executive needed to create a compliance structure that wasn’t so much a reflection of Galderma’s past, but one that would make it more agile and responsive for the future. The compliance head was able to tap into his network and bring in several specialists over the last two years.

“At the time, we were able to bring in some savvy, tenured professionals which, frankly, made it a little easier for me,” Stow explains. “I was able to provide a legal perspective to these matters, but in terms of the nuts and bolts of compliance, I was more reliant on my team.”

Stow loves building—teams, structure, any tangible project where he can see the value he’s bringing to the wider organization. But that tangibility factor was, and continues to be, challenged by two significant factors. The first was the pandemic.

“Building and maintaining culture is certainly a challenge during a pandemic,” the head of compliance says. “I really felt that onus was on us to be amongst our business stakeholders, sitting alongside them, and making sure we’re aligned with what they’re doing.”

Additionally, the global nature of Stow’s role virtually assures that he’ll rarely have the luxury of seeing his entire compliance team in one room. The executive admits he feels a twinge of jealousy anytime he sees a team collaborating in a physical space. But given the nature of the role and the continuing push for remote work, Stow understands the need to evolve, and he’s leaned into it.

“One of the best experiences I have had was in a role where the legal function was on-site with the rest of the business,” Stow says. “I was literally sitting alongside leadership and was able to provide real-time counseling,

Tim Stow Global Head of Compliance Galderma

“ You put your faith in someone’s judgment of you and just go with it. ”

in-person. We just don’t have that luxury now, and we need to continue to find ways to utilize virtual platforms to ensure compliance is able to be an effective partner for the business.”

Fortunately, Stow is never one to back down from a challenge. His resume is proof. And while the executive was building a compliance program, in many ways, from scratch, it was more a case of learning from a respected legacy program and improving upon it for Galderma’s more refined needs.

“In some cases, that blueprint was helpful, but when it came to hiring new roles, I was able to articulate what we were looking for properly, because I had literally written the job descriptions myself,” Stow explains. “That was enormously helpful when it came to recruiting a high-performing team.”

From these solid foundations, Stow has had to further pivot in recent months, moving some of his

key compliance roles from Switzerland to a new global capability center in Barcelona, Spain. This resulted in him having to, once again, draw upon his deep reservoir of ‘building’ skills to go out and rehire for certain new positions in his group.

“Because of this, not all of my original team have been able to stay with the company,” he says. “But these colleagues built components of the program so quickly and efficiently and did such a nice job that, thanks to them, we are now well placed to go to the next level. We know a lot more about what we need and can therefore bring in new people to match these more bespoke requirements.”

There is still so much to do, and that’s why Stow’s excited about his role. He’s continued to impact a new company since its very inception. And should something pop up that even he hasn’t experienced, there’s nothing to worry about. Stow isn’t merely able to overcome a challenge, it’s what drives him. AHL

“

I was able to articulate what we were looking for properly because I had literally written the job descriptions myself.

REENA DESAI BUILT A LEGAL FUNCTION TO SUPPORT MIRATI THERAPEUTICS’ TRANSITION TO COMMERCIALIZATION, USING THE CORE PRINCIPLE THAT IN-HOUSE LEGAL DEPARTMENTS NEED TO BE BUSINESS PARTNERS ABOVE ALL

Setting the Future Stage

By Natalie Kochanov

eena Desai’s very first role in the pharmaceutical industry was a temp job as a legal file clerk at oncology company SUGEN Inc., which Pfizer Inc. later acquired. She made a strong enough impression early on to get hired as a patent agent and then attorney—and to receive a call about an executive opportunity at a different company, some twenty years down the line, with many familiar faces.

Several former SUGEN/Pfizer employees had gone on to become executives at Desai’s now employer, Mirati Therapeutics Inc., where she serves as chief legal officer and corporate secretary. “All of these folks had known me in the infancy of my career,” she says. “I hadn’t kept in touch with them after I left Pfizer, but there I was, seeing their names again. It was a real full-circle moment.”

In the interim, Desai had learned the ins and outs of in-house legal work and effective teams from the roles she held at various pharmaceutical and biotech companies: everything from what is needed to build an effective team to the need for a strong partnership with the business for it to be successful. She uses these skills every day at Mirati as the company prepares for its first product launch and looks to make its transition to commercialization.

The daughter of Indian immigrants, Desai credits her parents with instilling in her an independent spirit—even if her choices didn’t always align with their expectations. That included switching career paths from medicine to law after studying molecular and cellular biology and genetics in college.

R“I quickly realized I did not want to continue in that area, but I still really enjoyed the science,” she explains. “I thought becoming an attorney in biotech/pharmaceuticals would be a great bridge, because it would allow me to keep the science aspects, while getting me away from the day-to-day lab work.”

Desai spent several years in the patent law arena at Pfizer and a smaller biotech company, known today as Ionis Pharmaceuticals. She broadened her scope to encompass transactions and corporate matters, where she further pushed her boundaries through roles outside pharmaceuticals at BP and Synthetic Genomics (now Viridos). She ultimately returned to the pharmaceutical industry as associate general counsel at Acadia Pharmaceuticals, where she remained until joining Mirati in April 2020.

Since then, Mirati has grown from just over one hundred employees to more than six hundred. Desai has matched the company’s growth percentage within the legal team, while also cultivating a supportive relationship with the business and the board. “Rebranding the function was something that we worked on very carefully,” she confirms. “Changing the impression of legal

Changing the existing impression of legal is always hard, but we’ve made that turn to where the business is now actively coming to for the team for guidance.

Reena Desai Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary Mirati Therapeutics Inc.

is always hard, but we’ve made that turn to where the business is now comfortable coming to us for guidance.”

That shift in attitude proves more important than ever as Mirati draws closer to the commercialization of its first drug. As the launch date approaches, Desai remains focused on not only implementing the necessary processes and structures to ensure Mirati remains fully compliant but also laying the groundwork for the company’s follow-on assets and global footprint.

Beyond Mirati, Desai actively participates in programs in the legal community. “Being involved with the local and national legal community, including diversity groups, gives me a better perspective on the ongoing challenges new lawyers face and how DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] is an essential component to the profession’s success,” she says. “The support system of these networks is really important.”

Over the past twenty years, Desai has witnessed the beginnings of a change on the DEI front. However, the efforts are still at the beginning. “Companies are realizing the importance of DEI initiatives and committees, which is great, but there is still a lot to do there,” she emphasizes. “As a first-generation Indian woman, it’s not lost on me that my background has provided me a unique perspective on how I approach everyday situations, something I leverage every day to keep things moving forward in the right direction.”

Desai certainly kept moving—a drive that brought her all the way from file clerk to chief legal officer. AHL

Cooley commends Reena Desai on this well-deserved recognition. Congratulations to Reena and the entire Mirati Therapeutics team.

Frank Rogozienski

GINA BONICA CONSIDERS HER

NEXT OPPORTUNITY

AS A STRATEGIC AND VALUE-DRIVEN GENERAL COUNSEL

AND CHIEF COMPLIANCE OFFICER

Seeking the Next Great Challenge

By Billy Yost

Gina Bonica, the general counsel who spent more than a decade rising through roles at Alliance HealthCare Services Inc. (and a decade litigating in private practice before that), helped shepherd her company through its acquisition by Akumin Inc. in September 2021. Following a year of integration leadership, Bonica has set her sights on finding the next great team and opportunity.

“When you’ve been part of a company’s journey, you have a great sense of teamwork and accomplishment— and all of that team’s shared ups and downs,” she says. “I felt proud that I had successfully advised, protected, and cultivated this organization through these many years and beside so many amazing colleagues—and I am excited to be taking a breath before moving to that next great team and organization.”

For me, it felt like sending your child off to college,” Bonica adds, laughing. “I just had this feeling that I had taught them everything I could and knew they have the legal and compliance skills to continue their journey forward. Also, I wanted to see how I could keep growing as a general counsel.”

At the time of the interview, Bonica had begun reflecting upon her next great leap forward. While she truly loves being a general counsel, there’s just one problem, she admits.

“It’s hard for me to stay in my lane,” the lawyer says. “Working hands-on with multiple business leaders is the best part of being general counsel. It’s what I’m naturally driven to do.”

Before diving into healthcare and corporate law, Bonica spent ten years as a litigator, including two as an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, New York. She helped wage war on insurance fraud before moving on to private practice. In that space, she did significant and high-profile litigation, including pro bono work and employment law, while also acting on behalf of plaintiffs.

“I represented many people who had been wronged by their employers or companies. I saw an opportunity to right a wrong at the source,” the lawyer remembers. “I decided to go in-house with a company who wanted to do the right thing by the employee and help prevent problems from occurring in the first place.”

Bonica fell in love with in-house roles: being part of a broader team and working cross-functionally. “You have to find value in all levels of the organization,” Bonica explains. “When I first started with Alliance, I sat with everybody—the payroll team, the drivers—and I sat with the clerks. I wanted to understand what it meant to be at their desk or in their role. People need to feel understood and valued. That is critical when you talk about building culture.”

The GC leaned into that culture. She cochaired a women’s group focused on midlevel and entry-level managers, aiming to rise through the organization. She wanted to create a place where women could feel

“ Working hands-on with multiple business leaders is the best part of being general counsel. It’s what I’m naturally driven to do. ”

Gina Bonica General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer Akumin Inc.

Courtesy of Gina Bonica

“

The business is to be supported, and as general counsel, you and your team need offer various solutions to mitigate risk at all times.

safe enough to talk about their experiences and relate to someone who had been in their shoes.

“I guess you could stay I’m strong-willed,” Bonica says. “I don’t mind telling people where to go and how to get there if I think that they’re harming others or not living by our values or ethics as a team. But I also realize not everyone operates that way. They may not want to stand up at that moment and speak their mind.”

The GC says she wants her team to feel empowered, even if they aren’t as prone to stand up and speak their truth as she is. The lawyer says her team always knows she has their back.

Clearly, Bonica’s commitment is to both lead and empower within teams that are focused on value creation and building on healthy cultures. And looking forward, she wants to continue bringing value to an organization that builds culture.

“The general counsel must be a true trusted and strategic advisor across the organization,” she says. “The business is to be supported, and as general counsel, you and your team need to offer various solutions to mitigate risk at all times.”

Given her experience, it seemed important to consult Bonica on the advice she gives to new legal leaders looking to elevate their own careers. “First, get comfortable with being uncomfortable,” the lawyer says. “Take up space, ask the difficult question, and express the unpopular opinion. Second, don’t ever expect anyone to tell you how to do it. You need to understand the topic

you are advising on and know the pain points. Even if you’re not an expert, find the expert and learn from them. Roll up your sleeves, do the work. Surround yourself with a team who is knowledgeable and passionate.”

Additionally, Bonica advocates finding one’s own trusted advisor. They don’t need to know the law, they need to understand you and how to help you to be successful.

Bonica’s last point is just as important as her first. No matter how inexperienced you might be in your career, know that you always have a seat at the table. “There’s a reason they hired you,” Bonica says. “Never take a back seat. There is always something to learn. And you have something to offer.”

While Bonica contemplates the next part of her journey, her passion is contagious. It’s hard to imagine she’ll be able to fight the feeling to dive back in much longer. There are too many lanes to cross and too little time. AHL

McGuireWoods is a full-service firm providing legal and public affairs solutions to clients worldwide for more than two hundred years. Our commitment to excellence in everything we do gives our clients a competitive edge in everything they do. McGuireWoods congratulations Gina Bonica on her years of leadership and professional achievements. We value the confidence that Gina has placed in McGuireWoods to deliver on her goals.

SUSAN BALL ON MENTORSHIP AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT AT CROSS COUNTRY HEALTHCARE

Invest in People, Accomplish Success

By Joseph Kay

When Susan Ball was growing up in rural Ohio, her parents advised her that if she went into nursing, she would always have a job. They both served on hospital boards, and as she became aware of the healthcare profession, she embraced the opportunity. Nurses, she thought, were simply angels.

“It was one of those professions I always looked up to,” she recalls. “They were just the best people, who cared for others and made them feel better.”

Ball currently serves as executive vice president, chief administrative officer, general counsel, and corporate secretary at Cross Country Healthcare, a healthcare staffing and technology-enabled talent acquisition agency based in Boca Raton, Florida. However, if not for her nursing career, she might have missed her opportunity to go to law school. Ball was providing home care for a patient in recovery from open-heart surgery when he asked her what she would do if she could do anything. Go to law school, she replied, but she couldn’t afford it.

“He said, ‘If you can get into law school in New York, you could live in my co-op that is rarely used,’ so I seized the opportunity and did it,” Ball says. “It was something I had always wanted to do.”

While there, she found connections from her nursing work directly to her future legal career. She had

collaborated with the legal team while working on a risk management project at Duke University; malpractice was one possibility going forward. Today, malpractice litigation is one of Ball’s many responsibilities, but the care-first perspective has been most important and has informed her full career track.

“It’s the best of both worlds, because I’m contributing to the health of our communities through a different channel,” Ball says. “Everything I do helps get care to the bedside.”

At Cross Country, Ball’s responsibilities are numerous and varied. She provides support to the board of directors, CEO, and executive management; oversees legal issues and risk management; and drives talent development for emerging leaders throughout the company.

She prioritizes a competitive, growth-focused culture, where she can help associates identify their career goals and provide insight along the way.

Ball has been on the team for over twenty years of Cross Country’s thirty-six year history. When she joined, there was no legal department and the company had just gone public. She’s seen tremendous changes throughout the industry and the company—particularly in the last handful of years. In 2019, with growth slowing, founder Kevin Clark returned to the CEO role to right the company’s course.

“We weren’t keeping up with the industry,” Ball recalls. “We’ve always had a great brand reputation built on integrity and the quality of our healthcare workers, but we had lost some passion over the years.”

“

I’ve had such phenomenal mentors, and I want to pass it along. I want people to develop their careers. What does the employee want, and how can I help them get there?

Susan Ball EVP, Chief Administrative Officer, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary

Cross Country Healthcare

Robin Roslund

[Nursing] was one of those professions I always looked up to. They were just the best people, who cared for others and made them feel better.

At Clark’s side, Ball helped guide a massive change management process. That meant finding the right roles for the workforce, bringing in new talent, and undergoing a massive digital transformation that eventually positioned the company to succeed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, Cross Country is stronger, more competitive, and more tech-savvy than ever.

“Culture matters tremendously and by instilling leadership and confidence we strengthened the company to operate together as one Cross Country,” she notes.

Cross Country was deep into this renewal when the COVID-19 crisis began. The company pivoted to remote work overnight, but already had some infrastructure and protocol in place. With thousands of hospitals across the US, they became leaner, closer, and stronger than ever.

“It’s never been more important to have leaders in healthcare like Susi,” says Joe Agnello, CEO at Lockton Founders Series. “Her passion for helping others shines through in each interaction. It’s phenomenal to see the difference she and the entire Cross Country Healthcare team are making in millions of lives across the country.”

Ball is especially excited to see young leaders growing into their potential. She mentors a number of associates across the organization. As they identify what they really want to be doing, Ball helps them chart a course to get there and seize the rewards along the way. “I’ve had such phenomenal mentors, and I want to pass it along,” Ball says. “I want people to develop their careers. What does the employee want, and how can I help them get there?”

Ball’s ability to identify and cultivate talent is one of her most prized skills. For instance, she noticed an early-career executive assistant who was bright, detail-oriented, and ambitious; Ball brought her along on small-value malpractice claims and eventually helped her learn to interview law firms, evaluate claims, and eventually negotiate them to settlement. Today, that woman is the vice president of risk management.

She isn’t the only one to whom Ball has extended a hand. Her lasting legacy, she hopes, will be that Cross Country leaders are always willing to invest in their people.

“It’s the same company, but today it’s completely different because we’ve invested in people,” Ball says. “Taking an interest in people has helped us attract and retain good talent, create more shareholder value, and ultimately, deliver better results at the bedside.”

“I feel very fortunate to be where I am, because every single opportunity that’s been put in front of me I’ve said yes,” she adds. “I never shy away from an opportunity. That’s what I try to instill in the people I mentor: You gotta try. You gotta find out.” AHL

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP: “Susan is one of a kind. She is a truly innovative leader in the industry and we have been honored to work with her closely for many years. In addition to being an accomplished practitioner, her collaborative nature, commitment to excellence, business acumen, and personal integrity are all unmatched.” —John Terzaken, Partner

Simpson Thacher Proudly Supports the Work of Susan Ball

Executive Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel & Corporate Secretary at Cross Country Healthcare

We Applaud Susan on Her Vision and Industry Leadership

Jackson Lewis P.C. attorneys congratulate Susan Ball on her recognition by American HealthcareLeader .

We are honored to have been chosen by Susan as Cross Country Healthcare’s Labor & Employment Outside Counsel.

Focused on workplace law since 1958, Jackson Lewis’ 950+ attorneys located in major cities nationwide consistently identify and respond to new ways workplace law intersects business.

celebrates our client and friend Susan Ball for her ongoing contributions to the success of Cross Country Healthcare, Inc.

Robert W. Capobianco

171 17th Street, NW, Suite 1200 Atlanta, GA 30363 (404) 586-1855

Robert.Capobianco@jacksonlewis.com

The world’s leading health care organizations choose Proskauer as a strategic partner to drive their business forward. We bring clients unrivalled experience and a keen understanding of the industry’s dynamics.

Our 800+ lawyers serve clients from 12 offices in the Americas, Europe and Asia.

©2022 Jackson Lewis P.C. Attorney Advertising jacksonlewis.com

Susi Ball = Game changer

It’s never been more important to have leaders in healthcare like Susi. Thank you for making a difference in millions of lives by delivering quality healthcare. We’re proud to work with you.

AT SOLEO HEALTH, TOREN MUSHOVIC AIMS TO MANAGE RISK IN AN INDUSTRY WITH EVER-CHANGING REGULATIONS—A DAUNTING TASK FOR WHICH HE’S MORE THAN PREPARED

Solving the Difficult Problems

By Lily Clayton Hansen

VP and Compliance & Government Affairs Officer

Toren Mushovic

Soleo Health Ellen Jaskol

hen the stakes are high, Toren Mushovic is at his strongest. He spent his formative years as a division officer on board a ship in the US Navy, and recalls, “The experience of leading sailors twice my age was both humbling and confidence-building.”

Today, Mushovic serves as vice president and compliance and government affairs officer at Soleo Health, where he tracks the moving target of healthcare regulations. He also remains connected to the military as a reservist—and those roots run deep.

He grew up in Coronado, California, a Navy town. Service was in Mushovic’s blood; his father was drafted into the Navy in World War II, and later, the Navy sent him to college and medical school.

Mushovic’s dream was pursuing the law rather than medicine, but like his father, he achieved that goal through his time in the military. As a junior officer,

he was sent overseas. While sailing around the world, he ensured ships were ready for deployment despite major time constraints. He also participated in historical events like Operation Iraqi Freedom and honed his diplomatic skills as an informal ambassador.

While Mushovic knew deep down that he would always be in the military, his interest in the law spurred him to earn his JD and enter the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, the legal arm of the Navy. As a judge advocate, he went on assignment to serve the top commander in Iraq for all coalition forces. Almost a decade later, as a reservist, Mushovic kept close to historically significant events, such as the first visit to Bahrain by the Israeli Defense Minister in 2022. “I have seen the world evolve before my eyes because of the historic events I’ve been a part of in the Navy,” he recalls.

WMushovic has remained connected to the military as a reservist with a focus on international law, but in 2012 he left his full-time position for private practice. He was ready to start a family, and the global law firm Hogan Lovells offered him not just an associate position but also a more stable lifestyle. There, he dove right into his assigned field: healthcare law and litigation. Through conducting depositions around the country, Mushovic began to understand the toll fraud takes on the entire system and how to fix it. In the process, he discovered a passion for healthcare compliance.

As Mushovic found himself increasingly interested in healthcare, he had an opportunity to represent famed immunologist Isaac Melamed, founder of IMMUNOe Health & Research Centers. In 2016, Mushovic was hired full-time at IMMUNOe Health and represented the company in a series of negotiations, including the forming of Veros Biologics (now known as Veros Health), a joint venture owned by Melamed and Soleo Health.

Mushovic eventually joined Soleo Health in 2021 to work on healthcare compliance and government affairs. He explains that he was drawn to the company because it’s dynamic and innovative and he enjoys working in a

fast-paced, demanding environment. “Ultimately, I enjoy finding creative solutions to difficult problems,” he says.

Soleo Health is a national provider of complex specialty pharmacy services administered in the home or at alternative sites of care, with an interdisciplinary team that includes physician specialists, nurse practitioners, registered nurses, and clinical pharmacists, among others. Its ability to treat patients outside a hospital setting has made all the difference for some of the most vulnerable, particularly at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Real change can be created in a smaller setting for better business models and improved patient care,” Mushovic explains. “In many ways, our care reminds me of old-school physicians like my father, whose routine always included home visits.”

Legislative work is an important part of Mushovic’s job, but Soleo Health’s size does present certain challenges in getting its voice heard—sometimes competing against many other interest groups. Still, he’s grateful to be part of the conversation at all. “Our biggest legislative win yet is simply being in the game,” he notes.

A natural diplomat, Mushovic has taken the same approach to his work in Washington, DC, as he did in the Navy, working to develop relationships with the right decision-makers. For example, over the last several years Soleo Health has been working to secure sustainable reimbursement for home infusion services under the Medicare program, which has been threatened by a controversial 2018 decision by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Aside from Mushovic’s legislative work, his main goal is to manage risk by developing, implementing, and promoting the highest standards in a compliance program. It’s tough in an industry where regulations can shift on a dime, but he is constantly reviewing internal policies, educating staff members, and auditing to ensure compliance. “My goal is to safeguard Soleo Health so we can succeed in our strategic focus of shaking up healthcare,” he says. AHL

“

The experience of leading sailors twice my age was both humbling and confidence-building. ”

CHIEF LEGAL COUNSEL DAVID RIFKIND

TAKES A PROACTIVE APPROACH TO GLOBAL DATA PRIVACY AND DATA

PROTECTION AT CAIDYA

Safe and Secure

By Keith Loria

hen in grade school, David Rifkind sat in a Miami courtroom watching his uncle try a case.

“There’s a lot of buzz going on in the courtroom, and this guy walks in, and the whole room just went dead silent,” he recounts. “Everyone stared at him as he walked to the opposing counsel table and deliberately put down his ancient leather briefcase, opened it up, and pulled out some papers. And the room immediately went dead silent.”

WThe old, weathered lawyer slowly lifted his head, surveyed the room, and then broke the silence with “Your honor, F. Lee Bailey for the plaintiff.”

It’s a moment he never forgot—even though the legendary attorney wound up losing that case. What struck him at an early age was just how Bailey completely commanded and controlled the room—and Rifkind knew he wanted to be like that someday. “I always drove to be a lawyer, and that took me from college to law school to clerking to a judge to working at a law firm,” he says.

David Rifkind Chief Legal Counsel Caidya

Robert Thomas

His early career journey in big firms gave him many different opportunities—as a white-collar criminal defense lawyer, a hostile-takeover lawyer, a prosecutor at the Delaware Attorney General’s office, and more. Rifkind knew he wanted to be in the courtroom and work with businesspeople, earning their respect. “But working at a big law firm was miserable, because striking my life into six-minute increments was painful, and I was not very good at keeping track of time,” he admits. “I was good at working with clients and motivating and managing other lawyers and staff to successful outcomes. So, early on, I looked for opportunities in-house.”

That opportunity came while defending a big client, Exide, against significant civil and criminal allegations. “We got a great result, and I thought, I can do this from the inside just as effectively,” Rifkind says. That led him to major roles at General Electric, Brenntag, Thermo Fisher, and Avantor.

In March 2022, Rifkind joined Caidya as its chief legal officer. CEO Lingshi Tan challenged him to build a world-class legal team to support Tan’s vision and mission of impacting people’s lives directly on a global scale as a best-in-class clinical research organization.

“One of the reasons I came to Caidya was [the opportunity] to take all of the tools I have developed and skills I learned about dealing with the government [and] regulations, and [work] as the trusted business advisor to really help implement a number of important programs to propel Caidya to the next level,” he notes.

One of Caidya’s most vital projects is its world-class data privacy and data security programs. Relying on his past experiences, Rifkind takes a proactive approach to global data privacy and data protection compliance that not only creates value for organization, but its clients, as well.

“Every company has a basic program, so when I joined Caidya, we had a base program in place sufficient to meet the regulations,” he explains. “What we did not have at the time, but designed with executive leadership, is a self-perpetuating system that drives privacy into the DNA of all of our employees.”

To accomplish this, the chief legal officer first established a data privacy team comprising inside legal, the chief information security officers, IT personnel, and Todd Mayover at Privacy Aviator LLC, an outside data privacy and data protection consultant.

The program emphasizes privacy-by-design and privacy-by-default concepts to generate value for clients by minimizing exposure to data privacy and data protection regulations. It also ensures compliance mechanisms are in place to address ever-evolving global data privacy and data protection obligations placed upon the company and its clients sponsoring global clinical trials.

Having a team well-versed in global data transfers allows Caidya to minimize exposure to data transfer

“

By investing in data privacy and data protection today, Caidya ensures its customers will not be blindsided by insufficient compliance or mishandling of data privacy and data security obligations.

risks for its customers, while maximizing efficiencies and compliance with data transfer obligations under data privacy and data protection regulations.

Rifkind adds that Caidya’s data privacy team oversees the company’s compliance efforts and supports business objectives. Positioning data privacy and data protection as key business drivers allows the organization to offer customers proactive services to address concerns and obligations—instead of shifting the risks back to the customers. These efforts apply across all of Caidya’s services, including data management, pharmacovigilance, data analytics, and clinical trial services.

“The privacy team actively monitors and responds quickly to ever changing privacy obligations,” he says. “For example, utilizing the similarities between the European Union’s GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation] and China’s PIPL [Personal Information Protection Law] to establish appropriate work instructions to address the highest standards of data privacy and data protection globally.”

Many clients regularly seek help with pressing data privacy concerns. Caidya’s team employs data privacy and data protection solutions individualized for each customers’ unique needs, including the use of secure systems, such as Medidata Rave.

“By investing in data privacy and data protection today, Caidya ensures its customers will not be blindsided by insufficient compliance or mishandling of data privacy and data security obligations,” Rifkind says. “At the same time, we maximize the positive business potential of effective data privacy and data protection compliance measures to benefit both Caidya and its customers.” AHL

companies,

academic researchers accelerate

Two thousand-plus customers and partners access the world’s most trusted platform for clinical development, commercial, and realworld data.

KIMBERLY PRYOR’S RESPONSIBILITIES AT JBS USA HAVE EVOLVED OVER TIME, BUT NO MATTER WHAT HER TITLE IS, SHE’S ALWAYS WORKING TO SERVE THE BUSINESS

A ServiceOriented Approach

By Marcos Chisholm

imberly Pryor was camping, far from the reaches of technology, when food company JBS USA experienced a cyberattack in 2021. She was close enough to civilization, however, to get an emergency call from the company’s chief information officer. “I had to interrupt him,” says Pryor, who’s the general counsel for the company. “‘I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you’re saying. Are you saying we were cyberattacked?’”

With business operations set to resume in two days, Pryor and her coworkers quickly searched for solutions to ensure JBS’s continued supply of food to its customers.

“We had to navigate it very quickly in order to ensure that our plants could keep running to avoid any impact to the company’s supply of food products to our customers and consumers throughout the United States and the world,” Pryor says. “It was extremely stressful.”

Her vacation was effectively canceled; she spent the rest of the weekend problem-solving over the phone and left early to attend an emergency meeting in the office on Memorial Day.

Pryor’s job hasn’t always been this stressful. When she first joined JBS USA in 2013 as associate counsel, she worked on a small team that encouraged her to learn the ins and outs of each division and department. “I started out in a smaller in-house legal team,” Pryor says. “I was lucky enough to work on some very big projects with senior executives.”

By embracing a service-oriented approach, Pryor elevated her craft and earned the trust of JBS USA leadership.

K“Our legal department is a service department,” Pryor says. “My team’s job is to serve the business. It’s not to create bureaucracy, but at the same time, we are here to make sure that we do things right, comply with all laws and regulations, provide quality products to our customers, and [provide] the opportunity of a better future for our employees.”

Delivering the best experience for teams at JBS requires Pryor to decide when to focus more on legal matters and compliance obligations.

“Obviously, with a smaller legal team, one of the challenges is not just being reactive or focusing solely on solving the immediate issues that come up, but to be proactive as well,” she says.

Dealing with pressing problems, of course, is a vital part of the job. “But you also have to be proactive in auditing to make sure that we’re constantly doing the right thing and acting in a compliant manner in a highly regulated industry,” she explains. “When you have operations in twenty-eight states and the laws are constantly changing, or you have new employees that have to be trained on what our policies are, we have to make sure that we’re consistently auditing, evaluating, and monitoring our business practices and giving our employees the tools they need to not only be compliant but also to succeed.”

Kimberly Pryor General Counsel JBS USA

Daniel Fetterman, a partner at Kasowitz Benson Torres who represents JBS USA in antitrust and complex litigation matters, says, “Kim is a genuinely talented general counsel with an impressive ability to resolve the complex array of legal issues faced by JBS USA, one of America’s largest protein producers. She has done a tremendous job successfully navigating the company through challenging legal matters. It is a pleasure to work with a lawyer of her caliber.”

Before being named general counsel, Pryor received promotions to corporate counsel in 2016 and senior corporate counsel in 2018. By 2020, she was tackling more projects outside of her department. For example, she helped JBS USA launch its Hometown Strong program, a corporate social responsibility initiative that enacts community development projects throughout the United States.

“We collaborate with local governments and are investing $100 million to improve the communities in which our employees work, from education and recreation to healthcare and social services projects,”

Pryor says. “JBS is investing in these communities in lasting and meaningful ways so that we’re able to positively impact our team members, their families, and their neighbors.”

Not only is JBS contributing to social programs but, according to Pryor, the company is also investing in the long-term sustainability of the environment. “We are the first in our industry to commit to achieving netzero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040,” Pryor says. “Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. As one of the world’s leading food companies, JBS wants to be part of the solution by becoming netzero by 2040. We are pursuing our mission of meeting the health and nutritional needs of the growing global population in a sustainable manner that preserves the planet’s resources for future generations.”

JBS takes its corporate responsibilities seriously, Pryor notes. “When we can and where we can, we capitalize on our footprint and on our resources in order to do good and to do those environmental and social initiatives that others may not be able to do.” AHL

“

Our legal department is a service department. My team’s job is to serve the business. ”

The Path

Every step executives take on their career journeys is pivotal to achieving their current successes. Along the way, individuals accumulate technical skills, foster relationships, and develop the leadership acumen that have turned them into pioneers of the industry.

72. Larry Bitton Nihon Kohden America

78. Tyler McBee US Anesthesia Partners

82. Jill Fragoso Children’s Hospital of New Orleans

88. Candace Shaffer Purdue University

92. Eric Weborg Creative Solutions in Healthcare

96. Eric Merin Bristol Myers Squibb

More than Dollars and Cents

By Billy Yost

Larry Bitton

VP of Finance

Nihon Kohden America

Courtesy of Larry Bitton

“I

f you’re really good at finance, you’re never talking finance. You’re talking business.” It’s almost a thesis statement for the career of Larry Bitton.

The current VP of finance at Nihon Kohden America (NKA) communicates unlike most finance leaders you’ve ever met. He’s a striver, supportive, vulnerable, and deeply committed to his team in ways that make you wonder how the stereotype of the quiet, corporate financial professional ever came to be.

Bitton is the byproduct of excellent leadership training first at Pepsi for eight years and then in the healthcare space at Allergan for ten years. With great mentoring both internally and externally, the VP is collaborative in a way that can make you forget his job title. His continuing commitment to both his own education and the development of his team conveys a finance pro who has a much, much more comprehensive perspective on how his function can better serve and partner with the wider business.

More than a Finance Guy

“I always tell my team that while 95 percent of our job is about execution, the last 5 percent is the communication that proves the 95 percent,” Bitton explains. “The numbers are there to support the business. When I partner with you, I want to talk with you about the business. Our role is to help enable the company’s success.”

Bitton came to Nihon Kohden America literally days after the COVID-19 lockdown began in 2020. (In fact, he accepted his role having never set foot in company offices, which were locked down the day of his interview). When Bitton started at Allergan, he helped manage Botox, including for the treatment of chronic migraines. He wound up overseeing Allergan’s $7 billion finance operation in Irvine, California, but he ultimately wanted to be able to make a broader impact across an entire company.

“If you’re really good at finance, you’re never talking finance. You’re talking business.”

“I really wanted to work for a small company,” explains the VP, “Even though I had a great role, you just felt like one small part of a much bigger machine.”

“I just had a conversation with someone here [at NKA], and they admitted they thought I was just a finance guy,” he adds. “Now, he sees me as an executive, trying to connect and partner to help drive the business. That’s the kind of impact you’re able to make for a smaller organization.”

Working across the Business

Since coming to Nihon Kohden America, Bitton has committed to building bench strength in his finance organization. Everywhere he has gone, the VP has been known to restructure his teams to ensure ownership of one’s desk and transparent cross-functional relationships across the company, with an ability to communicate with a non-finance audience.

The finance team has achieved significant working capital success in lowering its day sales outstanding (DSO) by working with the NKA field teams. Additionally, Bitton’s team works hard on inventory management. Many companies are ordering more inventory than needed because of worldwide supply chain issues, and this can create a potential cash strain.

“We’ve worked very closely with operations, sales, and marketing on everything from timing to product lifecycle,” Bitton explains. “We want them to own their functions, and we want to be great facilitators, unafraid to be almost project managers for the company as it grows and matures.”

“Larry’s creativity was instrumental in developing an employee benefits plan that added value for employees and provided cost containment,” says Anthony Bird, principal consultant at OneDigital. “His team approach insured that all stakeholders remained engaged

throughout the process. Through Larry’s leadership and partnership, we were able to build the type of environment where employees can thrive.”

A Coach, a Mentor, and an Advocate Bitton is also willing to act as a facilitator, mentor, and driver for those on his own team. The VP is currently hiring a new FP&A (financial planning and

THE MAN IN THE MIDDLE

Larry Bitton, VP of finance, also is Larry Bitton, award-winning soccer referee. He grew up playing baseball on the East Coast, but in Southern California, soccer is the preferred sport for most everyone—including his daughters. But even after they aged out of play, Bitton continued to referee over 350 games and currently is pursuing his advanced certification.

Along with refereeing, Bitton also is the manager of an Irvine, California, champion adult softball team. “These things are really just about the community,” Bitton says. “It’s all volunteer work, but I love it. It’s another way to mentor and make a difference where I live.”

analysis) topline manager after the predecessor was offered a promising job for a large public company. But it almost didn’t happen.

“Two and a half years ago, we weren’t sure this person was going to make it,” Bitton says. “I asked him what he really wanted to be doing, and after he told me, I asked him to figure it out in the next three months. If your heart’s not in it, then it’s not going to work. But if you really want this, I’m here to support and partner with you.”

Bitton watched and supported an incredible turnaround. He knew the future leader’s journey would include him eventually leaving the company, but this time on his own terms. “I try and work closely with all of my people,” he explains. “I’ve been fortunate to develop a lot of great talent, and it’s been very rewarding watching their success.”

When it comes to people development, Bitton is willing to act out. At Allergan, Bitton brought in improv and soft skills development professionals from Second City Works to help the finance team better connect and stretch their own capabilities. The workshop helped create awareness of behavior and emotions, recognition of non-verbal communication, and a willingness to be vulnerable and have empathy.

Bitton wrote up an executive summary of the activity. The last line reads, “Be authentic and genuine.”

“I was purposeful about having those be the last lines that people read,” the VP says. “At the end of the day, that’s what matters most.”

Be great. Be communicative. And be yourself. That’s how you land a spot on Bitton’s team. AHL

Congratulations to our friend and client Larry Bitton and the team at Nihon Kohden America for this well deserved recognition as leaders and innovators in modern healthcare. The Life Sciences team at McDermott+Bull are enjoying our role helping to grow the Nihon Kohden leadership team as we bring game-changing talent and help to further strengthen their strong patient-centric culture. Larry Bitton is the embodiment of that culture, and we are proud to be associated with him.

Marcum LLP values our working relationship with Larry. He is one of the most personable, knowledgeable, and practical leaders we’ve had the pleasure to work with. Larry is always up to speed on the latest industry and reporting trends. NKA is lucky to have Larry!

“We want to be great facilitators, unafraid to be almost project managers for the company as it grows and matures.”

Foundation of Finance

US Anesthesia Partners CFO Tyler McBee and his team deliver innovative and quality care in the single-specialty partnership model

By Zach Baliva

ust ten years after its start, US Anesthesia Partners (USAP) has built itself into one of the premier anesthesia providers in the nation. The single-specialty partnership founded in 2012 now has locations in ten states with opportunities for expanded delivery of patient care given population dynamics.

Tyler McBee, the organization’s CFO, recently met with American Healthcare Leader to discuss the importance of intelligent leadership and strong collaboration. Strong financial planning and other behind-the-scenes efforts will power USAP into the future as McBee and his colleagues continue to target consistency, safety, affordability, and quality patient outcomes.

What sparked your interest in finance? Everything runs through the numbers at some point. Law practices, retail chains, small businesses, nonprofits, healthcare. Everything.

Why healthcare? Why is this a space you’ve become passionate about?

I simply sit in an office. I’m not a clinician. But I have conversations and make collaborative decisions with clinicians and business leaders. Those decisions we make together help increase quality or alleviate problems that impact patients, and any support I can give is very rewarding.

Was working in the industry with an organization like USAP something you targeted?

I received invaluable experience that I’m grateful for at KPMG, where I had many healthcare clients, but I also gained experience in many other business areas like oil and gas. I’ve also been part of retail organizations, including TempurPedic, and previously traveled the world servicing global manufacturing clients.

All of this comes together in what I do today in healthcare, because I can bring this broad business experience and influence how we do things at USAP.

USAP has been growing. What brought you on board, and what has it been like to be a part of that growth?

I was excited to join a company that was just starting out, because I could help build an accounting team and be part of elevating a finance function. I knew it would be key to interact with legal, operations, and clinicians. We can all collaborate for best results, and we’ve worked together to support the best patient care possible.

Tell me more about finance’s role in that.

We want to provide insights to stakeholders and leaders to make real-time decisions. Accountants are historically thought to look back; closing the books or supporting audits and reading out what happened yesterday. But the healthcare landscape is moving fast, and I want to help USAP look at what’s ahead.

“Every transaction someone addresses from finance has bigger implications than we know.”

“I have conversations and make collaborative decisions with clinicians and business leaders. Those decisions we make together help increase quality or alleviate problems that impact patients , and any support I can give is very rewarding.”

How have you done that?

It takes hiring different people, using technology, and partnering with the whole business, like HR, IT, and others, to discover ways to provide new insights more quickly.

How would you describe your team?

I mentioned my nontraditional path, and I think that’s made me more receptive to others who come from nontraditional backgrounds. Maybe you zigged or zagged in your career. To me, that’s an asset, because you can help us approach what comes our way with new insights. Healthcare, in many ways, has developed slower than other industries. Retail chains know how to have justin-time inventory and respond to supply chain shortages and think about factors that might drive better traffic to one location. That’s what we’re doing to think differently. I look for people who think broadly and want new opportunities.

You’ve talked about working with other departments outside of traditional accounting and finance roles. Can you elaborate?

It’s a similar thought process. Every transaction someone addresses from finance has bigger implications than we know. We’re in a people business, and we can share data and information. If you’re purchasing, staffing, or scheduling, these issues all come up. We need relationships, we need transparency, and we need to get all our information

Providing clear and steady leadership

linked up, so we’re all working from the same playbook. We implemented Workday for financial management and our enterprise resource planning to give us one version of this information, and that’s been one of many great steps for USAP.

What are some of the things you’re most concerned with today?

Speed and accuracy. What does it cost for certain healthcare encounters, and how can we get more efficient without sacrificing quality? We also know we have an aging population, so demand will increase. We have to have adequate coverage for that demand and deliver consistent services in a thoughtful way. We also want to identify where we should invest for continued long-term patient care.

Do you have any advice for other healthcare CFOs?

I would remind them of their responsibility to really understand the needs of their stakeholders. Don’t just think about the data, but also think about how you can use that data to assist and inform others.

You’ve helped USAP get to where it is today. Why are you still passionate about healthcare?

There’s always a challenge. It’s never stagnant. Every time you think you finally hit calm water, there is something new coming on the horizon. AHL

KPMG would like to acknowledge US Anesthesia Partners as a high quality provider and Tyler McBee, its CFO as a visionary leader. KPMG helps organizations across the ecosystem work together in new ways to transform and innovate the business of healthcare.

Take What the Trail Gives You

Jill Fragoso learned that lesson as part of her trail-running routine. She applies that same flexible approach at Children’s Hospital of New Orleans. By Frederick

Jerant

In most organizations, “ignore the employer” isn’t exactly sound advice. But at Children’s Hospital of New Orleans (CHNOLA), Vice President of Human Resources and Administrative Services Jill Fragoso leverages that unlikely approach as part of her contribution to making CHNOLA a top 25 children’s hospital by 2025.

And it’s a realistic goal. “We were ranked in two specialties in US News & World Report for the first time in 2022,” Fragoso said. “We are number thirty-two nationally in urology, and number forty-nine nationally in nephrology. We’re also the Gulf South’s only children’s hospital to rank among Newsweek’s ‘World’s Best Specialized Hospitals for Pediatrics’, two years in a row— number sixty-seven worldwide, and number thirty-four in the US.”

On the patient-care side, CHNOLA achieved “Magnet” designation for the first time in 2022. “That was a fouryear journey, during which we created a culture of safety, put educational opportunities in place, solidified our framework, and continued cultivating our next generation of leaders,” Fragoso says.

The hospital also established a policy of daily operational briefings. “We meet virtually with about one hundred leaders across the organization—clinical leaders, as well as all senior directors—to keep everyone informed of day-to-day developments throughout the hospital.”

CHNOLA’s Thrive Kids program continues to benefit the community, as well. “We placed nurses and social workers in Jefferson parish schools, and they can often refer students to seek medical help—such as the need for hearing aids or glasses—more readily than before,” the VP says.

“In healthcare HR, strict adherence to policy, and the use of defined roles, is common. But at Children’s, we want to cultivate diversity.”

Fragoso encourages diversity of thought, in many forms. “In healthcare HR, strict adherence to policy, and the use of defined roles, is common. But at Children’s, we want to cultivate diversity; and not just in the DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion] aspect. Sometimes, we’ll take a chance with new grads and place them in unexpected roles. We also strive to engage our employees and reward them for their efforts,” Fragoso says.

cooking classes, or brunch for two on the steamboat Natchez on the Mississippi River. Additionally, the Backstage Magic program, which recognizes workers in security, food service, and other behind-the-scenes jobs, provided the staff with nearly 250 pairs of shoes in 2022, along with bus passes, meal vouchers, and other perks. Novel thinking permeates CHNOLA’s recruitment strategies, as well. “We are joining the virtual career fairs of the top 20 undergraduate nursing programs in the country, but we’ve also initiated a partnership with Loyola University. This allows nursing students to work for us during the summer as nurse techs, while CHNOLA covers their on-campus housing,” the VP says.

She added that CHNOLA is expanding its range of technologist programs that offer nursing and allied health students the chance to gain some real-world experience prior to passing their board exams.

“To combat the nation’s critical nurse shortage, Jill has implemented creative retention programs and forged critical university partnerships to attract early career professionals to CHNOLA,” says Steven Davis, head of consulting, WilsonHCG. “She was the first HR executive at the LCMC Health System to embrace an RPO relationship, identifying the opportunity to leverage best practices to enhance her top-performing team.”

And that’s where “Ignore the Employer” comes in. “Many of the people working in our facilities are employees of other companies, but we want them to feel like part of the CHNOLA family,” Fragoso explains. “So, we strive to ‘ignore the employer.’ That means treat everyone the same, regardless of who signs their paychecks. Contract employees and volunteers are offered the same gifts, perks, celebrations, and awards as our own employees.”

For example, CHNOLA’s winter holiday gift to all included an insulated, backpack cooler and an assortment of passes for local activities—half-day bike rides,

As a long-time athlete (i.e., three Ironman triathlons, ultramarathons, and other events), Fragoso appreciates the need for coaching and approaches her team the same way. “I focus on their strengths, offer them real-time feedback, and maintain an optimistic attitude at all times. I also make sure they know there are pathways for advancement, and that I’ll help them along the way.”

Fragoso and her team also encourage feedback from employees and providers, by way of nDorse, a recognition app used across the six hospitals in the system.

“They can provide positive remarks, in real time, about anyone they see demonstrating leadership, advocacy, or any other aspect of CHNOLA’s values.

“We strive to ‘ignore the employer.’”

Fragoso VP of HR & Administrative Services Children’s Hospital New Orleans

Jill

Shaina Grace

The app also includes nomination forms for our team member of the month, provider of the quarter, and leader of the quarter,” Fragoso says. “It’s been a tremendous success; we’ve seen over twenty thousand ‘nDorsements’ over the past five years.”

Feedback can take many forms, though, and Fragoso promotes a virtual “safe space” for CHNOLA’s employees. “Our ‘BSafe’ online tool enables employees and the public to anonymously report harassment, safety, or other issues, and these events will be addressed by the proper leaders. And if people feel marginalized, it’s a simple way to be heard without fear of retaliation,” she says.

Fragoso’s current sport is trail running—a combination of running and power hiking. “As you get older, you need to adapt to your own changes, and in trail running, there is a motto: ‘Take what the trail gives you,’” she says. “Basically, it means that no matter what is going on around you, keep moving forward, and it takes as long as it takes.”

“I’ve learned to apply that to the healthcare business,” she continues. “Sometimes there isn’t adequate funding for programs; there is a lack of capital funding, or competing priorities, and so we

may not take any action at all. But the key to success is to assess what is going on, and either independently, or with your crew, figure out the next, right decision. Keep making forward progress, however messy it may initially look, and keep making the next best decision. Before you know it, results are happening!” AHL

Editor’s note: At the time of press, Jill Fragoso is no longer at Children’s Hospital of New Orleans. She will be the chief human resources officer at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center–New Orleans.

WilsonHCG understands hiring for your healthcare organization has a direct correlation to the level of patient care you’re able to provide. Operating as a strategic partner, WilsonHCG helps some of the world’s most admired healthcare organizations build proactive, comprehensive talent functions. With a global presence spanning more than sixty-five countries and six continents, this award-winning talent solutions provider delivers a full suite of configurable services including recruitment process outsourcing (RPO), executive search, contingent talent solutions, and talent consulting. TALENT.™ It’s more than a solution, it’s who we are. WilsonHCG.com

“In trail running, there is a motto: ‘Take what the trail gives you.’ Basically, it means that no matter what is going on around you, keep moving forward, and it takes as long as it takes.”

Using Data to Help Employees Stay Healthy

Candace Shaffer has expanded Purdue University’s incentive program to a comprehensive wellness program that is increasing engagement, making employees healthier, and saving them money

To understand HR benefits is to understand the human life cycle. With studies in early childhood and family and her prior work as a program development director at the Indiana Association for the Education of Young Children, Candace Shaffer possesses foundational knowledge of that cycle.

By Frank DiMaria

This unique perspective informs her decisions as senior director for benefits at Purdue University, where benefits serve a wide range of people. “We have individuals using benefits who are eighteen and fresh out of high school, all the way to some in their eighties and sometimes into their nineties . . . all the

stages of life. We have to offer benefit programs and information for that entire life span,” Shaffer says.

In her role, Shaffer strategizes and executes all benefits, which are housed under a program called Healthy Boiler. After attending Purdue as a student, Shaffer’s alma mater hired her in 2014, and she

became director of benefits in 2017. In 2020, she was promoted to senior director. She currently oversees twenty-six employees in the benefits department and has four direct reports. One of her biggest challenges, she says, is creating a benefits package that’s cost-effective for everyone, offers quality care, and most importantly, is easy to understand. “If it’s not, nobody will use it,” she says.

Originally launched as an incentive program in 2018, Healthy Boiler has blossomed into a comprehensive healthcare program comprising five pillars of wellness: physical, behavioral, financial, social, and work-life integration. “All our benefits fall beneath these five pillars of wellness, because we believe that you need to be well or healthy across all five of those areas to be a good employee or a good spouse or parent or friend or sibling. To have a good life,” Shaffer says.

Expanding Healthy Boiler from an incentive program to a comprehensive wellness program was purely data driven. Shaffer gathered data through employee feedback and the consolidation of benefits-related service tickets into quarterly reports highlighting the issues that most concerned employees and the time to resolution. “What was the data telling us? What were we spending all our money on?” she asks. Shaffer used the data to improve Purdue’s healthcare benefits and save the university and its employees money.

The biggest of those changes was replacing its employer clinic operating partner, which Shaffer had grown unhappy with. She searched for one with proven positive outcomes running a campus clinic, addressing chronic conditions, practicing lifestyle medicine, and reducing costs. “After all, our employees spend a lot of their own

money,” she says. Her goal was to flatten Purdue’s trend on costs—improving employee health without compromising quality. “We could put cheap programs in and not worry about how healthy our population is, but that’s not what we want. We want them healthy and taken care of when they need care,” she says.

“We have a team of passionate people, and we try to make sure we include everybody and challenge each other.”

Candace Shaffer Senior Director of Benefits

Purdue University Courtesy of Purdue University

Purdue ultimately partnered with One to One Health. Almost immediately, One to One opened a clinic on the university’s main campus in West Lafayette and recently opened a second one on a regional campus. Since partnering with One to One, Shaffer has seen a marked improvement. “In the past five years, engagement has tripled; and on a per-member, per-year basis, our members save well over $1,000 per year on their medical costs,” she says. Purdue’s healthcare costs have not gone up in five years.

Employees are not just saving money, they are becoming healthier. Since partnering with One to One and launching the Healthy Boiler incentive program, Purdue employees are more compliant than ever regarding screenings and physicals, instrumental in identifying and preventing chronic health conditions leading to higher healthcare costs. “Our physical compliance was in the 30 percent range in 2017, and we’re now actually close to 60 percent for our adults. Having someone in place to help manage healthcare for a large portion of our membership has been critical,” Shaffer says. Her data also show that employees are making fewer trips to the emergency room.

In the pharmacy arena, Shaffer now has the specialty prescriptions managed by a specialty pharmacy group, which carved out specialty prescriptions from both its medical and prescription plan and focuses on clinical need. Every three months patients’ prescriptions are reviewed to determine if they’re still necessary and whether they have been effective. “We have found that over time this has saved money and also made people clinically healthier,” she says.

Shaffer knows the value of surrounding herself with a solid, knowledgeable team, where all members have a seat at the table. She says, “Over the years, I’ve made sure I have all the right people [around me]. I have financial people, benefits experts, leave experts, and customer service experts. We have a team of passionate people, and we try to make sure we include everybody and challenge each other.” AHL

“In the past five years, engagement has tripled; and on a per-member, per-year basis, our members save well over $1,000 per year on their medical costs.”

A full-service agency specializing in employee communications, Westcomm works alongside Purdue University to create innovative communication strategies that cut through the clutter and confusion, allowing for smarter use of employee benefits, better retention of top talent, fewer employee questions, higher utilization of preventive care, and smooth onboarding of new hires.

Risky Business

As lead corporate counsel, Eric L. Weborg uses his front row seat in courtroom litigation to evaluate and manage risks incurred by Creative Solutions in Healthcare

By Frank DiMaria

Eric L. Weborg learned about physical disabilities and the treatments and struggles associated with them while caring for his disabled brother during their childhood. Throughout the experience, he witnessed “the healthcare component attached to disabilities.” The result was the development of a dual passion for healthcare and the law, which he has combined into one career.

After earning a law degree from the University of Tulsa, Weborg took a job with a preeminent medical malpractice law firm in Dallas in 2014. Although he says that he “loved every minute of it,” he longed to litigate cases.

“I wanted to be in the courtroom 24/7,” he rememebrs. Weborg went on to be a staff counsel at AIG until 2018, when he became a trial attorney with Winchester and Associates. In 2021, he joined Creative Solutions in Healthcare as the company’s lead corporate counsel. The organization serves 7,500 individuals in 108 assisted living, longterm care, and rehabilitation facilities across Texas.

In his current role, Weborg wears several hats, often simultaneously. He manages all litigation ranging from medical malpractice to employment litigation to discrimination. As lead counsel, he either litigates the suit himself or manages outside counsel. He also makes risk management recommendations based on changes in government regulations and the law.

Traditionally when a company is sued, its insurance carrier provides defense and indemnity. Not so with Creative Solutions. The nature of its insurance agreement allows Weborg himself to litigate cases, giving him a front row seat to pending healthcare lawsuits in Texas. The lead counsel uses the information

he gathers from this seat to evaluate and manage risks incurred by Creative Solutions by identifying hotspots in claims, locations, and allegations.

“[I can] communicate with the leaders in the company and advise them of what I’m seeing and allow the clinical side of the company to create policies and procedures and to take action to help mitigate those things in the future,” he says.

Weborg spends a considerable amount of time on the road visiting facilities and educating employees on best practices for patient and resident care. “There is a value to going out and interacting with employees at facilities . . . I’m their attorney as it relates to any allegations that have been made against them within the context of their

employment,” he explains. Being an attorney is about building trusting relationships. “I was told as a young attorney there are two people you don’t lie to: you don’t lie to your doctor, and you don’t lie to your attorney,” Weborg says. As he explains, legal questions arise daily at facilities, and if the healthcare providers at Creative Solutions can’t put

“If you just take the safe route, if you just stay status quo, there’s no ability for you to see what you’re capable of doing.”

“I was told as a young attorney there are two people you don’t lie to: you don’t lie to your doctor, and you don’t lie to your attorney.”

Eric L. Weborg

Lead Corporate Counsel

Creative Solutions in Healthcare

GableGotwals congratulates Eric L. Weborg, Jr. and Creative Solutions in Healthcare on this hard-earned & well-deserved recognition!

As a full-service law firm, our attorneys successfully advise clients on litigation matters (state, tribal, federal, and appellate courts), regulatory and licensing issues, and transactional matters.

a face to a name, they are reluctant to reach out for the answers and trust him as counsel.

Additionally, trust extends beyond lawyer and client. The healthcare industry is providing a service to individuals and that care is funded partially by states and the federal government. Any type of receipt of public funds carries an understanding that it will be spent on care for residents, and that the residents will receive the best care possible. “Because that’s what they deserve,” Weborg adds.

The pandemic and the resulting spread of medical disinformation shone a light on trust in healthcare. Weborg believes that in order to provide patients with the care they need, patients need to believe in and trust the industry as a whole and their healthcare providers individually.

As one of two lawyers at Creative Solutions, Weborg has a support staff of five, and employs outside counsel on approximately 15 percent of the

company’s cases. Over the years, his leadership style has evolved from micromanagement to laissez faire. As a young leader, he proofed every document that left his office because they bore his name. “In doing so, it limited my capabilities as a leader,” the attorney reflects. “People make mistakes and 99 percent of the time those mistakes are not fatal.”

When given ownership and encouraged to take risks, employees often exceed expectations, grow professionally, and invest in the team. These all make for a happier work environment and produces the best product. As a result, Weborg encourages young lawyers to take risks.

“If you just take the safe route, if you just stay status quo, there’s no ability for you to see what you’re capable of doing,” he says. “There’s no ability to let other individuals know what you’re capable of doing and you run the risk of being penned into a status without opportunity for growth.” AHL

We assist hospitals, physician practice groups, and individual practitioners in business formation, governance, transactional, operational, risk management, physician employment, licensed professional medical sta , human resources, compliance, academic a liation, medical research trials, litigation, and other specialized subject matters.

www.gablelaw.com

Mariel Garza

Developing Future Leaders

As assistant general counsel of global medical, capabilities, and development at Bristol Myers Squibb, Eric Merin is building the next generation of legal leaders for the good of patients and society

At Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), employees are driven by a single vision: transforming patients’ lives through science. Teams work with urgency to discover, develop, and deliver innovative medicines because they know patients are waiting.

Eric Merin, assistant general counsel for global medical, capabilities, and development at BMS, understands the frustration and the heartbreak patients and their families face as they wait for

By Billy Yost

relief from fears and burdens of illness. During college, Merin’s mother was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s that prevented her from attending his law school graduation and then his wedding. The disease ultimately took her life before the birth of his son.

“I have seen firsthand someone with an illness where there are limited, or, arguably, no treatment options,” the attorney explains. “I’m driven at work by the patients who are waiting for the solution.”

Since joining the law department at BMS in 2018, Merin has had the opportunity to guide the business on what’s best for patients. He has spent most of his career almost exclusively with oncology teams, playing a critical role in enabling innovation and decision-making for the good of patients.

Recently, in addition to his daily responsibilities, Merin is helping to hire a manager for the Law Department Early Career Program (LECP)—a new

Eric Merin

Assistant General Counsel of Global Medical, Capabilities & Development

Bristol Myers Squibb

Christina Lynn

We congratulate Eric on his new role as Assistant General Counsel, Commercialization & Development

initiative to identify, recruit, and develop diverse young professionals. “This role is about working with my colleagues every day to create a pipeline that is powerfully diverse, non-traditional, and empowered to make meaningful contributions to the law department and BMS’ mission to discover, develop, and deliver innovative medicines,” he says.

The two-year rotational program was designed by members of the BMS law department to help professionals early in their careers gain valuable, diversified experience. Employees enrolled in the program rotate through the law department’s practice areas and functions. At the end of the program, they can continue their BMS career within the law department in a non-rotational role.

“At BMS, we make sure our people have transformative experiences to learn, grow, and lead,” attests Merin. “It’s critical that we sustain an environment where the power of diverse experiences drives innovation for patients, as well as career success and advancement for these colleagues. BMS is a place where all

voices are heard, and the best ideas are brought to the table with the right level of influence.”

Launched in the summer of 2022, LECP got off to a great start with six employees actively participating in the 2022-2024 cohort. These lawyers and legal professionals were chosen outside of the traditional hiring pipeline, which Merin appreciates. The lawyer’s parents did not have graduate degrees and worked multiple jobs, including sewing window treatments in his family’s basement. His decision to become a lawyer might seem like a great generational leap, but the lawyer feels that his career choice aligns with the values he learned from his family.

“Before my grandfather passed away, I used to talk a lot with him about his experiences surviving the Holocaust,” Merin remembers. “During those conversations, we spoke about hard work, but also that you must try to use whatever power you have in life to make an impact. Being a lawyer is no different. We have this awesome license that can help people, and we should never forget that.” AHL

Covington commends Eric Merin of Bristol Myers Squibb for his leadership within the life sciences sector.

Law.

“It’s critical that we sustain an environment where the power of diverse experiences drives innovation for patients, as well as career success and advancement for these colleagues.”

The Issues

National, and even global, forces have an unmistakable impact on an executive’s work. Whether it’s a legislative change or an industry-disrupting technological breakthrough, executives must constantly adapt their business strategies to keep their company thriving.

100. Joshua Bellamy HealthStrategy LLC

104. Mark Coticchia Baptist Health South Florida

108. Tynina Lucas EmblemHealth

112. Michelle Coon CAMC Health System

116. Joshua Fischer PIH Health

118. Nina Dusang DCH Health System

Curiosity Killed the Markups

Joshua Bellamy likes to ask questions about his industry and why costs are so high. The answers he found gave him HealthStrategy—and a reduction in pharmaceutical costs for millions of people.

By Russ Klettke

Abottle of thirty pills of a common cholesterol medication will sell for as little as $15, or $0.50 per pill, as it leaves the pharmaceutical company that manufactures it. But the way things work in many employer-sponsored health plans, by the time that bottle travels through the supply chain to the patient, the retail price can be as much as $250.

Is that highway robbery? Technically speaking, no. Does this happen only rarely? Actually, it’s quite common. According to Joshua Bellamy, these higher drug prices are very often borne by large companies and their employees, where one might expect that economies of scale could dictate otherwise.

Bellamy is the founder and CEO of HealthStrategy LLC, a business services firm that challenges, successfully, the status quo in the pharmaceutical supply chain. HealthStrategy’s clients are large entities: companies with lots of employees with huge healthcare costs in employee drug benefits plans, and plenty of incentive to search for better ways to handle this expense. HealthStrategy enables those corporations to save money for not only their shareholders but also employee-patients.

To understand how the firm accomplishes this, it helps to understand Bellamy. To put it simply, the guy is curious. Indefatigably so. Since childhood, he’s had a strong incentive to find a different way than his forebears to earn a living. With little to lose, he has never allowed himself to get too comfortable—even when he did find decent compensation on his ascendant journey through various parts of the pharmaceutical supply chain.

“I initially saw being a pharmacist as a stable source of income,” he says. Bellamy grew up in a coal mining town where half the working people living there lost their jobs when the mines closed, including his own father. To him, one place in town where the job and revenue stream looked secure was the local druggist. So off to college he went, earning a pharmaceutical sciences degree that could just about guarantee him employment.

And the job offers came. At first, he was in a hospital and enjoyed going on rounds with physicians. “It felt natural to be part of the team,” he says. “I had good

“Other firms might understand the supply chain, but they often don’t have the data and analysis to negotiate.”

Joshua Bellamy Founder and CEO HealthStrategy LLC

relationships with the doctors, and developed a good understanding of pharmacotherapy, how to treat the illness.” But around this same time, he developed a fascination with radioactive material in medicine—so much so that he considered getting a PhD in it.

Simultaneously, a friend and colleague talked him into doing clinical work in a nursing home company for a year. The role included doing outcomes research, which led to work at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, which then caught the attention of health economics researchers at Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant. Working in big pharma, he began to study the links between drug manufacturers and the decision-makers among healthcare providers.

“I realized the connectivity with doctors and pharmaceutical representatives had some missing parts,” he says. “Very often, the reps had a low understanding of the consequences of the drugs.” He knew enough then, because he is curious enough to ask questions, to advise the suits at Pfizer on why certain medications were not selling.

Bellamy remained at Pfizer for a few years, studying the industry with a critical eye, and then quit. Why? “I saw the [pharmaceutical] supply chain was wildly inefficient.”

As he details it, that supply chain starts with the manufacturer, which sells to a wholesaler, which sells to pharmacies, which sell to benefit managers, who then sell to plan sponsors; these often are large insurance companies or, in the case of self-insured employers, the employers and their employee-patients. In other words, lots of middlemen.

Cutting out some of the waste in that stream was the goal—and Bellamy had the confidence to start big. His first client was Caterpillar, the Fortune 500 construction equipment manufacturer. With 180,000 employees in 2006, the self-insured company spent $200 million per year on pharmaceuticals. They were interested in what Bellamy said could be wrested from the cost structure, but also concerned with how it might adversely affect employee health.

So they looked at the most widely prescribed drugs (e.g., statins), identified lower-cost medication ($4 per

prescription versus $600 in some cases), removed the patient copay to encourage use, and then tracked adherence and outcomes. Patients liked it, the company saved a bundle, and there were no adverse health effects.

With that experience, HealthStrategy took off, becoming a consultant to dozens of large employers, hospital systems, and Walmart Pharmacy. Today, Bellamy’s firm consults with companies that, in total, spend $80 billion per year in drug costs.

Why doesn’t every company do this? “Other firms might understand the supply chain, but they often don’t have the data and analysis to negotiate,” says the CEO. His job history embeds an intrinsic sense of where to find the waste.

HealthStrategy employs close to fifty people in their Chicago and Peoria, Illinois, offices and could charge more—a lot more—for their services, keeping some of the savings for themselves. But they don’t. “Because doing that would make me a hypocrite,” Bellamy says.

“It would negate the sixteen years of what we’ve accomplished. I want to do the right thing.” AHL

“I saw the [pharmaceutical] supply chain was wildly inefficient.”

Spearheading Innovation

Corporate VP Mark Coticchia and team transform intellectual property into new revenues at Baptist Health South Florida

By Karen Schwartz

Mark Coticchia has spent his threedecade-plus career building and managing complex teams to help organizations execute deals and transactions as well as monetize intellectual assets. Now, he is helping Baptist Health South Florida launch and grow an innovation business unit with capabilities second to none in the health innovation industry.

An industrial and civil engineer by training, Coticchia joined Baptist Health South Florida as its first-ever corporate vice president of innovation in 2019. Over the past several years,

he has established and advanced an innovation group that is garnering national recognition for the healthcare system, which is made up of more than twenty-six thousand employees and four thousand physicians. Coticchia’s work involves building and commercializing new products and services based on the system’s commitment to setting the global standard in patient care.

“More than ever, clinicians and administrators are looking for a way to improve patient care and sustain those improvements over time,” he says. “Hospital

leaders get pretty excited. In terms of economic return, we help hospital systems monetize the vast amount of know-how in their institutions.”

Coticchia advances healthcare innovation by commercializing research results, medical inventions, data, and knowhow in a very pragmatic way. Thus far, his relatively new innovation program at Baptist Health has generated licensing income and foundation support, consummated dozens of deals and collaborations, and engaged hundreds of physicians and employees in their

Mark Coticchia

Corporate VP of Innovation

Baptist Health South Florida

Kristi Gnyp

innovation process, he says. He adds that having the right people in place has sped the entire endeavor along a shorter-thanusual timeline.

“I’m all about process, capturing knowhow and advancing it obsessively into the patient environment for improved care,” he explains. “I start with the problem first and say, ‘how can I get together the people who are subject matter experts from inside and outside the system to solve the wicked problems, the challenges we face?’”

He came to the role with a strong track record of launching technology companies and generating top-quartile financial returns as both the director of technology transfer at Carnegie Mellon University and vice president for research, technology management, and economic development at Case Western Reserve University. He has also served as chief innovation officer at Henry Ford Health, where he established an innovation business unit for the thirty-thousand-employee system.

“I’ve made progress entirely because I have had the privilege of working in environments with highly skilled physicians, researchers, and others, and I could recognize and advance the brilliance and importance of their ideas,” Coticchia reflects.

The VP has participated in and led hundreds of commercial deals of all stripes, types, and sizes and describes himself as a “creative dealmaker.” Some deals that typify his career include: intellectual property licensing arrangements with Aldara Hospital and Medical Center in Saudi Arabia and Naruvi Hospitals in India, both of which are bringing a significant future income stream to Henry Ford Health; Lycos, started at Carnegie Mellon and touted as the then-fastestever “startup-to-IPO,” was monetized to benefit the University’s programs; CASurgica and Carnegie Learning, both of which started at Carnegie Mellon and contributed economically to the university mission; CardioInsight, a non-invasive mapping system, started at Case Western Reserve University until its acquisition by Medtronic; and numerous other startups that both contributed to society and generated new revenue streams to the universities and hospital systems Coticchia served.

“Our goal is to engineer a better future for healthcare, and I’m proud we have established a world-class innovation program at Baptist Health.”

Coticchia says he draws upon the totality of his previous experience when developing new programs that capture and leverage intellectual property assets by converting those into new revenue streams and ensuring the resulting products and services help society.

“As I built and led programs and teams, I took lessons from what did and didn’t work and built a program that was right for Baptist Health,” he recalls. “Time and resource challenges keep things interesting in my world. My satisfaction comes from when we overcome a myriad of barriers and create success in spite of the obstacles.”

He’s spent decades developing a playbook—an operational infrastructure designed to promote innovation mindsets across systems. It draws on his expertise in spinning off companies, doing deals, developing industry collaborations, working as a venture capital partner, and serving as a longtime speaker and advisor. It starts with bringing together an experienced, high-performing team and doing the business development work to connect hospitals with communities and corporations. Then, the playbook moves on to licensing knowledge and making deals.

“We’re adept at not-for-profit laws, rules, regulations and policies to structure licensing and other types of deals that contribute economically to the institutional mission,” he says. “We are experts in licensing deals that involve clinical and operational data; basically, we specialize in leveraging data and know-how to benefit healthcare communities.”

Harnessing data proficiently, whether in databases or human minds, plays an important role in informing hospital decisions. “The people who work in

healthcare systems all day every day are the most overlooked intellectual assets in the healthcare profession,” he asserts, adding that healthcare system leaders and the thousands of associates who work in the systems need to share a similar growth mindset. “Necessity is the mother of invention—to grow, to improve, and to create new ways of doing things. It’s essentially a creative mindset, a continuous improvement mindset. They feel it in their bones and see it in their revenues.”

Coticchia and his team believe it’s important to provide the Baptist Health innovations expertise and Baptist Health assets to an international marketplace. “We’re committed to our patients and our region, and part of that entails gaining from the export of our capabilities to the globe,” he says. As such, they’ve set up operations to design, build, and operate medical facilities in other parts of the world. “Our goal is to engineer a better future for healthcare, and I’m proud we have established a world-class innovation program at Baptist Health,” he adds.

Meanwhile, Coticchia believes the biggest takeaway for others seeking to grow innovation in their own healthcare environment is that data and know-how are huge, untapped opportunities.

“Healthcare system leaders focus on research results and de novo invention. I think the bigger opportunity for improvement in patients’ lives lies in the operational and clinical know-how that healthcare systems have,” he says. “It’s overlooked, but each healthcare system has unique approaches, and each healthcare system has an element of diversity that can be harnessed by companies to develop new products and services for advancing human health.” AHL

Mark’s commitment to the transformation of patient care models through technology and intellectual property management positions healthcare providers for better, overall employee and patient engagement.

Odgers Berndtson identifies and advises industry-shaping executives for forward-looking companies. One of the fastestgrowing executive search firms in the United States, Odgers Berndtson combines global reach, deep expertise, and entrepreneurial agility to help clients make strategic talent decisions and create value in the marketplace.

Our Healthcare Practice leaders are industry experts and understand the need for strategic leaders who embrace healthcare innovation. We place leaders at healthcare organizations of all shapes and sizes, forge deep relationships with our clients, and provide hands-on execution at every level.

We’re honored to work with Mark Coticchia, Corporate VP for Innovation at Baptist Health South Florida.

Be Fearless and Respect All

With poise and grace, Head of Procurement Tynina Lucas flourishes as a natural leader at EmblemHealth

By Marcos Chisholm

On the surface, leaders are measured by their performance. However, whether they succeed or fail, they are defined by moments that shaped who they are. Just ask Tynina Lucas.

Before she became a procurement leader within the healthcare industry, she started her career in manufacturing. Despite being the only female network engineer on her team—as well as its youngest member—she embraced new challenges that came her way. When she got a chance to oversee IT audit activities, she led her coworkers through every step of the process like a seasoned vet.

“When I saw those leaders influencing, providing guidance, helping others understand their talents and value, I felt like that’s what I needed to do,” she says.

Sure enough, Lucas earned her stripes. After she tapped into her leadership potential, she earned promotions to engineering, IT, and management roles over the next decade. Then she entered the healthcare space, where she laid down the operational framework for procurement and supply chain departments at a Blue Cross Blue Shield Plan and a Medicaid Health Plan.

Now, as the head of procurement at EmblemHealth, Lucas anchors the supply chain behind one of the largest nonprofit health plan providers in the US. She and her team work closely with internal stakeholders to develop vendor sourcing strategies and negotiates deals with the organization’s suppliers and vendors supporting over three million plan members.

While Lucas navigates a traditional corporate environment, she takes an “organic” approach to leadership that feels more democratic and transformational. She gives her employees the green

light to come up with creative solutions to complex problems. If that means they make mistakes, she can live with it.

“You don’t tell them what to do,” Lucas says. “You tell them what you need. You tell them what ultimate goal [it] is that you want to achieve. But in order to achieve the goal, I encourage my team to create and be innovative. You have to give your team the autonomy and the flexibility to execute on the activities that allow them to reach that goal.”

On top of removing the fear of failure, Lucas empowers her team to innovate by fostering diversity of thought among her staff. Instead of letting her employees sweep conflicts under the rug, she reminds them it’s OK to disagree with one another. Even if they meet with other teams and vendors, she expects them to operate as advisors capable of difficult conversations.

“They might say, ‘This is how we’ve always done this. We just want to move forward with this approach,’” Lucas says. “But I encourage my team to challenge the approach and assess alternative approaches that can provide a more beneficial outcome. Challenge the status quo in a meaningful way, not in a way that’s combative against your business partners, or even your supply base, but more so questioning, challenging, helping them to think a little bit outside of the box while partnering with them.”

Furthermore, she encourages supplier diversity within EmblemHealth through the creation of the company’s supplier diversity program. This program commenced in 2021 and is near and dear to Lucas’s heart. It was developed to emphasize the importance of working with a diversified supply base, not only to benefit EmblemHealth and the

“When I saw those leaders influencing, providing guidance, helping others understand their talents and value, I felt like that’s what I needed to do .”

procurement team but also to benefit the communities that EmblemHealth serves.

“Certainly, in some cases, especially being in procurement, you do have to operate with an iron fist, but you have to put on that velvet glove,” Lucas says. “So, it’s all about your delivery and acknowledging who that person is on the other side of the table.”

Meanwhile, Lucas shares her advice for young professionals aspiring to

follow in her footsteps. “Don’t let fear hold you back. Fear is just an illusion you have to continue to push through.

“Make sure you understand what your role is,” she continues. “Make sure you have the data to support your decisions, and don’t be afraid to fail. Fear has held back so many people in their careers. People could have done so many different things, but because of fear, they hesitated.” AHL

Health Compass is a health informatics firm specializing in predictive data analytics for hospitals, clinics and medical professionals. We are a minority owned consulting firm with expertise in the Agile Framework to drive rapid results for our clients. We are made up of a world-class team of the best minds in the healthcare and AI world. We work with a wide range of firms ranging from leading nutrition and wellness shops to medical facilities, healthcare providers and services firms of all sizes.

We create innovative technology solutions that help people to live their best lives. We have a proprietary data operating platform, EVYDence, that leverages data and insights from over 1.7 billion healthcare records, 400 million patiences and 500 hospitals, giving users enhanced clarity and usability of their health data in real time.

Tynina Lucas Head of Procurement EmblemHealth

Brian Cook

From the Ground Up

Michelle Coon is on a quest to improve the health of her home state by building its first clinically integrated network at CAMC Health System

By Zach Baliva

College graduation was rapidly approaching, and Michelle Coon didn’t have a job lined up. So, when a career counselor organized an interview for her, she agreed to go. The opening was for an underwriter at an insurance company. There was just one problem— Coon had no idea what that meant.

But she went to the interview anyway. When it came time for her to introduce herself, she fessed up. “I told them I knew very little about the role, but I would dedicate myself to trying hard, and I promised to learn everything I could,” she recalls.

Coon didn’t get the job. She did, however, make an impression. The company’s HR team called her back a week later with another opening, and she was hired to serve as the front-office receptionist and secretary to the president. Nearly twenty years later, Coon left the organization—Aetna—as its chief operating officer.

Today, she is part of the leadership team at Charleston Area Medical Center (CAMC), the largest healthcare system in the state. Eight thousand employees at CAMC’s four hospitals, cancer center, and other facilities serve communities in and around the capital city. The system, known for its innovations in robotic surgery and pediatric intensive care, is its area’s only comprehensive stroke center, and also operates a Level I Trauma Center. Coon serves as president of the West Virginia Health Network and vice president of managed care and population health at CAMC Health System. Focusing on population health and improving quality is a mission the native West Virginian takes seriously. “I love this state and have been here my whole life,” she says. “The people we help are my neighbors. I see them at the store, in our schools, and at church, and I’m thankful my career has given me a chance to serve them.”

“What makes Michelle so effective in her role is how she views things through the lens of the individuals her organization serves,” adds Tadd Haynes, president of UniCare Health Plan of West Virginia, Inc., an Elevance Health company. “She is a native West Virginian and truly understands the unique needs of the communities within our state. That kind of ‘passion for the patient’ truly shines through in the leadership of her team. Michelle and CAMC really have been at the forefront of population and whole-health efforts in our state and that is why they have been such a strong partner to our organization.”

Throughout her career, Coon has maintained the attitude she demonstrated in her very first job interview. “I got my first job because I took a chance and was okay coming in as a receptionist with a college degree. I’ve learned to embrace change and stay

open to new things,” she explains. And Coon is no stranger to hard work; she grew up helping in her parents’ restaurant.

After spending eighteen years at Aetna, Coon joined CAMC in 2018 to leverage her experience and build a CIN from the ground up. CINs are organizations designed to engage communities, provide access, unite providers, and place patients at the center. Deploying these systems is important in a rural state like West Virginia, which has experienced plummeting rates for physicals, vaccinations, and routine screenings since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

“We are doing all we can to remove barriers and get patients the care they need when and where they need it,” says Coon.

Her team worked closely with community partners and other organizations to launch what has become

Michelle Coon VP of Managed Care & Population Health, CAMC Health System President, West Virginia Health Network

known as the West Virginia Health Network. CAMC was the first member, and four years later, the network is a statewide organization where dozens of physicians, hospitals, and health systems share data and collaborate to increase quality of care and reduce costs, while driving health outcomes.

The team behind the network spent two years forming connections and onboarding patients. They spent another two years growing their system and membership. Now, less than five years after its inception, the West Virginia Health Network has 120,000 beneficiaries.

Coon remains focused on maintaining that impressive momentum. That happens when care coordinators get out into local communities and host events, such as free screenings. The screenings help patients lacking transportation to medical facilities, but many people in West Virginia lack something else—healthy food. In fact, the state has more cases of high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity than any other in the nation.

Thus, the Farmacy program was born. Coon found one member of the health network that could identify a group of diabetic patients experiencing food insecurity. They then used a special grant to bring fresh fruits

and vegetables on site. As patients came to receive their delivery of healthy food, they also were able to interact with care providers, learn exercises, and find other resources to help improve their health and well-being. In one iteration, instructors taught participants how to cook and even can the food.

The network continues to grow and Coon is finding ways for those on her team to make significant contributions. “Mentors had faith in me earlier in my career, and now I want others to be part of opportunities they can learn from,” she says.

Farmacy Program and similar initiatives are thriving. Coon plans to expand the food insecurity program statewide and is not content to stop it or other efforts at the edges of the Ohio River or Appalachian Mountains. The VP with a track record of continuous learning and trying new things wants to find ways to reach beyond state lines.

“There is so much we can do through telemedicine, mobile units, and other innovative solutions,” she says. “This is just the start, and we’re committed to finding creative ways to bring services to people and communities that need access to quality healthcare.” AHL

“The people we help are my neighbors. I see them at the store, in our schools, and at church, and I’m thankful my career has given me a chance to serve them.”

Forward Momentum

PIH Health has relied on innovation to help it through rapid expansion during the COVID-19 pandemic By Will Grant

PIH Health, the largest employer in the city of Whittier, California, serves more than 3.7 million residents in Los Angeles County, Orange County, and San Gabriel Valley of the Golden State.

But that isn’t the health system’s only distinction. In July 2022, Fortune and Merative named PIH as one of the “15 Top Health Systems” for the second time, as well as one of the top five medium-sized healthcare systems in the nation.

Key performance indicators included: clinical outcomes, operational efficiency,

and patient experience as compared to its peers. Low readmission rates, inpatient mortality, and patient complications were also factors.

“PIH Health is honored to receive these prestigious recognitions once again,” James R. West, president and CEO, said in a press release.

“These awards exemplify our continuous commitment to our patients and communities and are a testament to our exceptional employees and medical staff who uphold standards for high-quality

care every day. We applaud their consistent efforts and unwavering dedication to outstanding care for all we serve.”

That level of care wouldn’t be possible without an incredible team working behind the scenes to keep PIH’s infrastructure evolving to meet the needs of tomorrow. That’s where CIO Jason Fischer comes in. Fisher’s team includes 160 people stateside, with an additional 30 support personnel overseas that cover everything from security to analytics to electronic health record management.

Since coming to PIH in 2014, Fischer has seen incredible change.

“It’s three times the size now compared to when I got here. That’s progressive growth,” Fischer told Toggle . “We’ve stood together, shoulder-to-shoulder, through every change and have educated our staff on newer and broader technologies over the years. It’s been interesting and never stagnant.”

Before coming to PIH, Fischer served as the director of business applications and revenue cycle for nearly eight years at Children’s Hospital in Orange County (CHOC).

The CIO said the experience provided great exposure to IT, finance, and the business side of healthcare operations. Additionally, CHOC had a chance to practice accountability in supporting major change initiatives.

Fischer sees IT as a way of enabling business strategy, and that mindset has clearly been a winning strategy at PIH— even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It wasn’t exactly a “normal” pandemic period for Fischer. PIH had just acquired Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, which had about four hundred beds. The IT team was in the middle of a ninety-day due diligence period, working to align the two hospitals both in operations and technological efficiency.

“We had been through this before but were right in the middle of things when COVID-19 hit,” Fischer told Toggle. “My goal was to make sure we stayed on track to deliver upon multiyear plans and ensure cost-reduction opportunities.”

The pandemic also gave way to innovation. PIH Health’s telemedicine platform, which did not exist prior to the pandemic, was seeing up to 980 patients a day. Within two weeks of the platform’s completion, over half of PIH’s total visits were online.

When it comes to long-term planning, PIH is currently working on restructuring its storage infrastructure. Fischer noted that it may not be evident to end-users, but the advancements will be appreciated by customers who utilize PIH’s technologies.

Innovation, adaptation, and continuity on the technological front have allowed PIH to keep bringing home the hardware. At the end of 2022, PIH found itself the beneficiary of yet another award. The Integrated Healthcare Association listed PIH as one of a handful of organizations showing the greatest year-to-year improvement in comprehensive diabetes care measures, prevention, and screening. The “Align. Measure. Perform” award is just the latest sign that when technology and care are connected, patients come out ahead. AHL

Converge Technology Solutions is a software-enabled IT and cloud solutions provider focused on delivering industryleading solutions and services. Our global solution approach delivers advanced analytics, application modernization, cloud platforms, cybersecurity, digital infrastructure, and digital workplace offerings across various industries. We support these solutions with advisory, implementation, and managed services expertise.

The Nontraditional CFO

As DCH Health System’s CFO, Nina Dusang inspires action while remaining grounded in solid data and business principles

By Keith Loria

Nina Dusang, CPA CFO and SVP DCH Health System

Dale Haverkampf

T here were two major points in the life of Nina Dusang that led her to different aspects of her career—one was toward accounting and the other was getting involved in the healthcare industry.

Studying at Louisiana Tech, she wasn’t entirely sure what she wanted to do, but she knew she wanted to be in business and become an executive, something she learned about from her dad.

“My very first year, I took an accounting course and didn’t know anything about it,” Dusang recounts. “My roommate was majoring in accounting and that was her goal in life. Halfway through the course, she sat me down and told me I needed to think about majoring in accounting.”

The reason? Dusang had a 99 average and thought it was an easy class, when in fact it was not. “It was a moment of realization that I had a natural talent for this, and my mind worked this way, so I changed my major to accounting,” she notes.

By the end of the semester, Dusang had fortuitously received a call from her uncle—someone she hadn’t talked to in years — alerting her of a job available at his company working for the CFO. So Dusang went to work at Prager Inc. in downtown New Orleans and fell in love with working on the business side of manufacturing.

“The CFO took the time to mentor me. He allowed me, a mere freshman in college, to develop a computerized inventory system, among other things,” Dusang explains. “He allowed me to put my hands into anything I was interested in, and so I went back every summer and Christmas break. Over the years, I got to see what it meant to be a CFO and advisor at the executive level.”

By 1993, Dusang had worked as a CPA for a national firm, gotten married, and moved to a different office, where she was asked to work in its healthcare practice.

“I fell in love with healthcare; it was so dynamic. Unlike other industries, the reimbursement rules and accounting practices changed regularly due to the enhanced regulatory environment, so I found it really exciting,” Dusang notes.

However, the manager of the division, whom she describes as a “fundamentalist,” did not believe women

should work, which he voiced. He told her point-blank that he didn’t think Dusang should be putting her husband through school by working.

Being a very strong person and having none of it, Dusang knew she had no future working for this individual and started looking for a new opportunity. That came at an acute care center, and by age twenty-six, Dusang was a CFO with Health Management Associates.

“I was honored to earn the opportunity to lead a team at such a young age,” she says. “Looking back, it gave me a ton of determination and invaluable experience, including knowing when to let go and move on. I continue to take chances, always looking for opportunities to grow and to grow others. Being an influence to others, including women like me seeking leadership positions, is one of the most exciting and rewarding parts of my journey.”

In 2011, Dusang joined DCH Health System. Today, she serves as the CFO and senior vice president for the not-for-profit health system based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

“What attracted me to DCH was the opportunity to work in a university town where you find a good bit of diverse thinking,” she explains. “The health system was interesting, because it is a sole provider but still has opportunity for growth. A lot about that was intriguing.”

In her role, she has overseen information technology, provider operations and recruitment, supply chain, pharmacy, and much more—which she describes as a “nontraditional blend of responsibilities.”

“That’s one of the things that make it exciting— it’s not just the typical aspects of being a CFO,” she enthuses. The motivational, results-driven leader consistently inspires action and progressive initiatives, while remaining grounded in solid data and business principals.

“My passion and mission are to ensure our financial stability so that we are able to give back and strengthen our community,” she says. “One of the things we’ve done is with our retail pharmacy. We had an outside group running a pharmacy here on site, and I thought there was no reason why DCH couldn’t do that on its own.

“We have a very capable pharmacy team, so we put together a fantastic plan,” she continues. “The money generated helps us to provide free or reduced cost prescriptions to people who are uninsured or underinsured. It has been invaluable to patients’ continuum of care.”

She also proved instrumental in modernizing DCH’s revenue cycle and is working to make it even better.

“There is a ton of talk out there right now about how automation and AI can help revenue cycles become more efficient, less error-prone, and more patient-centric. But the truth is, hardly anyone has really done it well yet,” Dusang explains. “So, we’re looking to partner with the right vendors to create an experience in our revenue cycle that reduces our costs as an organization and improves the experience for our patients. I’m cautious, which means I may not jump at the first opportunity, opting instead to evaluate multiple ideas to ensure we are pursuing the best solutions.”

FinThrive has worked with Dusang and DCH Health System on a recent front-end revenue management technology implementation of Access Coordinator. “Nina is a transparent leader who values true partnership,” says Brad Rennick, chief customer officer at FinThrive. “We worked closely together to develop and meet high standards of success for improved efficiencies, ensuring positive outcomes. Her collaborative leadership approach and open communication style allowed for an agile environment that ensured a smooth and effective implementation.”

As someone who believes that she and her team should laugh every day, Dusang understands the value of enjoying your work, especially in such a stressful industry as healthcare.

“If we can’t find some laughter and joy in what we do, it’s going to wear us down,” she says. “It’s important to me that people feel like they are important and can have fun; that creates longevity. That’s important as a leader.” AHL

“Being an influence to others, including women like me seeking leadership positions, is one of the most exciting and rewarding parts of my journey.”

The Reason

Some executives feel the importance of their work because they have experienced its impact firsthand. Shaped by their mission to help others or by their personal experiences with healthcare, many executives are drawn to the industry from a sense of empathy and a desire to make a difference for others.

124. David Evanswood Diversicare

128. Rekha Daniel-Kimani BAYADA Home Health Care

134. Shawna Oliver Manulife

138. Michael Brown Texas Children’s Hospital

142. Pawan Parihar Reata Pharmaceuticals

The People Business

David Evanswood makes a clear commitment to his people and patients at Diversicare By Billy Yost

avid Evanswood has worked alongside some of the nation’s most respected leaders in long-term care over the last twenty years.

“David’s development and continual growth as a leader has been paramount in Diversicare’s success,” says Ashley Harrison Shudan, partner and client relations director at Stotler Hayes Group LLC. “The training and support that David provides his staff is invaluable and has resulted in a well-rounded and knowledgeable team that we appreciate collaborating with on a regular basis.”

Evanswood was kind enough to answer some questions from American Healthcare Leader about his work

at Diversicare, his management style, and his passion for his team.

What has helped shape your philosophy both in your role and in your life?

As long as we are learning we are growing, and as long as we are growing everything we touch grows with us. This includes not only technical and industry growth, but growth in how we treat all others around us. This is such a large piece of being a leader and you hear it everywhere—the “culture” within the workplace, which of course involves how people are treated; whether they are treated in a

warm manner and given opportunities for growth or self-improvement.

As a leader, we are responsible for our teams professionally. Often, little attention is placed into the care of our teams personally, despite having such a direct impact on the personal lives of those we lead. I was given an opportunity once, and I had a leader invest in my personal education goal even though it wasn’t relevant to the long-term care industry. However, all the knowledge gained during that time I applied it to long-term care. I knew from then on I would take that same act of kindness and investment provided to me and do the same for others.

What I learned, is that this isn’t long-term care, nursing, or just healthcare and numbers and data—it’s people. This is a people business, and if you take care of your people and invest in them professionally and personally, they will take care of your business.

What are some of the initiatives you’re excited to be leading at Diversicare (e.g., tech implementations, process automation, etc.)?

Some of our more recent initiatives involve technology and automation of ancillary action items that can often be time-consuming in the revenue cycle. These automation items include charge posting, cash posting, refunds, write-offs and claim edits. With the help of our IT department, we’ve been able to build automation tools that take these actions down to minutes versus having several dedicated team members to enter and post, allowing us to use those team members as resources in other needed areas and initiatives, such as our Medicaid Pending evaluation profile tools.

Our profiling hub [helps] us to better evaluate and assist applicants in collecting relevant application data to ensure accuracy and submit to the state departments of Medicaid offices. Medicaid offices are rumored to be notoriously difficult to work with, however, we have had a great response from our state directors and offices, and work to keep that relationship strong. We’ve been able to tailor state-specific

needs and collect data, which we then can submit to the state agency in an organized package. These initiatives come back to taking care of the person. When we have initiatives that ease the burdens of team members and those we serve, we help ourselves by reducing risk exposure, it’s a win-win.

Could you talk about your focus on training-heavy managerial style and other essentials for your own team and leadership approach?

Our teams at Diversicare are heavily trained. This begins once a team member starts their career with us in accounts receivable. They go through onboarding, then shadowing, then we slowly increase the size and scope of their responsibility. We provide additional support guiding them on a regular basis and, of course, on demand as needed.

We also provide a webinar every Friday that not only keeps teams up to date on new industry processes, and

“This isn’t long-term care, nursing, or just healthcare and numbers and data—it’s people.”

of

policy changes but also reviews back to the basic training material. There are questions, polls, as well as allowing anonymous questions to accommodate those too nervous to speak and ensure active engagement. All training is led by a subject-matter expert. In order to effectively lead and educate, that education must come from someone [who] has done it before. It’s not effective to have an inexperienced team member or leader leading a [training] by reading off a manual, leaders should have experience in the fields they are leading or surrounded themselves by the subject-matter experts.

You seem to be incredibly team-focused, so I’d love to hear about your people and the value you see in what they’re able to bring to their roles?

I am incredibly team-focused. As I stated earlier, if we take care of our people, they will take care of the business. I believe this whole-heartedly and every time it has proven to be true. I actively invest in my team’s lives. I know what their spouse’s [and] significant others’ names are, and the names of their children. I celebrate their celebrations and I support them when they are down. I actively invest in them emotionally when things are hard at home, be it a gift card to their favorite restaurant, or a handwritten letter providing them words of affirmation or comfort, or just to be a soundboard for them. Their emotional well-being is just as important to me as their production levels or metrics. Taking care of your people and actively investing in them professionally and personally is the single most important action any leader can take. AHL

“If we take care of our people, they will take care of the business.”

David Evanswood VP

Revenue Cycle Diversicare

Courtesy of David Evanswood

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“Treat People How They Wish to Be Treated”

How Rekha Daniel-Kimani empowers BAYADA Home Health Care employees with empathy and compassion

By Billy Yost

Rekha Daniel-Kimani didn’t rise through the ranks in the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) space. The regional director and head of total rewards, DEI, and strategic human resources growth operations at BAYADA Home Health Care says it was work she fell into.

“Up until recently, I’m not sure I would even have mentioned that I’m a first-generation immigrant, or that I speak more than seven languages,” she explains. “But at some point, I

realized that sharing might be helpful for someone else. You might have to have more patience, more grit, and more grace than others on their own journeys, but I think that experience can also create some amazing opportunities for you in your life and your career.”

Daniel-Kimani grew up in Montreal as the daughter of Indian immigrants who came to Canada in the early 1960s. The executive would make the decision to cross the border early in her own career to continue building out her HR and total

rewards experience, and she has since served in a variety of increasingly senior roles at life science and pharmaceutical companies—including three promotions in five years at BAYADA.

Her DEI work is an extension of what she says was a grassroots push at BAYADA in 2019. Although BAYADA was facing the same overwhelming challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic as most other organizations in the healthcare industry, Daniel-Kimani says the organization stayed firmly

Rekha Daniel-Kimani Regional Director and Head of Total Rewards, DEI & Strategic HR Growth Operations BAYADA Home Health Care

Justus Henry

committed to building out its DEI practice and ensuring that its employees felt valued, heard, and supported throughout the twenty-four states where BAYADA is currently active.

“We are an organization with six generations of employees, and when it comes to that intersection of diversity, equity, and inclusion and total rewards, we know that, based on your experiences and where you are in your life, you may have different needs,” Daniel-Kimani says. “For some, it might be finding a way to pay off student debt faster. For others, it might be pet insurance or retirement benefits. By understanding how diverse our employee population is, we can offer total rewards that make sense for them as individuals.”

Daniel-Kimani says that an employee-centric mindset is possible because of two important factors at BAYADA: a strong management group who understands that employees are the heart of its business and employees who provide valuable feedback about what is important to them.

There’s a phrase spoken by BAYADA CEO David Baiada that also powers Daniel-Kimani’s work: “Fail fast.”

“The acknowledgment and freedom to try things, to fail, and to learn is so empowering,” she says. “Whatever we do, we’re aligned in our mission to provide home healthcare to millions of people. That’s always the goal, and there’s never any hesitation to serve that mission.”

Daniel-Kimani says compassion is critical for moving the needle in a home healthcare organization. If ever pressed to explain her work in a hurry, DanielKimani summarizes it by saying that BAYADA might not make a widget or a product, but its mission is to take care of people.

“How many people can say that?” she asks. “But that also comes with incredible responsibility. Our empathy is what resonates with people, from our employees to our patients.”

For Daniel-Kimani, compassion means acting with transparency and authenticity. She says there is nothing more humbling than having to admit that she made a

“Our empathy is what resonates with people, from our employees to our patients.”

mistake, but she also tries to be the first person to admit it when it happens. As someone tasked with creating best-case scenarios for all employees, DanielKimani admits that applying that same lens to those within the BAYADA People function can be challenging at times.

“It’s a bit like the saying that the shoemaker’s children always go barefoot,” Daniel-Kimani explains. “We are supposed to be the experts and share that expertise with the business stakeholders. That can be harder to do for us in BAYADA People. I need to make sure that I’m holding up the mirror to me and my team and ensuring that we’re also taking our own advice.”

When it comes to building an effective and welcoming culture, Daniel-Kimani puts an interesting spin on the golden rule of treating others as you would wish to be treated.

“You need to treat people the way that they wish to be treated,” Daniel-Kimani says. “That makes you pause and reflect and think about the person you’re interacting with. BAYADA is big on this, and I am too. It helps you put your own emotions to the side for a second and put yourself in someone else’s shoes.”

“It’s a privilege to work alongside Rekha and her team,” says Michael Malouf, executive vice president and managing director of Alliant Insurance Services. “Rarely have I had the opportunity to work with a group of individuals so dedicated to the mission of their colleagues and their organization. Rekha’s experience and background are reflective of the type of leaders that make up BAYADA’s culture. At BAYADA, everyone is valued and cared for with respect and dignity. Rekha is a key steward of BAYADA’s mission. We at Alliant are very proud of what we’ve accomplished with Rekha and the BAYADA team. Rekha’s approach to

partnership allowed us to gain important insights into their organization and become an extension of her team.”

Daniel-Kimani is also deeply invested in the development of her team. She wants her people to be thinking about where they want to be a couple years down the road. Consider the goal, consider the timeline, and jump on the path, she says. That’s the advice the director herself got earlier in her career, and it has deeply impacted her career planning. Now, she’s hoping to pass it along to those across BAYADA.

“I just want more people to be dream-chasers,” she says. “Know that you’re going to falter and stumble, but you can always get back up. Follow your passion and keep connecting with people. And always take time to reflect on those that might have a different opinion than you. I really think you can learn something valuable from each and every person.”

In her life outside of work, DanielKimani continues to find ways to create and maintain connections. With a family separated by not just states but also countries, she can often be found traversing time zones to visit family and friends. It’s those connections that fill her cup, both inside the office and out. Her passion is her work, and her work is her passion. Connections and community reign supreme. AHL

By your side

Aetna is honored to work with employers like BAYADA Home Health. Aetna, a CVS Health business, not only offers specialized solutions for healthcare employers but serves an estimated 34 million people—offering a broad range of traditional, voluntary, and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services. Aetna covers employer groups in all industries.

Healthcare Is Changing. We’re Changing Along With It.

Modern healthcare requires a modern approach. Alliant melds leading-edge technology with personal service to deliver powerful solutions that are built for today’s ever-changing healthcare landscape. We deploy data and predictive analytics to understand and forecast bene t outcomes in service of those who are on the frontline of healthcare delivery.

Alliant’s partnership with BAYADA has given us the privilege of working with some of the most dedicated and caring professionals in healthcare. Our objective is to provide them with the tools and insights necessary to deliver the highest level of care possible.

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Executive Vice President

(312) 761-2033

Brian.Stratton@alliant.com

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© 2022 Alliant Insurance Services, Inc.

Leading the Way in Home Care

Since 1975, BAYADA has been living its mission to help people have a safe home life with comfort, independence, and dignity. With a full array of home health care services, we bring the highest-quality nursing, rehabilitative, therapeutic, hospice, personal care, and behavioral health services to children, adults, and seniors in the comfort of their own homes.

From complex nursing care to just being there, BAYADA helps people live their best lives at home.

• Industry leader in providing superior clinical outcomes

• Not-for-profit organization with a vision to help millions of people worldwide

• Multiple joint venture partnerships with leading hospital systems nationwide help more people live a better quality of life at home

• Ongoing training, support, and opportunities create a workforce of highly qualified and satisfied employees

• Preferred, trusted partner in the continuum of care

• Services offered in 23 US states and 7 international countries

Call: 800-305-3000

Everyone is welcome

We are committed to creating a culture and environment of diversity, equity, and inclusion where all employees can thrive, and all clients can receive high-quality, personalized care with a sense of well-being, dignity, and trust. Our deep connections to each other and to The BAYADA Way —our guiding principles—are what keep us together, and set us apart.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

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Lead with Compassion

Whether it’s in her own life or at Manulife, Shawna Oliver finds the benefits of any situation

By Marcos Chisholm

Shawna Oliver Assistant VP and Head of Global Benefits & Wellness Manulife

David Walker

Shawna Oliver refuses to shy away from hard conversations. No matter how personal the topic of discussion gets, she wears her heart on her sleeve and leans into the moment.

“We had a child around twenty-three weeks who didn’t live,” Oliver says. “We ended up going through some pretty intensive fertility treatments.”

Four years later, Oliver finally had her first child. Despite how painful it was to suffer a miscarriage, she explains it inspired her to fight the good fight.

“It really influenced me in a lot of ways to really take on this . . . persona as a fighter [and] to say: I need to stand up for other people, other humans, other families, who I now represent in my population, and [those] who are struggling,” Oliver says.

Even in her HR career, Oliver stands up for what’s right. She serves as the assistant vice president and head of global benefits and wellness at Manulife, where she spearheads policies and initiatives that make life easier and more affordable for over forty thousand employees. She establishes the company’s benefits and wellness strategy across the US and Canada. Plus, she manages its benefits programs, old and new.

“I’m on this mission, if you will, to take an old-school approach to benefits and reimagine it,” Oliver says.

During the pandemic, when many employers were looking to add additional benefits for employees, Manulife assessed their benefits offerings to ensure the right structure was in place. Oliver challenged her team to wonder, “maybe we aren’t asking the right question. Maybe the right question isn’t what else can we offer, rather, our are benefits working the way we want them to?”

“[For instance,] we know [in healthcare] there’s systemic racism,” Oliver

“We know [in healthcare] there’s systemic racism. We know that people who are overweight are treated differently. We know that members of the LGBTQ+ community are treated differently. So, if we know that, it’s our job to then look at our benefits programs and say, ‘how do we make it better for our colleagues?’”

says. “We know that people who are overweight are treated differently. We know that members of the LGBTQ+ community are treated differently. So, if we know that, it’s our job to then look at our benefits programs and say, ‘how do we make it better for our colleagues?’”

For Oliver, the message was clear: Manulife needed to offer a more inclusive selection of mental health providers to its colleagues. In the US, she decided to forge a partnership with Hurdle, a mental health benefits firm that offers culturally intentional therapy and workshops to employees.

“I’ve heard from some of our Black colleagues, specifically, who have used Hurdle, that it’s the first time they’ve ever felt heard by a provider,” Oliver says. “And while that makes me sad . . . I’m so happy we finally found someone that they felt that they could talk to and feel heard.”

On top of that, Oliver spearheaded an agreement for its US offices with Included Health, an LGBTQ+ health care concierge.

“I’ve had them come in and talk to my colleagues about what it means to be nonbinary and how to talk to your kids about gender,” Oliver says.

Oliver also expanded maternity, adoption, and parental leave coverage to employees in Canada. She also introduced gender-affirmation coverage for transgender employees that undergo surgeries and treatments endorsed by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.

Behind the scenes, Oliver steps up as an affiliative leader. Instead of making agendas and deadlines her top priorities, she lets her compassion for others guide her actions. While plenty of managers relate to employees on a personal level, she goes as far as becoming their

emotional support system. If listening to them reflect on the highs and lows of their job (and life) can make them feel like they belong, she can empower them to thrive.

“I think leaning heavily into emotional intelligence and learning that everyone has a different learning style, everyone has a different communication style, [and that] people make decisions differently . . . being able to recognize that and hone in on that is really critical in helping to move some of these initiatives,” the AVP says.

Beyond the surface, Oliver also resonates with Manulife’s values as if they were her own.

“One of our values is [to] share your humanity,” Oliver says. “I feel like for me, that’s kind of who I am, as evidenced by how we started our conversation.”

In the end, Oliver proves that healthcare and HR leaders can achieve more when they bring their full selves to work—especially if they lend themselves to a mission they can rally around.

“We need to care about what’s happening to them [colleagues],” Oliver says. “We need to make sure they are performing at their best. We need to make sure they feel embraced, because they’re our biggest asset for us as an employer.” AHL

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Fighting

A passion for putting people first.

cancer with everything we knowTM

At AccessHope, we never underestimate the power of dedication and passion for putting people first. It’s why we recognize Shawna Oliver-Kapp. Her approachable and supportive leadership style serves the greater good. She is proof that prioritizing employee welfare leads to a thriving work environment.

Shifting Gears

Switching from automotive to healthcare in search of a new challenge, Texas Children’s Hospital’s Michael Brown certainly found it in the form of COVID-19

By Zach Baliva

It’s hard to talk to Michael Brown without hearing a thing or two about cars. Brown’s grandfather spent thirty-six years on a production line at GM and his father logged thirty-four. That means the family garage was always full of new cars, including Corvettes and a 1987 Buick Grand Regal. The latter, Brown says, could have beat a C4 on a racetrack if GM’s marketing team would have allowed it.

Brown’s knowledge of cars goes beyond trivia, pride, and passion—the automotive industry was his first love. After studying business administration, logistics, and supply chain management, he spent fourteen years managing materials and logistics at Chrysler (now Stellantis).

The lessons he learned and the time he spent in a challenging, cyclical, and volatile industry informs how he manages supply chain operations and environmental services at one of the top children’s hospitals in the nation.

The organization, Texas Children’s Hospital, hosts over 4.3 million patient encounters in various locations across greater Houston each year. Its patients are some of the most sick and vulnerable children in the world. Brown and the 750 people he leads work behind the scenes to ensure the care teams who treat every one of those kids and women have the products, medicines, supplies, and clean environments they need to drive positive outcomes.

Roles with Cleveland Clinic and City of Hope helped Brown get experience in his new industry before he moved to Houston. He joined Texas Children’s five years ago, and immediately saw an opportunity to leverage best practices from the automotive world. Today he’s the vice president of supply chain operations and environmental services.

“I started with the intent to bring a constant focus on standardization and use the power of technology,” says Brown, adding that he’s only recently seen supply chain managers in healthcare use tools like advance shipping notice, which has been the standard at automakers since the late 1990s.

“We have to embrace tech solutions faster to make processes more productive, provide better care for patients, and drive more value to the organization,” the VP says.

That’s become his own personal mission. Brown started implementing what he calls “resetting basic conditions” to get the right leaders in the right spot focused

“Supply chains get stuck when there are twenty people working on twenty projects. I wanted twenty people completing two projects, and then moving on to the next two, and so on.”

Michael Brown VP of Supply Chain Management & Environmental Services Texas Children’s Hospital

Courtesy of Michael Brown

on the right things. “Supply chains get stuck when there are twenty people working on twenty projects,” he says. “I wanted twenty people completing two projects, and then moving on to the next two, and so on.”

First, Brown moved product distribution to a new prime vendor to capture financial savings and operational benefits. Then, he established leadership positions for strategic sourcing to centralize pricing and contract negotiation. He expanded clinical value analysis to support a growing organization through an ever-changing vendor landscape. That move grew that one team from two to more than fourteen people.

Strong support from key leaders has helped others embrace what Brown is doing to elevate supply chain operations. He credits advocates like President and CEO Mark A. Wallace with setting the tone. Wallace is a trusted voice, who has been part of the Texas Medical Center community for forty-five years and Texas Children’s president and CEO for the last thirty-three.

Brown also built strong relationships with clinicians. He recruited nurses, physicians, and others to help his team source, identify, and select the best tools for every job.

Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything in healthcare and impacted supply chain operations worldwide. In early 2020, Texas Children’s leaders transformed a conference room into a logistics subcommand to resolve product and service challenges across the system and locate masks, gowns, hand sanitizer, plexiglass, and other critical supplies. Although it was a trying time, Brown says he saw the very best of Texas Children’s culture come alive. His peers worked outside of traditional functions to find new ways to wire money and buy directly from new vendors overseas.

“We didn’t just think outside of the box. We went so far outside of the box we couldn’t even see the box anymore,” Brown says. His team petitioned a local oil and gas company to make medical gowns from plastic sheeting. A Houston-based whiskey company converted their lines to make hand sanitizer. Hospital employees had to make special dispensers to accommodate the homemade substance.

As the pandemic subsides, Brown is analyzing the landscape to determine which emergency practices will stay. Hospitals have had to shift from a “just in time” inventory practice to one of “just in case.” That means Texas Children’s will hold thirty to forty-five days of supplies, instead of the traditional fifteen.

He’s also working more closely with vendors to minimize risk, smoothing out a new ERP, thinking about ways to drive costs down, and preparing to implement a warehouse management system.

Texas Children’s is bringing a fifty-two-bed children and women’s hospital to the central part of the state. The 365,000-square-foot facility will feature operating rooms, intensive care units, an emergency center, and a high-risk delivery unit. A strong supply chain helps make it all possible.

“We don’t always get to meet patients,” Brown says. “But when we open new buildings and support the care that goes on inside, we know we’re making things better for patients and their families. And that’s our number one goal.” AHL

Editor’s note: Texas Children’s Hospital North Austin Campus will open in 2024.

“We didn’t just think outside of the box. We went so far outside of the box we couldn’t even see the box anymore.”

Follow Your Principles

With authenticity and diplomacy, VP of IT Pawan Parihar proves that sound healthcare leadership should foster a culture of innovation

By Marcos Chisholm

Like many great IT leaders in healthcare, Pawan Parihar realized how powerful his technical expertise could be when combined with his business savvy to solve problems across organizations. “I strongly believe that a person can grow in our industry,” he says. “But that cross-functional knowledge, where you should know what your business does, and then if you marry with your

tech experience, that shapes your path for [your] future and then you grow exponentially on it.”

Since Parihar weaves together the best of his quantitative and qualitative skills, he’s thrived in his thirty-fiveyear career journey across Asia, Africa, and North America. He fine-tuned his IT leadership abilities at software companies like Infovity and Phoenix

Technologies. He spent five years as the director of commercial systems, enterprise applications, and analytics at Pharmacyclics/Abbvie Pharmaceuticals. Now, he serves as the vice president of IT at Reata Pharmaceuticals.

On the surface, Parihar is supposed to spearhead the digital transformation of the drugmaker. However, there’s so much more that goes into making this happen.

Pawan Parihar

VP of IT

Reata Pharmaceuticals

Courtesy of Pawan Parihar

He juggles the competing interests of executives and scientists. Whether his coworkers in suits make business decisions or his colleagues in lab coats want to offer the best products, he lays down the framework for them to collaborate and get the job done. Even if he has to advise them whenever the company transitions from the R&D stage to commercializing a drug, he rises to the occasion.

“Today I am taking the initiative, which is basically to build this whole commercial ecosystem to support the commercial sales. So we are building a commercial CRM, data aggregation, master data management, and analytical ecosystems with cloud-first, mobile-first strategy, which is scalable globally to support commercialization in US and then in EU,” Parihar says.

While Parihar wears the hat of a diplomat, he knows where to draw the line. He doubles down on IT principles that guide how his team operates, and he establishes parameters that unleash innovation across Reata Pharmaceuticals. Not only does he call for every program his team builds to be secure and compliant, but he also ensures they keep up with the company as it scales. Plus, they need to fit into its data infrastructure. If one of those requirements is not met in a new proposal, he moves on from it, especially

in the wake of supply chain woes caused by COVID-19.

“We also know that today’s market is very challenging when it comes to resources [and] availability,” Parihar says. “Most of the people, they’re demanding so many things nowadays because of the remote working and also the challenges the pandemic presented.

“I have to grow in that time,” he continues. “I’ve been lucky to have the network and the connection of people who like to work for you. I think that’s one thing I’ve learned in life: You can have an idea. You can have a strategy. But it’s as good as nothing unless you execute successfully on it.”

So if Parihar sets high expectations for his team, how does he ensure they are met? In a nutshell, he hires dynamic talent and empowers his employees to reach their goals. Because he recognizes the value that a jack-of-all-trades can bring to his department, he hedges his bets on generalists who show promise as problem solvers and look at the bigger picture before offering solutions.

If you throw in the fact that Parihar encourages his employees to operate with a start-up mentality, then it becomes clear he and his staff perform their roles with a great sense of urgency and autonomy.

“In terms of bringing or building my next level leadership, I strongly believe that [my team’s] success is my success . If every issue is coming to me, then I’m not a good leader.”

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“You’re as good as your team, period,” Parihar says. “So I take big pride—in terms of bringing or building my next level leadership, I strongly believe that [my team’s] success is my success. If every issue is coming to me, then I’m not a good leader.”

When push comes to shove, Parihar is proof that healthcare executives don’t have to take a one-size-fits-all approach to leadership. They can manage their teams in a way that aligns more with who they are as professionals and human beings. But Parihar confirms this should not come at the expense of diverse job candidates.

“One thing I’ve learned is when you build your next level, the diversity helps,” Parihar says. “Because diversity brings different thinking to the same goal. I strongly believe in that. So build a nextlevel team which is diverse. Of course, we go with gender equality and then basically bring people who listen to others as well. Because sometimes you don’t want

to just have a person who’s just running by themselves.”

Parihar explains that if leaders rally around an organizational culture, mentor their staff, and invest in their talent, they can tap into the potential of their teams.

“Eventually, the whole organization gets built with a principle, with a common goal and the common understanding of people, because I believe that’s what keeps you engaged, motivated, and it basically becomes a fun place to work.” AHL

Saama develops life science solutions that accelerate clinical and commercial development. Today, more than 50 biotech companies—including many of the top twenty pharmaceutical companies—use Saama’s award-winning platform to accelerate more than 1,500 studies, including the clinical trial that led to the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine.

Accelerate the delivery of life-changing therapies to patients.

“You can have an idea. You can have a strategy. But it’s as good as nothing unless you execute successfully on it.”

The Business

Healthcare is a constantly evolving industry that demands executives to plan ahead. Often, this means business leaders need to address department- or companywide issues to remain focused on driving innovation and devising strategies to maintain a high level of care.

148. Lesley Leiserson The Home Depot

154. Lisa Schwartzenberg Gonzaga University

158. Nastasja Robaina ChenMed

162. John Brown Government Employees Health Assocation

166. Donn Kump Majestic Care

170. Kelly Timpane Precision Medicine Group

172. Kerry Rogers

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

174. Shelly Crunk

Kettering Health

Of Palettes and Personnel

Lesley Leiserson is both an artist and HR expert. Her creative pursuits give her the fresh perspective she needs to make the Home Depot’s benefits program a true masterpiece.

By Zach Baliva

Lesley

Jesse Garrett

While she was a student the University of Alabama, Lesley Leiserson studied finance, economics, and oil painting. She attended lectures on macroeconomics one day and learned practical wet-on-wet painting techniques the next. As a result, Leiserson—now the senior director of benefits and health management at the Home Depot—has a lot of color on her palette as a veteran HR leader.

Leiserson recalls the contrast between her two fields of study. Her finance classes ended with intense exams while art programs required final paintings. Twenty students lined up their masterpieces in a row. The instructor slowly walked by the row of landscapes and portraits, giving an oral critique of every canvas. “Math and finance are either right or wrong, but art is subjective,” Leiserson says. “I had to quickly get comfortable with feedback and how people interpret my efforts.”

Today, Leiserson is working on the art of HR, which she approaches creatively. In some ways, the field requires a bit of trial and error. Benefits and health management are her blank canvases. She relies on standard “primary colors,” like paid time off, health plans, and wellness programs, then mixes in “secondary colors.” Those perks fringe benefits that attract employees, boost morale, and prevent burnout give Leiserson the greatest chance to express her creativity.

A career in HR wasn’t always in the plans. After graduating college, Leiserson began her career at consulting services and benefits outsourcing firm Hewitt Associates, where she served mid- to large-sized organizations. In doing so, Leiserson encountered issues and regulations related to compliance laws like HIPAA, ASO, and COBRA.

The position afforded Leiserson the opportunity to broaden her experience. “I got to look at many different companies and how they think about benefits, and I tie those best practices into all that

I do,” she reflects. After going from one large scale implementation to the next, Leiserson eventually landed on the Home Depot account. She fell in love with the company’s culture and ceased moving on to other clients.

She officially joined the company full time in 2006. Over her tenure, Leiserson has used her full palette to mix together what she brings from the worlds of finance, art, benefit administration, and consulting. “My varied background helps me ask questions and not make assumptions. It’s important for HR leaders to be intentional and understand different companies and different cultures and how this should drive how we deliver benefits,” the senior director explains.

Her approach has inspired many external vendors. Dickon Waterfield, chief commercial officer at Employer Direct Healthcare says, “Lesley is one of the most strategic HR professionals that we have had the pleasure of partnering with. She cares enormously about her members and providing her population affordability of care is always top of mind—especially in the current environment. Lesley is always at the cutting edge, willing to take risk to drive change and push her team and partners to drive the most meaningful impact.”

When creating programs, Leiserson starts with a simple question: What experience is she trying to deliver, and how does she want to make employees feel? Since the Home Depot’s ethos is building strong relationships, providing excellent customer service, and doing the right thing, Leiserson wants to follow suit. She seeks to deliver an experience that treats her colleagues well and makes them feel valued so they in turn relate to customers and achieve strong results.

The company offers elder care, backup care, tuition reimbursement, parental leave, adoption help, discounts, and other benefits. These are meaningful perks to a large and diverse workforce.

“

It’s important for HR leaders to be intentional and understand different companies and different cultures and how this should drive how we deliver benefits.”

The Home Depot has more than four-hundred thousand employees; administering benefits for them is no simple task. Now, in the wake of COVID19, Leiserson is focused both on getting back to the basics and finding new ways to help her colleagues thrive. She’s partnering with Quest Diagnostics to offer on-site screenings through thousands of events at nearly every retail location.

population,” observes Wendi Mader, Quest Diagnostics’ vice president of commercial and employer channel. “She proactively brings innovative, equitable programs to Home Depot associates that give them the right tools to increase health literacy and help them take care of themselves and their families.”

An annual health challenge keeps The Home Depot’s employees engaged and incentivized. Teams interact on Yammer and get points for reducing salt and sugar, walking, running, or participating in plank challenges. There are individual prizes, and the winning location in each district gets a financial boost to its “fun fund” employees use for celebratory meals and special events.

Leiserson doesn’t have to look far to find the positive benefit of these programs. She’s frequently reminded when she logs into her work email. In October 2022, she received an email from an associate at a supply chain location. The individual went to his primary care physician for a physical required to keep his “healthy living” premium discount.

Employees can get their blood drawn and access insight about their health statuses and any challenges they face. Those same employees also complete questionnaires during open enrollment to receive a personalized checklist of the things they can do to improve their own health outcomes. If they complete certain activities and milestones—anything from dental cleanings to annual mammograms to physical exams—they receive a discount on payroll deductions that cover medical plan premiums.

“Lesley is an inspiring leader and HR professional who works tirelessly to identify and address the needs and the interests of the diverse Home Depot

The visit revealed high PSA levels in the blood, which indicated cancer. An MRI and biopsy confirmed he was suffering from stage III prostate cancer. A care team intervened and removed the man’s prostate just in time; he is now cancer free. “Thank you for the healthy living program,” he wrote in a message that was passed on to Leiserson. “It may have just saved my life.”

These emails motivate Leiserson and her team to do even more. Her team has also collaborated with Imagine Health as well as Employer Direct Healthcare to leverage networks designed to get patients to top performing providers, ensuring high-quality, lower costs while providing patient care advocacy. These networks remove uncertainty and take the guesswork out of finding the best provider for associates and their family members

“Being in HR in today’s world is about finding the best available resources to help people that need help.”

“Lesley is one of the most innovative and forward-thinking HR executives I’ve worked with in the past twenty-five years,” says Chris Cigarran, chief commercial officer at Imagine Health. “She is passionate about the Home Depot culture, their associates, and providing real healthcare solutions to her organization. Imagine Health is proud to ‘bleed orange’ and to be a long-term partner of the Home Depot, working side-by-side with Lesley and her amazing team.”

In 2023, The Home Depot brought free vision coverage to all of its associates. The program includes a free annual exam with retinal imaging and covers frames and lenses with a fifteen-dollar copay. It’s a unique benefit, but Leiserson isn’t content; she still wants to do more.

“Being in HR in today’s world is about finding the best available resources to help people that need help,” she says. She’s investigating ways to bring on what she calls a “compassionate connector.” Someone who can be available to connect employees with help, treatment, and resources. Leiserson views the compassionate connector as part life coach, part social worker, part medical case manager.

To Allison Malito, senior vice president of direct client services at bswift, Leiserson’s empathetic leadership is apparent. “The compassion that Lesley and team have for their associates is truly what drives the Home Depot’s benefits strategy and goals to promote awareness, action, and results,” she says. “It’s an honor to partner with Lesley and the Home Depot to deliver solutions at the intersection of cutting-edge innovation and associate well-being.”

The Home Depot’s customers are all building special projects. Inside its corporate headquarters, Lesley Leiserson is building the specialized benefits programs that take care of its employees. AHL

We passionately believe that care is an essential need and a human right.

We believe in a better way.

thinking employers, we provide guided

being recognized as an innovative, forward-thinking healthcare leader.

Cura Personalis

Lisa Schwartzenburg creates a best-in-class benefits offering at Gonzaga University with a whole-person care mindset

By Billy Yost

Lisa Schwartzenburg

Assistant VP of HR Operations Gonzaga University

Zack Berlat

When Lisa Schwartzenburg was selected as director of benefits and wellness at Gonzaga University in 2014, she was presented with the university’s initial benefits package—she called it the Fab Five: medical, life, dental, vision, disability. “And that was it,” says the recently promoted assistant vice president of human resources operations.

Today? The Fab Five is only the beginning of an allstar lineup.

“I was asked to develop a benefits package that better embodied our mission statement,” Schwartzenburg says. “In the Jesuit community [Gonzaga is one of twenty-seven Jesuit colleges and universities in the US], it’s called cura personalis. It means ‘to care for the whole person.’ And so, I saw it as my and my team’s job to help solidify Gonzaga as a great employer who cares for that whole person.”

Creating a Best-In-Class Journey

One of the most significant evolutions Schwartzenburg has undertaken is the creation of benefit journeys (“GU Journeys” at Gonzaga) when it comes to the marketing and education around internal benefits and wellness plans. The point is to meet people where they are in their lives. Those early in their careers will get more education about copays, deductibles, and retirement plans.

Those nearing their retirement years will want more help and education with Medicare, retirement distributions, and other end-of-career transitions.

“This really turns the concept of employees having to figure out how to use a benefit on its head,” Schwartzenburg explains. “People often have benefits that they don’t even know about. I want you to get the most out of these options, but I can’t expect you to if you don’t know what you have. So, we’ve done the work for them, and it’s made such a difference.”

Taking a step back, Schwartzenburg underscores the importance of internal marketing when it comes to the benefits and wellness space. She knows marketing may sound strange when it comes to internal clients, but if employees aren’t reminded of the range of available benefits, they are far less likely to use the services.

“We have incredible utilization at Gonzaga, because we’ve broken apart the benefits and really demonstrated how they apply to each person at this time in their life,” Schwartzenburg says. “Just imagine your own benefits and wellness plans. How much do you really know about them?”

“Upon arriving at Gonzaga University, I was impressed by the benefit offering,” says Ray Kliewer, the university’s vice president for human resources. “As I have assimilated to the institution, I realized that the robust health and wellness offerings are part of HR living out our commitment to the care of employees in the Gonzaga community.

“Lisa has developed a layered approach to health and wellness that cares for faculty and staff in every stage of life,” Kliewer continues. “She has developed a portfolio of offerings that are rare for an institution of our size. I view this as a significant differentiator in competing for and retaining talent at Gonzaga.”

Why Go So Hard?

Schwartzenburg hasn’t just drawn ideas from other competing universities; she’s drawn from the best in business to create programs and policies to distinguish the university.

WELCOME TO THE FAM

Prior to the pandemic, Lisa Schwartzenburg had made five trips to China, taking teams over to work with orphanages and people with disabilities as part of her commitment to her faith. The second time she was there, she met Kai, a newborn orphan, who stole her heart.

The executive’s two older children were adults already, but that didn’t stop Schwartzenburg and her husband Lee from going through the adoption process to bring Kai home in 2017.

“I’m not just ready to sit on the couch yet,” the benefits leader says, laughing. Kai, now eight, is doing great, and Schwartzenburg is likely cooking up some Cajun cuisine for him to try at this very moment.

“I will look at companies like Amazon or Starbucks or Boeing and see what they are doing,” the AVP says, “and ask myself, ‘Can I bring that here?’”

Schwartzenburg says Gonzaga’s benefits and wellness package is a strong differentiator for the university when attracting and retaining high-quality talent who are good fits for her institution. She’s not just trying to grab the best talent from higher ed, either. She wants the best and the brightest from hospitals, corporate America, and other professional fields. She’s her own best example. Schwartzenburg wasn’t a benefits guru by design. Her college degree is in elementary education.

Ensuring top-tier benefits requires the cultivation of wholehearted vendor partnerships. Schwartzenburg points to Gonzaga’s nine-year relationship with mental healthcare provider CuraLinc and financial partner TIAA as particularly deep-rooted partnerships that created long-term benefits for the Gonzaga community.

For Schwartzenburg, it’s even more than that. Building a benefits and wellness package that is holistic and in concert with fantastic vendors and partners provides an incredible range of services for Gonzaga employees. The innovation, the push, and the evolution are the director’s real mission.

“I am happiest when I am serving other people, whether it’s in my professional or personal life,”

Schwartzenburg admits. “That’s what motivates me, and that’s what gets me out of bed in the morning.”

That mission includes the director’s team. Schwartzenburg’s southern roots shine through, as she stops mid-sentence at least three times to call out the fact that she’s not doing all of this alone.

“Behind every leader is a successful team,” she says. “Once you build something this comprehensive, it takes a team of amazing people to run it. I’m so lucky to have that.” AHL

“We have incredible utilization at Gonzaga, because we’ve broken apart the benefits and really demonstrated how they apply to each person at this time in their life.”

CuraLinc Healthcare marries technology and personalized advocacy to engage, empower and support participants through Employee and Student Assistance Programs that have a measurable impact on well-being, engagement, productivity, and emotional fitness. We are proud to partner with Lisa Schwartzenburg and congratulate her efforts to bring innovative benefits to Gonzaga University.

Premera Blue Cross , a not-for-profit, independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association based in Mountlake Terrace, Washington, is a leading health plan in the Pacific Northwest, providing comprehensive health benefits and tailored services to more than 2.75 million people, from individuals to Fortune 100 companies. Learn more by visiting Premera.com.

A Better Healthcare Paradigm

ChenMed’s medical centers offer a unique value-based care model to seniors. Thanks to Nastasja Robaina’s team, the company now has an EHR system that supports its needs.

By Peter Fabris

W

hat do you do when the system you need doesn’t exist? Developing your own solution is one option—and that’s exactly what Nastasja Robaina, managing director of product management at ChenMed, is doing with her team of product managers.

At the time, ChenMed, which operates more than a hundred primary care medical centers for seniors in fifteen US states, couldn’t find an off-the-shelf

electronic health record (EHR) system that met its needs. The company emphasizes disease prevention and management; existing EHR platforms designed for traditional providers did not meet ChenMed’s needs for its value-based care model.

ChenMed’s patients, many of whom are low-to-moderate income, are a cohort vulnerable to multiple chronic conditions that impair overall health. It works to reduce risks via regular (at least monthly)

check-ins with patients to instill good habits and maintain wellness. Rather than following the traditional fee-for-service model—which is reactive, episodic, and expensive because providers charge for each visit, test, and procedure— ChenMed practices a full-risk healthcare model, where financial profit is linked to patients staying healthy.

The business model requires a robust EHR tool to incentivize preventive care

and patient-centered treatments. Data on each patient’s health conditions and recommended treatment options is vital to aid physicians as they develop strategies to keep patients healthy. So, ChenMed’s technology development branch, Curity, took the bold step of designing its own second-generation EHR platform, CareSuite, from the ground up. The platform has helped ChenMed doctors achieve patient satisfaction scores in the mid-90th percentile over the past several years. In fact, CareSuite has been such a hit that ChenMed may commercialize the product to make it available to other medical service providers.

Robaina, who is responsible for CareSuite’s development, says the product’s success stems from tight ties between developers and physicians who constantly evaluate features and revisions.

“We have a short feedback loop,” Robaina says. “Members of our care teams join in our tech committee to offer frequent feedback about the EHR, sometimes even multiple times per day through our internal chat group. Additionally, we release new software twice a week—every Tuesday and Thursday night—so the next morning we’re up early awaiting feedback from our clinical teams.”

CareSuite helps primary care providers (PCPs) coordinate all aspects of care and monitor chronic conditions. Embedded data analytics act as an automatic early warning system, giving doctors the information they need to intervene early enough to improve health outcomes.

“We found a way to stratify risk,” Robaina explains. “We can identify which patients are likely to end up in the

“We found a way to stratify risk. We can identify which patients are likely to end up in the hospital over the next thirty days by analyzing over sixty different risk variables.”

Nastasja Robaina Managing Director of Product Management ChenMed

hospital over the next thirty days by analyzing over sixty different risk variables.”

Statistical analysis is continually being refined to improve outcomes. CareSuite aids doctors; it is not in charge of managing care. “The PCP is ultimately in the driver’s seat.”

ChenMed’s business model aims to simplify care for patients by providing numerous services under one roof, including onsite labs and imaging; many centers include medication dispensing.

The company also provides its patients with 24/7 access to their PCP, transportation to and from appointments for those who need it, telemedicine appointments, and even house calls for high-risk individuals.

Research indicates that a wide range of factors, known as social determinants of health, have a profound impact on a patient’s well-being. These factors can range from food and housing security to literacy, financial ability to pay for

medications, and access to transportation. ChenMed emphasizes preventive care by attending to patients’ nutrition and encouraging good health habits such as exercise—even offering programs in alternative modalities including acupuncture and Tai Chi classes.

Many of ChenMed’s patients also live on fixed incomes at or below the US poverty level, and need social services to maintain optimal health. Staff members help patients apply to financial assistance programs for food, transportation, and housing. It’s a holistic approach to all aspects of life that impact health, and CareSuite helps clinicians organize this information.

ChenMed doctors report that this highly personalized approach to care to be a more satisfying way to practice their profession (compared to typical feefor-service model).“PCPs feel like they are advocating for their patients,” she explains. Not only does the EHR system help them do that, but doctors appreciate the ability to give feedback to the developers, who tend to respond quickly.

As a result, when ChenMed physicians and staff were included among NewsWeek’s “2022 Top 100 Most Loved Workplaces.” ChenMed finished eighth overall and first in healthcare. This is no small feat in an industry that has been plagued by burnout and high turnover in recent years. That, along with consistently high patient satisfaction surveys and a 51 percent reduction in hospital admittances, suggests that ChenMed has found a formula for a better healthcare delivery paradigm. AHL

REBOOT IN MIAMI YOUR CAREER

A Level Playing Field

John Brown knows that leadership and opportunities matter. He’s helping GEHA develop both as the organization’s chief people officer. By Zach

Baliva

John Brown Chief People Officer Government Employees Health Association

Tyler Shannon

ohn Brown remembers sitting in empty rooms developing great things by himself. That can be the nature of electrical engineering, which Brown studied at DeVry Institute of Technology. While Brown found fulfillment in pursuing technical innovation, there was just one problem: he didn’t like working alone.

Engineers focus on training, process, and data. Brown longed to include people in his work. That doesn’t surprise anyone who knows Brown well. He grew up surrounded by nine biological and adopted siblings and a steady stream of foster family members passing through his home. Brown played team sports and excelled at football. “I’ve always been on a path that’s shown me the reality that every person is important,” he says. “It doesn’t matter who the people are. We all matter.”

Brown knew early on that his career would be with and around people. He got into healthcare by taking a service operations role with Humana before pivoting to human resources.

The move was a calculated one. “I had been across the table from HR for many years, and I saw that the best way to effect change in healthcare is to engage and be accountable,” he says. “I wanted to help build teams and inspire people and bring improvements to the work that is being done.”

Brown didn’t train in traditional healthcare HR, but the former athlete knows the value of coaching and training. He studied and earned the SHRM-CP certification for HR management. In 2017, he joined Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana, and spent five years working on major initiatives related to succession planning and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).

In early 2022, Brown stepped in as chief people officer at Government Employees Health Association, Inc. (GEHA). GEHA serves two million federal employees, military retirees, and their families. The organization’s

mission attracted him back to his Kansas City home. “I’m all about caring for others, and that is what we do. GEHA is mission-driven, and we serve a niche demographic that is diverse. I knew I could help maintain and grow a diverse workforce to mirror this,” he explains.

Diversity at GEHA is important because the value helps the organization offer much-needed medical and dental benefits. Although the DEI foundation was in place, Brown is adding structure to mature and formalize GEHA’s program with a minority talent pipeline. He focused first on bringing diversity to manager-level roles through structured resources, tools, and goals. In Brown’s short time with GEHA, the group has already seen women and people of color moving into key positions.

These efforts are bolstered by a unique “reverse mentoring” program that pairs senior leaders with junior employees. The internally grown program unites people who have differences in at least one category. Brown says the approach helps both parties give and receive knowledge, experience, and wisdom. “You can roll out huge programs, but you really change culture one or two people at a time,” Brown explains.

Much of Brown’s leadership philosophy comes from his experience on the gridiron. “I always needed my teammates to win on the field, and healthcare facilities and insurers need contributions from all players to fulfill their missions,” he says. Brown helps each person understand the playbook and know what they need to contribute as they pursue a larger goal together.

As a leader, Brown also believes in giving everyone in an organization the opportunity to provide actionable feedback. GEHA offers paid time off for its employees to volunteer in the community. However, Brown and his colleagues learned that some employees, especially those in call centers, had less flexibility in their schedules to take advantage of the opportunity.

Thus, GEHA has modified its volunteer policy to offer personal enrichment time. Employees can now enroll in learning sessions or other professional training opportunities. “This sends a strong message that we are listening to feedback and we care about all employees,” Brown says. “We want to do what we can to remove unintentional barriers to participation in company-wide events and activities.”

According to representatives from the Healthcare Industry Group at Alvarez & Marsal Holdings, “John is the consummate ‘chief people officer.’ He is committed to the team at GEHA and will lead the cultural change through fairness and equity for all. He is a role model for what he has accomplished and what he will accomplish in the coming months. We at A&M are proud of John and his passion to do the right thing even if it is difficult.”

Brown is proud of how GEHA supports and gives back to its communities. The organization established the Barbara Sheffield Medical Scholarship with the University of Kansas School of Medicine to provide $1.5 million in annual funding for Black medical school students. The scholarship helps address racial disparities in healthcare by bringing Black physicians to communities throughout the nation. GEHA partners with several schools and community organizations, and its subsidiary, GEHA Solutions, provides $250,000 in scholarships and support to underrepresented students in the dental and dental hygiene fields.

GEHA traces its roots to 1937, when a small group of railway postal workers in Kansas City supported each other in times of need. That evolved into a medical and dental plan provider for federal employees. Now, the organization is one of the largest of its kind in the nation, and Brown is building the workforce that will continue its long legacy. “We still care for our people, and our people will help us make meaningful contributions in the community and to the people we serve,” he says. AHL

“I’ve always been on a path that’s shown me the reality that every person is important. It doesn’t matter who the people are. We all matter.”

Fully Committed

Donn Kump knows nursing homes can get a bad rap. That’s why he’s doing things differently at Majestic Care. By

Zach Baliva

Boarding a plane from Indiana to New York in 2018, Donn Kump was eager to meet with a development group to discuss the future of Majestic Care. A skilled nursing home and assisted living company, Majestic Care was cofounded by Donn and his business partner, Bernie McGuinness. At the time of the meeting, Majestic Care didn’t have employees, policy and procedures, a handbook, or even a logo. Now, five years after the meeting, Majestic Care is proud to manage forty-six facilities in four Midwestern states.

Although it’s been a whirlwind of aggressive and rapid growth, Kump and his colleagues are more concerned with quality than they are with quantity. “We manage nursing homes and similar facilities, but a nursing home is not an institution. It’s a home where we have the opportunity to enhance the quality of life for everyone who lives there,” Kump says. That’s the foundational principle that has guided Majestic Care from the start. It compels Kump, McGuinness, and other leaders to focus on two main things—residents and care team members (employees).

Kump wants each Majestic Care campus to become part of the fabric of its community. The company achieves that goal by focusing on what he calls “cluster markets.” They partner with or acquire buildings in targeted areas served by a major hospital or health system. This allows the company to offer specialized care based on local needs. It also provides the opportunity for Majestic Care to deliver their mission of “individualizing the quality of life of those we care for through the magical culture created from the hearts of our care team members,” Kump says.

Passionate about healthcare for two decades, Kump entered the industry in an

entry-level finance role. The Cincinnati native was once a business office manager for a one hundred-bed Alzheimer’s facility. After realizing Kump’s potential, the CFO of that company began to mentor Kump, and the young leader stepped into roles with increasing responsibility.

During that period of growth, Kump realized he had more than a job and a career—he had a calling. “I started to see how we were taking care of people and changing lives for the better, and that brought fulfillment,” he explains. Inspired by his journey, Kump hopes to ensure that all Majestic Care Team members have the same level of mentorship and opportunities within the organization and industry that he had.

The strong commitment to culture and care team development is what makes Majestic Care and its leadership unique. “We want this to be a place where people can carry out their calling. To be good in

“This isn’t a game, to buy buildings and flip them. We’re trying to welcome buildings into the Majestic family to stay and make a difference.”

Donn Kump

Cofounder and CFO Majestic Care

Justin Casterline

our industry, you have to see what you do as more than a job. We want to find and nurture the passion people have to take care of people as they age.” In doing so, Majestic Care creates advocates who promulgate the company’s good work and share how other candidates also can find a meaningful career in healthcare.

How do Kump and his team create advocates? By focusing on the “Majestic Difference.” The company provides their care team members with benefits like a personal smartphone, perfect attendance bonuses, quarterly raises, tuition forgiveness, life insurance, free telehealth, discounted housing, weekly pay, and double pay on holidays.

But the Majestic Difference goes beyond perks and bonuses—it’s something Kump lives out as he leads by example. Kump is intentional about spending lots of time in as many campuses as possible so he can interact with residents, families, and care team members. “I’m not the kind of leader who’s locked in an office staring at dashboards on a computer screen. I prefer to talk to the people who take care of those that live in our campuses,” he explains.

Soliciting creative input and new ideas is critical at Majestic Care: this

mindset helps foster inclusion and ensure that each care team member has a voice (and that they know their voice matters). The approach has fostered strong growth in the first five years of the organization. “We’re serious about the work we do. This isn’t a game, to buy buildings and flip them. We’re trying to welcome buildings into the Majestic family to stay and make a difference. We want to provide stabilization and help them remain established for years to come in their communities,” Kump says.

Leading in an organization experiencing rapid growth—as Majestic Care is—brings its share of stress and challenges. Whenever Kump needs to ground himself, he visits a campus to chat with whomever he happens to encounter. He’s been known to fire up a grill and cook steaks for many of the care team and join them in celebration of their achievements. It’s a way for Kump to show appreciation and reflect on all that has been accomplished— which is a great deal. Five years after its inception, Majestic Care has 4,000 employees and 3,700 residents. “We’ve changed a lot of lives,” he says. “And that’s rewarding.” AHL

“A nursing home is not an institution. It’s a home where we have the opportunity to enhance the quality of life for everyone who lives there.”

Investment in the Future of Drug Development and Therapies

Even as Precision Medical Group made strategic acquisitions of its own, Blackstone eyed the business as a wise life science investment

By Will Grant

The first biomarker-driven clinical research organization has done more than expand in the last few years, it caught the eye of one of the largest investment firms in the world.

In 2020, Blackstone spent $2.3 billion to acquire Precision Medicine Group (PMG). PMG was founded in 2012 with the idea of improving the process of bringing new drugs and therapies to market.

Blackstone’s long-running interest in life science companies took a special focus on PMG due to its aim of reducing the time to market for drug development.

“We had actually been following Precision Medicine Group for a while prior to the acquisition,” Julia Kahr, a senior managing director at Blackstone who worked on the deal, told Blackstone. com. “We saw how the company was growing from its origins as a much smaller business, and it was clear that PMG was squarely focused on an area of major interest to us.”

Anushka Sunder, another managing director at Blackstone, explained that the investment reflected on companies driving innovation in life sciences. Her team always looks for disruptive transformation across the R&D landscape and recognized PMG as a high-quality platform with significant growth potential.

PMG has acquired strategic technological capabilities of its own lately with the purchase of gene therapy support and development company Project Farma in 2021. Project Farma’s focus on cell and gene therapy gives PMG an enhanced edge in the growing field, from the actual therapies to support development to commercialization.

“Since 2013, Precision has supported over 70 percent of the FDA-approved cell and gene therapies and is now even better positioned to support the hundreds of therapeutic new entrants coming to market,” PMG CEO Mark Clein

said in a statement. “With our acquisition of Project Farma, Precision is the only life-science services company with true end-to-end capabilities in cell and gene therapy.”

The Project Farma acquisition follows on the heels of PMG’s 2018 dual acquisitions of interpretation and communication of medical science organization Ethos and marketing healthcare agency Big Pink.

While all signs are positive at PMG, the significant expansion of the company’s footprint undoubtedly provides an interesting challenge for its HR leaders. Fortunately, PMG is led by Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt, blockchain expert, and master of streamlining HR operations Kelly Timpane. The senior vice president of human resources joined PMG in 2018 after numerous HR director roles in government contracting, tech, and, now, life science organizations.

Timpane received the “Executive Management Award” from SmartCEO magazine and the Game Changer award from Workforce Management in 2012. Since coming to PMG, she streamlined the HR operations processes, enhancing the employee experience across the PMG organization, including its multiple subsidiary companies.

When Timpane joined just a few years ago, PMG employees numbered at 950; today, they are over 3,000. The SVP has handled this expansion without significantly growing her team, and the lean HR organization currently is working toward a shared service center to reduce decentralization across the company, while also increasing cost flexibility for support services.

As PMG drives forward its own growth and evolution plans, HR will continue to aid that development with one of the industry’s finest shepherding new PMG outgrowths and arms. AHL

Combating the Social Determinants of Health

How targeted care at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Cambridge Health Alliance reverses rraditional disparities in colon cancer screening

By Will Grant

Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) have contradicted traditional disparities in the US healthcare system. In January 2023, BIDMC released the findings from a student who sought to better understand the impact of the social determinants of health. This research also aimed to provide a more nuanced understanding of how those factors can be critical to creating more health

equity and better healthcare outcomes for underserved populations.

Studies show that effective colorectal cancer screening can reduce the risk of death from the disease by nearly 70 percent. However, social determinants of health play a critical role in understanding just who is getting those screenings and who is not. Race, ethnicity, and gender, along with more subtle cultural factors like distrust of medical

care, contribute to whether an individual seeks care.

In contrast to broader studies, BIDMC found Hispanic and Spanish-speaking patients screened at higher rates than their white and English-speaking counterparts. These results that fly in the face of most similar studies aren’t an aberration, they’re the reflection of a healthcare system specifically designed to provide equal access to underserved patients.

“Investment into a multicultural workforce and outreach efforts to underserved patients may counteract some of the implicit or explicit biases seen on health systems that have led to traditional racial/ethnic disparities,” senior author Heidi J. Rayala at BIDMC said in a press release. “Our study showed differences in odds of successful screening based on subsections of traditionally defined ethnicities—such as breaking down ‘Hispanic’ into more specific cultures and backgrounds— and that suggests that future research should focus on better understanding individual cultures and communities, rather than lumping patients into overly large groups.”

The findings, published in Preventive Medicine, are a landmark moment for other organizations seeking ways to better address their underserved communities. In Massachusetts, screening rates reflect more traditional trends, with 76 percent of white individuals receiving screening compared to 68 percent of Black and 56 percent of Hispanic patients.

However, at Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA), a BIDMC affiliation, Hispanics were screened at 78 percent, with Spanish speakers recording the highest screening rate. While other factors, such as obesity and neighborhood income levels, often can play an outsized role in patient access and screening, CHA found no

discernible difference in screening rates in those populations.

What accounted for the significantly lower numbers of white patients accessing screening? Those factors continue to get more interesting the closer one looks.

Researchers believe that white patients, who were screening at 69 percent, also had significantly higher rates of serious mental illness and substance use disorder—two factors that generally lower screening rates. Researchers believe there is likely a link in these numbers, and future studies provide the opportunity to “examine the intersectionality of substance use disorder and race and ethnicity in safety-net populations relating to cancer screening.”

The results of the BIDMC show that the healthcare system has the potential to fundamentally change itself for the betterment of its patient populations. When health systems commit to understanding the traditional barriers to healthcare and the social determinants of health that impact their patients, real change can occur.

But it takes resources. CHA is known as a well-resourced, safety-net health system in the greater Boston area, with interpreter and mental health services. Its focus on research is in the service of actively improving health equity. To say that BIDMC and CHA are outliers of their kind is a gross understatement. Instead, their examples should be seen as what is possible when we commit to serving the entirety of our population. AHL

The Heart of Revenue Cycle

As VP of revenue cycle, Shelly Crunk is passionate about crazy ideas and investing in people at Kettering Health

By Billy Yost

Michelle “Shelly” Crunk VP of Revenue Cycle Kettering Health

Nicholas Tanner

Shelly Crunk gravitates to conflict, but the kindness in her voice makes it instantly clear that it’s not because she has a penchant for the dramatic. The vice president of revenue cycle at Kettering Health finds herself drawn to situations where two otherwise reasonable parties seem unable to find common ground.

“So often it’s about people struggling to find a connection point for communication,” Crunk says. “That challenge excites me. So much of what motivates me comes back to genuinely being able to help people.”

Throughout the course of an hour, Crunk comes back to this point: the true joy she gets from being of service to others. She says it may sound cliché or trite, but it’s the drive that’s literally kept her from accepting chief financial officer roles. She feels like she has more of an opportunity to serve leaders and team members from the revenue cycle; and you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who believes in that mission as fervently as Crunk.

Her passion for healthcare might as well be embedded in her DNA. “My whole family is in healthcare,” Crunk says, laughing. “My mom and my brother are CFOs, and my dad is a nurse who now owns a dialysis company. We talk about work all the time. . . . But we love to collaborate. I’ve thrown so many crazy-edge

ideas at them and their job is to tell me what won’t work before I humiliate myself at my own organization.”

A desire to try something new is precisely what makes Crunk great. Her self-described wild ideas are undergirded by her hope to make life better for her colleagues, her teammates, and, especially, her patients.

“Revenue cycle is obviously all about collections. But in everything I do, it really comes back to patient advocacy,” Crunk explains. “I feel like sometimes people don’t realize just how important that component should be to the revenue cycle process. We owe it to our patients to provide a clean, accurate, and timely medical record. I love any time I can help put in place a program that can make help identify potential coverage that a patient didn’t know they had or create a payment program for people who are going through a difficult time.”

Crunk also helped Kettering drastically drive down its annual denial write-offs. When she took her job in 2019, denials hovered around 3 percent. Now, they are closer to 1.5 percent. Not only has this affected Kettering’s bottom line, but it has helped create a more transparent and collaborative reputation for the revenue cycle team across the entire organization.

As much as she loves to get into the weeds of the revenue cycle, perhaps

yourself out of your own job

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Crunk’s greatest passion point is for talent development. She loves identifying skills and talents and helping chart a course for the future. It comes back to the love of understanding people and their motivations as well as helping eliminate barriers and create more opportunities for her team members’ career journeys.

“You want to grow? You want to get promoted? Work yourself out of your own job. That is what I’m always trying to do,” Crunk says.

It’s the embodiment of servant leadership. Crunk doesn’t want her team to need her because she aspires to create the next generation of leaders who will continue to challenge the status quo, regardless of their titles.

At Kettering, Crunk repeatedly has restructured roles and hierarchies to ensure that roles aren’t just being filled because a person has left the position. “I always challenge our team to stop and think about what we’re going to need next,” she says. “It better aligns accountability, responsibilities, and is critical for long-term success.”

Crunk admits her passion for development has kept her from accepting other roles which might account for a bump in pay or fancier title. Neither of those can compete with the fulfillment she gets from helping others flourish. “If I didn’t have leaders and teams to support, I just know I wouldn’t be as fulfilled,” the VP explains. “I don’t know if I’m a subject-matter expert in anything, but people are my passion.” AHL

“I don’t know if I’m a subject-matter expert in anything, but people are my passion.”

The Impact

Executives know there is an increasing need to help individuals manage their own health anywhere and anytime.

To do that, healthcare leaders are developing products and services and offering resources catered to different communities’ needs—all aimed at motivating them to stay engaged with their health and empowering them to be their best, at home or at work.

180.

184. Kristine Karnath Moog

188. Joseph Koons LifeBridge Health

192. Emma Stern Fanatics

196. Lora Lawler Hilton

Akhil Dave Cipla North America

Drive HR Excellence

From Mumbai to New York, Akhil Dave brings impactful HR leadership to Cipla North America

By Marcos Chisholm

“I n India, it’s very difficult for someone to go to school and to not be told that you got to take science, engineering, and then essentially become an engineer or a doctor,” Akhil Dave says.

Dave enrolled in the University of Mumbai more than seventeen years ago and decided to major in engineering. Even if he never dreamed of pursuing an engineering career, the experience would elevate his job prospects after graduation. But the more classes he took, the more he debated whether it was worth it.

“The answer was very clear that I did not want to become an engineer,” Dave says. “I was just doing it as a safe option.” With his senior year approaching, time was running out. Despite receiving advice from friends to pursue an MBA in finance, he researched other corporate career paths. He carved out time to read The Future of HRD, and it inspired him to pursue a career in HR management.

“That book really caught my attention and made me realize that HR is a function that can really impact every employee,” Dave says.

After Dave graduated from the University of Mumbai, he earned his MBA in HR from the Xavier School of Management. He started his career as a management trainee at Unilever and later became an HR business partner in Mumbai.

Then, he joined the pharmaceutical firm Cipla in 2013, where he eventually led a team of twenty-five L&D professionals and later helped the company expand to the US. What attracted him to Cipla was its purpose of “Caring for Life” and the company’s growth plans.

“Within the India business, I built up various HR processes and practices, for

“I think very early on, I was fortunate to have the right leaders and mentors. I understood what goes into leading a team, and what makes a leader successful.”

Akhil Dave Head of HR, North America Cipla

Courtesy of Akhil Dave

about four years,” Dave says. “In my fifth year, Cipla had just made an acquisition into the US in 2016. This was a half a billion-dollar acquisition of entities called InvaGen and Exelan.”

Dave transferred to Cipla’s North American offices in New York in 2017 then helped the company establish its US headquarters in New Jersey in 2019. The company named him its interim head of HR for the region in January 2020. And because he proved to be a home run hire during COVID-19, the word “interim” was removed from his title within six months.

Now he oversees all things HR for the more than half a billion-dollar business unit with over seven hundred employees across functions. “I want to focus on creating the maximum impact that I can bring to the table, because that gives me joy,” Dave says.

So, how does Dave stack up as a HR leader? Of course, he checks off the boxes you would expect. He empowers his employees to learn and grow in their careers.

He embraces the challenges that come with organizational change, be it COVID-19, talent market volatilities, or challenges as Cipla acquires other businesses. He has also focused on building the right capabilities for Cipla US as it continues to be one of the fastest growing generic pharmaceutical companies in the country.

He recalls working on the postacquisition HR integration of the new manufacturing facility that Cipla had

acquired in 2016. “We had to ensure that there’s a harmonization of systems, processes, and policies,” Dave says. “I think that’s a very different ballgame, because that’s a large number of employees you’re dealing with. That’s a large integration experience that I had, and I was on ground for it.”

Dave wants to set the tone for employees to navigate HR system integrations and he accepts the responsibility of being a great steward. While he drives digital transformation, he believes finding the right tools for employees should go beyond procuring platforms.

“I think it’s not just investing or buying software, but it’s essentially how you make services available at ease for advice,” Dave says. Whatever strategies he puts together have to fit seamlessly into the employee experience.

“For me, digitalization means removing the friction points in the organization, making [the] employee experience easy, and adding more intelligence to the organization,” Dave explains.

By recognizing that the best solutions are simple and scalable, Dave drives progress. Cipla North America continues to be strongly positioned for growth and the HR function led by Dave is a key enabler for it. Yet no matter how far he has come, he remembers what contributed to his success as an HR leader.

“I think very early on, I was fortunate to have the right leaders and mentors,” Dave says. “I understood what goes into leading a team, and what makes a leader successful.” AHL

CBREX worked closely with CIPLA North America and helped them hire screened talent from the shop floor to mid-management. CBREX, a global B2B driven talent marketplace, enables a company to hire at speed. It could be a regular hire or niche talent locally or globally.

Akhil Dave who’s heading HR for CIPLA USA has been one of the first adopters of CBREX in the US which has helped CIPLA scale their hiring while reducing costs. CBREX feels proud to partner with CIPLA USA, and wishes Akhil the best of luck in all his endeavors!

CBREX is a global B2B-driven talent marketplace. CBREX introduces a tech stack for agency hiring. This helps enterprises easily aggregate a large, ever-evolving pool of reviewed and certified recruitment agencies to fill their high volume, niche, hard-to-fill roles, and rationalize their vendor hiring costs. All this is done with the logistical convenience of a single contract with CBREX and a single invoice payable to CBREX.

CBREX’s machine learning algorithms dramatically reduce the time required to fill a requisition by routing it only to those firms most likely to fulfill. This combined with CBREX’s proprietary resume screening technology ensures that submitted resumes closely fit the enterprise’s requirements; enterprises now have a pipeline to receive screened resumes at scale from any part of the world. CBREX recently raised $3 million in a Pre-Series A round led by WaterBridge Ventures.

Inviting Innovation

In her nearly twenty years at Moog, Kristine Karnath has worked to untangle its PTO policies and drive creative HR solutions

By Joseph Kay

Kristine Karnath

US Director of Benefits Moog Courtesy of Moog

In one of her first meetings at Moog, Kristine Karnath sat quietly and listened. She remembers being the least senior person in the room and the youngest; she figured didn’t have much to add. But one of her colleagues in HR quickly pointed out that Moog operated differently than other companies.

“She said: ‘You were invited to the table. We want to hear what you have to say,’” Karnath recalls. “This is a very comforting, trusting environment, and there’s not a lot of hierarchy when it comes to getting your voice heard.” That invitation would guide her work at Moog, bringing creative HR and benefits solutions to a unique global business. Eighteen years later, she serves as US director of benefits.

The global engineering and manufacturing organization provides solutions for aerospace, defense, industrial, and medical operations. The company employs about seven thousand people in the US (close to 13,000 globally), 40 percent of them in manufacturing. A leader in precision motion control products, they develop and integrate avionics, engine controls, servomotors, and medical pumps.

Karnath grew up in Buffalo, New York, where Moog is well-known as a desirable employer. She studied finance at the University of Buffalo, aiming to land a steady job among plentiful opportunities. Her first role out of college was at a bank, where she was introduced to benefits. She didn’t know what to expect, but soon she came to appreciate the importance of the work to the company and its people.

“You have the ability to help people and have an impact on their lives; you also have the ability to impact the organization, because it’s such a huge

“We don’t wait for someone else to figure it out, and that’s a big shift in mindset. We’re an innovative company.”

cost,” she explains. “You can be really creative and do some out-of-the-box things, but you have to understand what drives costs and behavior.”

One of her key achievements has been the implementation of Moog’s unlimited vacation policy. Since 2019, the Moog family of companies has offered unlimited vacation days to full-time employees, reinforcing the organization’s status as an attractive employer and sending them toward the forefront of benefits innovation. Designing and implementing this policy was no simple feat, but it proved the most elegant way to cut through a tangled set of PTO policies.

Moog had acquired a number of organizations and traditionally left them to continue operating autonomously, Karnath recalls. Eventually this led to twenty-nine different time-off policies. Employment wasn’t equal from one site to another, so Karnath’s director of HR resolved to implement a single policy. The key limitations were that this policy could not reduce anybody’s benefits, but also could not increase costs.

“We took about nine months with focus groups and a steering committee to dig into why this could work, and importantly, why it wouldn’t work,” she explains. “At the end of the nine months, we realized that because of the culture we have, this really could work.”

Trust is a pillar of Moog’s company culture. Founder Bill Moog believed people want to work well and succeed together, so the company has never used timecards. The unlimited vacation policy builds from that trust, reducing administrative burdens without negatively affecting productivity.

Karnath recalls that people would ask what other companies were doing the

same thing. “My response at the time was, ‘I don’t know of anyone like us who has done it,’ and that would make people nervous,” she says. “But I said: ‘That’s what makes us awesome. We don’t need another company to show us that this can be done.’”

Moog employees also receive access to onsite wellness centers. These medical facilities offer routine care like physicals, sick visits, and vaccinations, as well as eye exams, physical therapy, nutrition counseling, and an onsite pharmacy. Services are available exclusively to employees and dependents for low or no cost.

These facilities save money for the company, as well as the patient; the company’s healthcare spend per employee has been stagnant or declining since 2009, while services expand. Prior to that, costs had been rising and unpredictable.

“We had huge swings in medical, but this way, we could look into the root causes of the cost increases and tame them by offering services on-site,” Karnath says. “We are not proponents of shifting costs to employees—we want good quality care that’s convenient, that saves time.” The costs to Moog are fixed; for example, providers are paid by salary, not per visit. This enables patients to receive as much treatment as they need.

Eighteen years in, Karnath appreciates how support operations at Moog have become more proactive and creative. Where the company used to follow established examples, now they take informed risks toward fresh solutions. “We don’t wait for someone else to figure it out, and that’s a big shift in mindset,” she says. “We’re an innovative company. Support services like HR should follow that.” AHL

A Central Focus on a Central System

Joseph Koons’s consolidated healthcare billing system increases ease and accessibility for patients in Baltimore

By Rebecca Rakowitz

oseph Koons has done what many might consider the impossible. He created a healthcare billing system people go out of their way to compliment.

“It just doesn’t happen very often when patients say, ‘This is a great bill! Thank you for billing me,’” Koons says. “But now we have patients saying it’s easier, it’s quick, and it’s convenient.”

Koons serves as the senior vice president and chief revenue officer of LifeBridge Health, a regional healthcare organization based in and around Baltimore. In this role, he managed what he describes as a complete, holistic transformation of the organization’s billing process.

Prior to his start in spring 2020, LifeBridge Health had multiple customer call centers for billing and financial assistance, resulting in inconsistent forms of patient billing. To address this, he and his team began the process of consolidating the patient billing process. Patients now have one call center, where they can access standardized messaging and payment plans, as well as get answers to questions.

The billing system also has gone digital, with a centralized patient portal, and the ability to receive paperless statements via email or text. Looking forward, LifeBridge Health teams will further develop a digital front door so patients can check in for their appointments on their smart device prior to arrival. It’s all a part of LifeBridge Health’s plan to help patients access consistent, convenient, consolidated information about billing and patient intake.

When surveyed on their billing satisfaction, patients have time and again given LifeBridge Health a 4.4 out of 5.

“Finding time to have fun and laugh is beneficial to everyone when we get back to doing the important work that we do.”

“The whole project has been a tremendous success, not only for the health system, but for patients as well,” he says.

In his more than twenty-five years working on the front, middle, and back end of the healthcare revenue cycle, Koons worked in Michigan, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and now Maryland. “We are hoping this will be the last move,” he says with a laugh. “But it’s worked to my advantage and the advantage of the healthcare systems, because I’ve experienced different systems and learned what works and what doesn’t.”

Though Koons moved around, his commitment to his community of patients and colleagues remained.

When it comes to the former, Koons promotes the philanthropic initiatives

of LifeBridge Health to support their patients requiring financial assistance or lacking insurance. As a part of the consolidation project, there is now one centralized eligibility process; extended payment plan options; and standardized support available to help patients navigate their healthcare costs, medication assistance, food assistance, housing assistance, and more.

“That’s important to us, because all of it is important to the patient’s recovery,” he says.

As for his colleagues, he strives to foster a supportive, empowering, participatory work environment, where employees feel comfortable enough to challenge him and empowered enough to make decisions. Much of his leadership philosophy revolves around lifting

Joseph Koons

SVP and Chief Revenue Officer

LifeBridge Health Scott Wendle

up good work, rather than being critical of the bad. When you focus on negative behaviors, he says, you highlight that behavior and will be left with more of the same. “I have seen in my career that focusing more on good behavior and positive outcomes will perpetuate itself,” he says.

Though Koons is at the helm of improving the billing experiences of patients at LifeBridge Health, he is quick to give the credit to his team. “They are the ones that do the work,” he says. “They achieve the results. I provide the support.”

The honesty and humility that accompanies this kind of employee recognition comprises a key part of Koons’s mission to cultivate “diversity of thought.” When his team members can showcase their various areas of expertise, he says that results in the best solutions for patients. “If I come to the table as a senior vice president and already have come to a conclusion, then I’m stifling that conversation,” he says.

If he were to do that, he says he would be holding back LifeBridge Health. “The

organization will suffer because we won’t get the best outcome that comes from putting our years of experience together.” Not to mention his team, as well. “They’re not going to be as forthcoming,” he says. “They’re going to get demoralized, and I’ll likely end up losing talent.”

Of course, Koons, like any leader, does not want to lose talent, but it is crucial to him not to lose team morale. While the finance department dedicates most of their day to dealing with serious issues and tasks, maintaining high spirits is a tenet of Koons’s servant leadership style. It manifests in the form of holiday parties, Halloween costume contests, sponsored lunches, and the like. In a serious business like healthcare, these lighthearted events bring people together and promote candid conversations that build stronger teams.

“Finding time to have fun and laugh is beneficial to everyone when we get back to doing the important work that we do,” Koons says. AHL

discovery, criminal injury, coordination of bene ts, and discovery of secondary coverages. Additionally, we provide hospitals in-service training on Medicaid and other patient nancial service challenges. Most importantly, LEI executives consult hospital leadership on cost recovery strategies, revenue, policy matters, and medical bene ts to strengthen representation and care.

“I have seen in my career that focusing more on good behavior and positive outcomes will perpetuate itself.”

Healthy Fanatics

Emma Stern focuses on holistic wellness for all global employees at Fanatics

By Billy Yost

If you look at Emma Stern’s résumé, most of the names are going to jump out at you. Mastercard, 21st Century Fox, Citi, and Xerox have all played host to Stern’s benefits and HR rise. Now, as director of global benefits at Fanatics, Stern is intent on helping what was originally an online sports retailer be the go-to destination for all-thingssports by supporting the employees who make the business run.

“I’ve been part of companies that are the who’s who of the Fortune 500, and I really think Fanatics is on par sitting atop the sports world,” Stern explains. “We’re all excited to be here, and in HR, our job is to support that excitement, while adding value to our business.”

Excited employees also need to be healthy employees. Stern says given the current uncertain state of the economy, she wants her people to have access to the right resources and education to ensure they are getting the most out of their benefits. This means continuously reviewing what benefits are delivered and how.

“For example, the pandemic has been an incredible struggle for people and companies. And we’ve seen a lot of businesses choose very traditional employee assistance partners, but we’re in a new age, where people are willing to be more vocal about their mental health needs, and I believe we need to meet them where they are,” Stern says.

Whether it’s better access to traditional therapy or more text-based therapy, mindfulness apps, etc., Stern says the benefits team constantly sources out new and innovative ways to help keep

their employees healthy. In an effort to support an inclusive organization, the benefits team uses all resources available, including data analytics, consultant support, and, importantly, the expertise from in-country HR. One issue that comes up a lot? Fertility benefits.

“We are working really hard to deliver what our people need by bringing in as many stakeholders to the conversation as early as possible,” Stern says. “A fertility policy that makes sense stateside might not be culturally appropriate in every part of the world, so we will tailor a version for each region or country. Again, it comes down to working with

THE FACE OF THE COLLECTION

Between her day job at Fanatics and volunteering efforts, Emma Stern admits there isn’t much free time in her life. She does make time for one very particular hobby, though: watch collecting. Her most treasured piece is not the most expensive, but certainly the most sentimental.

“I have my grandfather’s Omega watch from more than sixty-five years ago,” Stern says. “That’s the one I’ll never get rid of.”

“We are working really hard to deliver what our people need by bringing in as many stakeholders to the conversation as early as possible.”

trusted partners and leveraging those relationships to understand what we can successfully accomplish.”

The global director says she is always pushing to find new ways to make sure that employees both in and out of the US are valued and rewarded. Historically, that truly global focus has been a challenging one, and Stern hopes to bring renewed vigor to those efforts.

A key to her success is Stern’s candid approach to problem solving. Fanatics has grown so much in so short a time that Stern says transparency proves critical to ensure her team enables the business. Priorities may change on a dime, and Stern says it’s imperative to communicate with stakeholders and take the time to make sure everyone is still on the same page. Everyone should feel like they have a voice in the discussion.

Stern says those on an HR career journey need to be aware that their education is only going to get them so far. HR and benefits programs were only offered by a handful of schools up until relatively recently.

“I suggest people graduating school who are unsure of what to do consider the benefits field,” she says. “Benefits are important to employees and usually the second highest expense for employers (after compensation). Benefits is a niche world that combines things like employee relations, tax, law, and perks. Anyone struggling to get into benefits can get incredible experience with third-party administrators (TPA) and

Curcio Webb Where Passion Meets Purpose Helping our clients is our mission.

large consulting firms. TPAs are usually looking to hire around open enrollment and they will give you a crash course on Benefits 101.”

Stern’s very practical advice comes from her “free consultants” (both her parents worked in benefits). Whether it was her head of benefits at Citi, her boss at Fox, or a whole host of other positive leaders in her life, Stern has a long list of mentors, who helped shape her career in amazing ways. It’s why she’s so intent on doing that for others.

“Mentorship stands out for me as so important, because it helped me excel at the work I do today,” Stern says. “They provided opportunity and encouragement to try new things in benefits and insight into how to be a strong business partner. I don’t think you can overvalue that.”

Stern has been involved with the Fresh Air Fund for seven years, where she has the opportunity to advise low-income students in New York City. It’s where she’s helped many participants learn how to write a resume, conduct themselves in an interview, or think about a career path. Volunteering is truly a privilege—one she hopes to pass along to the students she encounters. AHL

Curcio Webb, LLC works with organizations to reduce the risks, costs, and complexities of sourcing and managing employee benefit plans and providers. Curcio Webb deliberately built our organization to employ benefits administration, health and welfare, retirement/actuarial, and investment experts.

Learn more at curciowebb.com/about-curcio-webb/

Well-managed employee benefit plans contribute to your ability to attract and retain the best talent, while providing employees with a healthier life today and tomorrow.

©2022 Curcio Webb, LLC, an Illinois limited liability company.

Caring for the Caregivers

Lora Lawler helps launch a new platform to provide Hilton team members the ability to attend to their own well-being while supporting their loved ones

By Zach Baliva

Lora Lawler

SVP of Total Rewards and HR Technology

Hilton

Johnny Shryock

“American companies are facing a caregiving crisis—they just refuse to acknowledge it.”

Those words come from a report entitled “The Caring Company,” published by Harvard Business School in 2019. Its authors discuss how most employers fail to understand how caregiving responsibilities impact and impede their workers; they therefore provide benefits that don’t match actual employee needs. Months after its publication, the COVID-19 pandemic would bring these issues to the forefront.

Lora Lawler, senior vice president of total rewards and HR technology at Hilton, has been behind a major push to acknowledge and address caregiving needs for employees. She explains that caregiving is now gaining much-needed attention as a business imperative from other employers, but the iconic hospitality company was already leading the charge in support of its team members.

“The pandemic accelerated conversations we were already having about being human,” she reflects. “It put our personal lives on display for our colleagues to see.”

Before COVID-19 brought the world of hospitality to a standstill in 2020, Hilton had already invested in mental wellness and well-being initiatives. Lawler and her team were already thinking holistically about the impact of caregiving needs on their global workforce.

When the pandemic hit, “silent caregivers” working at Hilton could no longer be silent. Their homes, families, and sometimes even pets were making appearances on Zoom calls and video

chats. Lawler says the conversations she was already having about caregiving were instantly accelerated.

Hilton’s leaders were faced with significant declines in hotel bookings and saw revenues plummet in all parts of the business. Still, Lawler and others stayed committed to meeting the needs of their workforce. “Our first conversations during COVID were about the safety of everyone involved and also about how we could help our people through a difficult situation,” she explains.

Although Hilton couldn’t avoid furloughs and layoffs, its HR department went into reverse recruiting mode and established partnerships with companies that were ramping up hiring to help its employees find new jobs. The company also developed an internal mental wellness resource hub to help those on its team easily access and connect to mental health benefits, resources, and tools.

Then, a new caregiving initiative called Care for All was born. The innovative platform extends services beyond self-care and gives employees easy access to resources in five other categories: care for sick, disabled, elderly, children, and pets. Hilton’s new hub features free online courses, podcasts, and other resources curated and organized by category. Everything on the hub is available to the general public, and employees can share tools and information with others who are involved in their caregiving efforts.

Lawler understands that creating change and driving culture happens best when leaders are engaged. That’s why the

“ The pandemic accelerated conversations we were already having about being human. It put our personal lives on display for our colleagues to see.”

Wellthy is revolutionizing the way families care for their loved ones and themselves. By unburdening people from the complex logistics of care, Wellthy makes it easier for them to manage their own health, reduce stress, and stay more engaged at work. Wellthy partners with leading health plans and employers, including Best Buy, Cisco, Hilton, and Meta.

Care for All also includes manager training resources. The company worked with Thrive Global to introduce live training sessions so managers can understand and support caregivers who are part of their teams.

Another key partnership enabled Hilton to pioneer an industry first. Hilton joined forces with Wellthy to bring caregiving concierge benefits to its US team members at no cost. Employees can use the program to find an advocate to make medical appointments, find health aides, evaluate physicians, and negotiate medical claims. Lawler says Hilton has now made the perk available to teams in the UK and Ireland, and continues to explore expansion in other parts of the world.

Prior to joining the hotel chain in 2018, Lawler worked at Deloitte and the Advisory Board. The roles made her into a wellversed HR leader, who understands business strategy and the importance of leading with empathy. Now, she’s having open conversations about how to evolve the Care for All platform. She expects Hilton to add initiatives to address financial wellness, women’s health, and other emerging issues.

These efforts are making a true impact as team members report improvements in their own mental health and

caregiving abilities. Hilton’s most recent engagement surveys show significant increases in positive answers to questions about how comfortable employees are talking about wellbeing and whether they feel healthy and balanced. Those results will help Hilton—already number two on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work for list in 2022—attract and retain a strong workforce amidst a labor shortage. Hilton has also been named the best workplace for women in the US by Great Place to Work and Fortune.

The company has more than four-hundred thousand team members in seven thousand global properties and has hired over fourty-five thousand new employees through the third quarter in 2022. A focus on caregiving will not only make Hilton more competitive but also empower its employees to take care of their personal needs and foster an inclusive workplace environment. AHL

Wellthy is proud to support Hilton team members at every moment along their caregiving journeys, at all stages of life. As the marketing, leading, caregiving solution, Wellthy provides personalized support to help families balance work and the demands of caring for a loved one.

Wellthy is the marketleading solution for personalized family care support

LEGAL WOMEN ON A MISSION

MEDTRONIC’S LORA SPENCER HONORS HER MENTORS THROUGH EXCELLENCE

BY JOSEPH KAY

MOVE WITH INTENTION AND EXECUTE WITH A PURPOSE

Lora Spencer Principal Litigation & Investigations Counsel Medtronic

Korey Howell

It takes only one look at Lora Spencer’s Twitter page (@TheLoraSpencer) to know that she loves a good quote. One of her favorites is, “Move with intention, execute with purpose.” And that is exactly what Spencer does as principal litigation and investigations counsel at Medtronic, a global healthcare technology leader and the world’s largest medical device company.

There, she develops, drives, and manages litigation strategy, oversees investigations, and advises and counsels Medtronic’s business units on a myriad of matters to help the company achieve its strategic objectives, and its mission to “alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life.”

As a member of the global legal team, Spencer engages in deliberate litigation and investigation management impacting Medtronic’s cardiovascular, medical surgical, and neuroscience portfolios.

“In my role, it’s critical that I survey risk across the enterprise. Not only must I assess the immediate impact of a decision on a particular matter, but also its potential ripple effect on the relevant portfolio and organization, to protect and advance Medtronic’s interest. This is what I mean to move with intention and execute with a purpose—this is what it means to be strategic.”

The deep, rich counsel that Spencer brings to Medtronic is uniquely grounded in her diverse professional experiences gleaned from big pharma, big law, and government service. Her early career and professional polish were forged at

BOARD OPPORTUNITY.”

“EACH CHALLENGE I’VE HAD, EACH PROBLEM I’VE SOLVED, EACH EXPERIENCE I’VE GAINED HAS BUILT UPON THE LAST AND PREPARED ME FOR A CORPORATE

life science industry giants Pfizer Inc. and Genzyme (now Sanofi). In those settings, Spencer consistently received recognition for her business acumen and cross-functional leadership.

After graduating from law school, Spencer was distinguished as a Presidential Management Fellow, the federal government’s prestigious leadership development program, at the National Institutes of Health, the largest research institute in the world. Spencer then sharpened her life sciences and legal expertise in the tough, yet prestigious litigation corridor of Philadelphia, at Reed Smith LLP, a leading global law firm. There, her practice focused on defending life science companies in product liability and commercial matters.

Her portfolio of responsibilities at Medtronic includes product liability, complex commercial, shareholder, and employment matters, and privileged investigations. She also supports responses to government litigation and investigations and collaborates with Medtronic’s corporate communications team on matters related to reputational risk.

The foundation of Spencer’s personal and professional determination to move with intention and purpose is based on an upbringing that, at times, was a hard struggle, as well as an early family loss.

“At a very young age, I worked long, blistering summer days in insect-infested tobacco fields; and in the winter months, I arose to frosty mornings at the crack of dawn to chop wood needed to heat our home before school.”

Years later, Spencer’s mother had multiple heart attacks at ages twentyeight, thirty-two, and thirty-six, then took her final breath at the tender age of thirty-nine. These adversities and her mother’s passing motivated Spencer to have a laser focus to live a purposeful and successful life. “Even with all the great diverse professional experiences I’ve had, nothing prepared me better for this role, and beyond, than my childhood.”

Indeed, Spencer thrives on the complex, working on multiple matters and collaborating across Medtronic’s complex organization on multidisciplinary teams, providing legal advice and counsel, and analyzing and evaluating risk. “I’m a problem-solver. That’s what I do,” she says. “I’ve had to solve problems all my life, personally and professionally. I push back somewhat on the notion that everything is a problem, instead to me ‘everything is a possibility.’”

When not leveraging the aggregate of her diverse experiences, skills, and competencies, and “inspiring the

extraordinary” at Medtronic by solving legal problems or providing advice and counsel, Spencer works to solve problems and identify possibilities on issues impacting her community.

Currently, she serves as a commissioner to the City of Austin, Texas, on the Community Police Review Commission, an appointment she received by the city manager; volunteers for Dress For Success’ Pathway to Employment program; mentors law firm associates in the National Bar Associations’ Associate Advancement Academy; serves as an advisory board member on professional golfer and PGA golf champion Cameron Champ’s Cameron Champ Foundation; and is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., to name a few.

Spencer’s civic contributions have led to her recognition as a 2022 Women, Influence & Power In Law honoree and a 2022 National Bar Association’s President’s Award recipient. When asked how she manages being a successful corporate attorney with her many volunteer activities, she credits the example set by her beloved grandmother, who at ninety-three continues to live a life of helping others.

In addition, Spencer quotes another Kentuckian, the great Muhammed Ali: “Service is the rent we owe for our place here on Earth.”

So, what is Spencer intentionally moving toward next? “I look forward to the opportunity to share the depth and breadth of my diverse experiences and accumulated knowledge and wisdom, cultivated over many years at global life science companies, federal government, big law, and in-house counsel setting, to appointments servicing corporate boards.

“Each challenge I’ve had, each problem I’ve solved, each experience I’ve gained has built upon the last and prepared me for a corporate board opportunity,” she continues. “Until that time comes, I will continue to develop and execute strategies, move with intention, and execute with purpose to one day receive my appointment.” AHL

Greenberg Traurig congratulates Lora Spencer, Principal Litigation Counsel at Medtronic, for this well-deserved recognition honoring her truly extraordinary career, dedication to advancing inclusion, diversity, and equity, and commitment to mentorship. Greenberg Traurig is proud of its longstanding partnership with Medtronic and supports its mission to transform global healthcare technology.

Shook Hardy and Bacon LLP: “Lora was a critical part of our Medtronic team; she was strategic, innovative, and incredibly essential.” —Bryan Pratt, Partner

“OWN IT”

THANKS TO A MENTOR’S ADVICE, LATANYA LANGLEY HAS OVERCOME IT ALL TO LEAD EDGEWELL PERSONAL CARE FROM THE LEGAL SEAT BY BILLY YOST

LaTanya Langley Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary Edgewell Personal Care

Jacqueline Hicks

aTanya Langley’s son Dennis was born five weeks premature. They both spent two weeks in the hospital, and mother and son were home barely a week when American Healthcare Leader interviewed Langley. At a time when most new mothers are still assessing just how much life has changed in such a short period of time, the chief legal officer (CLO) and corporate secretary at Edgewell Personal Care was willing to find time to speak with AHL and explain how she’s had to learn to dial back the pace with which she tackles life, work, and, well, everything.

You’re not misreading. Giving an interview a week out of the hospital with a five-week premature son asleep at home is Langley’s version of dialing it back. Langley is a force.

Langley was driven long before she graduated at the top of her class from the University of Connecticut School of Law. An early career with a large law firm led to prestigious in-house roles at Diageo and BIC prior joining Edgewell in February 2022.

Before her son’s premature arrival, Langley had already faced down both the bizarre and the heartbreaking. Maybe that’s why she’s now the executive sponsor of Edgewell’s diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) program, as well as its purpose, values, and behaviors team. She works to enact change for those who have felt like outsiders for too long—in other words, those who felt as Langley did early in her career.

The Conversation That Changed Everything

Langley emerged from law school ready to dominate. Her first stop was big law. There was just one giant, glaring issue: everything.

“I just wasn’t prepared for the culture I was walking into,” the CLO says. “I had to navigate an environment neither diverse nor inclusive.” Langley wasn’t invited to regular partner lunches; she wasn’t given the cutting-edge assignments like her mostly white, male peers; and she didn’t feel welcome at the social events it seemed most everyone else attended. She spent the bulk of her time navigating this culture alone. When she finally asked a female colleague why she wasn’t being accepted, the response cut her deeply.

“Her response was that the other partners and associates didn’t ‘get’ me,” Langley recalls. “Honestly, that broke me.” Fortunately, that wasn’t the only conversation about her career Langley would have. After she moved in-house, Langley engaged in a discussion with a more senior female leader and received advice that would provide the foundation for the rest of her career.

“I remember telling her about how isolating my experience was and how different I felt, and I remember this woman said, ‘Own it.’ That was the moment I realized that I was my own barrier. I was carrying this burden that I could overcome just by being myself. My differences were my strengths, not my weakness.”

Learning All Over Again

It would not be the last time Langley would have to overcome seemingly unsurmountable obstacles. In 2018, Langley spent three weeks in her home country. She spent the remainder of her trip traveling through the Middle East, India, Africa, Latin America, and Europe. She loved it, but she had the feeling some kind of toll was being taken on her body. And she was right.

“EVERY MOMENT MATTERS, AND YOU HAVE TO BE COMPLETELY ENGAGED IN THE PRESENT MOMENT AND NOT CONCERNED ABOUT WHAT’S NEXT.”

One day, Langley woke up and couldn’t move. She was rushed to Greenwich Hospital, where she would stay for a month before being diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome, an incredibly rare disorder that causes the body’s immune system to wage war on the nervous system. One day Langley was living her life (she had run five miles just the day before), and the next day she couldn’t blink.

“The recovery was long and grueling,” the CLO says. “I had to learn to do everything again. I couldn’t talk, and that’s when I really developed a renewed sense of the importance of listening. Every moment matters, and you have to be completely engaged in the present moment and not concerned about what’s next.”

Living the Values

Langley’s journey to recovery could fill a book. But she would rather focus on her return to work. The experience provided her with renewed empathy and compassion—qualities that now are embedded in her leadership, legal practice, and her goals for expanding Edgewell’s already strong internal culture.

The CLO knows she is a unique position to focus on and to challenge issues affecting women and other minorities in the workplace. It’s not a responsibility she takes lightly.

“I seek every opportunity to share that, as a woman, I’m sharing the perspectives of people like me when I’m speaking with other leadership,” Langley explains. “I’m able to observe policies, protocols, and trainings through a discerning lens that

“MY DIFFERENCES WERE MY STRENGTHS, NOT MY WEAKNESS.”

can help remove traditional barriers that women face at work and home.”

Langley’s colleagues recognize the unique value she brings and admire her approach to DEI. “Working with LaTanya, we see how she leverages her experience of being different to create inclusive places within the legal profession,” says Megan McCurdy, partner at Stinson LLP. “She has done this with the in-house team she assembled and with the outside counsel with whom she and her team work, while never compromising on her commitment to excellence.”

According to the CLO, Edgewell is already well on its way to removing the barriers that so often impede women and people of color. CEO Rod Little has joined CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion, a CEO-driven business committed to advancing diversity and inclusion in the workplace. The organization has been proactive about creating programming and bringing in speakers to talk about assertiveness and self-advocacy.

Edgewell also has taken a proactive stance on the real-life effects of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, making it clear the company will always protect the full scope of reproductive care for its women and parents—the exact type of care that was so useful with the birth of Langley’s first son.

No part of Langley’s journey has been simple. But at this moment, Langley knows who she is, who she is fighting for, and how to love and appreciate every moment. There’s no doubt that Dennis will learn one lesson very early in his own life: own it. AHL

ADA GUIDOTTI FINKEL FOUND THE RIGHT PLACE TO UNITE HER PASSIONS FOR TECHNOLOGY AND HEALTHCARE AT ACCESS

HEALTHCARE

SERVICES

BY ZACH BALIVA

PLAYING A PART IN PATIENT CARE

Ada Guidotti Finkel found her purpose in healthcare. While now the general counsel at Access Healthcare Services USA (AHS), she once thought she would work more directly in technology and business. She worked at a software company helping clients harness the power of tech to improve efficiency. Some of those clients were hospitals and health systems. Then, someone in Finkel’s family experienced a severe health issue, and she found that navigating the complexities of healthcare suddenly became more personal.

At the time, Finkel worked at Perot Systems, which H. Ross Perot founded, and a renowned IT services firm known for its proficiency in outsourced data centers and other tech components in the healthcare and government sectors. An interest in technology drove her to the space, but she found that the source of her motivation started shifting to something else. “I started to understand better how decisions around healthcare services are provided and paid for really impact individual people, and I realized even I had important contributions to make,” she explains.

The veteran lawyer has a combined focus on technology and business processes. She studied business administration at Sonoma State University, later attended law school, and completed an MBA at Boston’s Suffolk University. As Finkel amassed big law and in-house experience, she cultivated her practice mainly representing complex services and outsourcing vendors, where leaders in industries like healthcare outsourced a variety of tech components that they either didn’t have the capacity or expertise to support.

Although she’s been with Access since 2021, Finkel’s roots run deep there: the company was started in 2011 by some former Perot Systems leaders. Today, Access has built itself into a prominent revenue cycle solutions provider that over 150 healthcare institutions trust to make their operations more efficient to focus on what they do best. This happens as the technicians and engineers Finkel represents develop new methods to optimize all aspects of medical coding, billing, payments, and collections processes. Access also provides

member enrollment and engagement, claims administration, and more.

The robust platform covers 80 medical specialties, supports over 500,000 physicians, and processes over 400 million annual transactions. The 27,000-plus employees—and 3,500 virtual bots—work in 18 global services centers across India, the Philippines, and the United States.

Finkel oversees all things legal as general counsel. When it comes to outsourced services, she and her team continually evaluate how to enable Access best to utilize tech tools and cutting-edge systems alongside the vast employee base to deliver best-in-class services.

As pandemics and politics continue to reshape healthcare, Finkel notes that health administrators continue to outsource more than just tech services. They also call upon vendors to handle call centers, claims management, fee collection, and other tasks better managed by experts aware of the regulatory changes and updates

“MY TEAM AND OUR COLLEAGUES CAN REMOVE THE ARDUOUS ADMINISTRATIVE WORK AND FREE PROVIDERS UP TO GET BACK TO THE WORK OF BEING DOCTORS AND NURSES.”

General Counsel

Access Healthcare Services USA

Ada Guidotti Finkel

in compliance rules. “My team and our colleagues can remove the arduous administrative work and free providers up to get back to the work of being doctors and nurses,” Finkel explains.

She finds meaning in performing her role well at Access and looks for every opportunity to support them to improve how the company provides its services. Finkel recalls early in her career negotiating agreements with a hospital that insisted on the necessity of receiving timestamp information down to the hundredth of a second before it was industry standard. Why? Because the impact of medication that isn’t administered in a timely can have a catastrophic effect.

As Finkel continues to support similar deals, she looks for these and other imperative details in every agreement because she knows that every element matters to a patient. “Everyone involved in the industry

matters, and we need the contribution of each person along the spectrum of healthcare to get the best chance for each patient,” she says. “Only when those contributions come together does the patient receive the best possible experience and outcome.”

As Access continues to optimize and expand its services, the company is deepening its expertise in robotics automation and artificial intelligence to keep up with the changing landscape. “We’re not only trying to improve how things have always been done, but we’re also looking to discover how we can do things that are brand new,” Finkel says, adding that the freedom to pursue innovation keeps her, those she leads, and everyone at Access engaged in their work.

Together, they fulfill the company’s purpose to “be the most respected healthcare business process and IT services team in the world.” AHL

“I STARTED TO UNDERSTAND BETTER HOW DECISIONS AROUND HEALTHCARE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED AND PAID FOR REALLY IMPACT INDIVIDUAL PEOPLE, AND I REALIZED EVEN I HAD IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTIONS TO MAKE.”

THE COUNSEL THAT CARRIES ON

APOTEX’S ROBERTA LOOMAR SHARES HER BEST PRACTICES FOR REMAINING NIMBLE, RESPONSIVE, AND EFFECTIVE IN A CHALLENGING FIELD BY ZACHARY BROWN

Roberta Loomar SVP and General Counsel of US and LATAM Apotex Corp.

David Rosen

Life as an in-house lawyer in the pharmaceutical industry is full of ambiguity. After all, it is one of the most heavily regulated and highly scrutinized industries on earth. Roberta Loomar is the senior vice president and general counsel of Apotex Corp.’s operations in Latin America and the United States. It’s a big job, but Loomar is up for the challenge. After all, she’s navigated new areas and unprecedented obstacles throughout her entire career.

How does a leader in the healthcare, wellness, or pharmaceutical space deal with the occupational hazards that threaten to slow or even derail a career? By maintaining an openness to learning new things and embracing change.

“My whole career has been defined by people coming to me and presenting something new, unique, or unusual that needs to be done,” the SVP says. “I’ve had no choice but to figure out innovative solutions and figure out a way to address emerging problems in effective ways,” she says.

The South Florida native majored in communications at her state university. She thought she would become a sports broadcaster and maybe a sports lawyer. But an epiphany at the University of Miami School of Law put her on a new path. After Loomar discovered that she loved trial work, she sought employment at a small insurance defense firm where she would get foundational, hands-on experience trying cases in court.

She soon joined an international firm, and although she had never studied finance or taken an accounting course, she was defending some of the biggest accounting firms in the world.

A former colleague recruited Loomar to join Andrx Corporation as litigation counsel in 2000. Again, she gave herself a crash course in a new area—this time chemistry and patents—to litigate patent infringement matters. Over time, Loomar broadened into a generalist, developed her industry expertise, served as a privacy officer, and created a robust compliance program.

In 2013, Loomar joined Apotex to build the international pharmaceutical company’s in-house legal department in the United States. The move allowed her to stay in Florida while supporting the organization founded in Canada in 1974. Loomar has also served as Apotex’s compliance officer.

Although Loomar has been practicing law for more than three decades, she is still finding ways to stay endlessly engaged and fulfilled in the dynamic industry of prescription drugs. “You learn something new every day as an in-house attorney working in pharmaceuticals. There are always new developments, requirements, and laws to adjust to,” she says.

When Loomar first arrived on the scene, Apotex was coming out of an import ban imposed on the company by the US Food & Drug Administration after the agency found problems at its Canadian manufacturing plants. With the ban lifted, Loomar helped guide Apotex’s efforts to rebuild its presence in the United States. The generics producer initially turned to affiliates and third parties to manufacture the products it distributes in the US before returning to manufacturing in Canada.

“YOU LEARN SOMETHING NEW EVERY DAY AS AN IN-HOUSE ATTORNEY WORKING IN PHARMACEUTICALS. THERE ARE ALWAYS NEW DEVELOPMENTS, REQUIREMENTS, AND LAWS TO ADJUST TO.”

In 2017, an unexpected tragedy halted the company’s rise. The body of the Apotex’s billionaire founder Barry Sherman was discovered alongside that of his wife Honey inside their Toronto mansion. The gruesome double murder remains unsolved six years later.

That set Apotex on a new path. The company, buoyed by what Loomar says are “great leaders that promote transparency, collaboration, respect, and recognition,” introduced several new products. Teams optimized operations and product portfolios to both cut expenses and increase efficiencies. Additionally, the various Apotex legal teams put new procedures and policies in place to guide the new leadership, get new agreements in place, generate profitable sales, and help the company respond. As a result, Apotex thrived.

Loomar tackled another formidable challenge as she helped Apotex resolve investigations related to price fixing in the generic drug industry.

Through company transformation as well as success in navigating COVID-19 over the past three years, Apotex attracted the attention of SK Capital. The private investment firm

signed a deal to buy Apotex’s entire operation, a transition Loomar helped her company prepare for. She also continues to stay updated on changes in various jurisdictions and issues for her teams in the US and Latin America.

She is always prepared to advise on matters related to rules, laws, regulations, and agreements from the FDA, clients, partners, and other parties. The variation keeps her on her toes. To others aspiring to find success in the challenging space, Loomar’s advice is rather simple. “You can’t get intimidated by what you don’t know because you’re going to encounter something you don’t know nearly every day in a role and industry like this,” she says. “Believe in yourself and know that you can figure it out and get the job done.” AHL

Foley advises healthcare and life sciences companies throughout their life cycles. These companies require assistance to navigate accelerating digital technologies and shifting regulatory and IP environments that complicate the development of tests, treatments, and business models. We provide business and legal solutions so you remain competitive in a constantly evolving market.

“MY WHOLE CAREER HAS BEEN DEFINED BY PEOPLE COMING TO ME AND PRESENTING SOMETHING NEW, UNIQUE, OR UNUSUAL THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE.”

PHARMACEUTICAL EMPLOYMENT LAW IN THE PANDEMIC

BEING THE FIRST COMPANY TO GET APPROVAL ON AN ANTIBODY TEST WAS A COUP FOR ROCHE. BUT FOR KATHLEEN O’TOOLE, HIRING THE PEOPLE TO MAKE IT—AND KEEPING THEM TWO YEARS LATER IN A LABOR SHORTAGE—WAS THE REAL VICTORY.

BY RUSS KLETTKE

Kathleen O’Toole Director and Senior Employment Counsel Roche Molecular Systems

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, the once-in-a-century event was new to everyone, laden with fear and economic disruption, with deep uncertainty and no solutions in sight.

But one of the first answers came in early May 2020, when Roche Molecular Systems received Emergency Use Authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody test. It was a first step in unraveling the mysteries around and risks from exposure to the novel virus—and because it was so important, the company had to ramp up its production into tens of millions of units as quickly as possible.

Kathleen O’Toole, director and senior employment counsel at Roche, experienced those early days like everyone else. However, she also describes it as a time of collective pride and excitement. “We had already been hiring at the New Jersey manufacturing facility before this hit,” she recalls. “Because we were the first company to get FDA approval, the need for more people there became even greater. Everyone was pretty happy to be a part of it.”

The company hired hundreds of employees, while much of the world was in shutdown. It accomplished this successfully, and while much has changed in the months and years since, O’Toole’s work is just as important today. Why? Because part of her job is to help the company retain as many employees as possible, long after that rapid hiring spree.

The relationship between employment law and employee retention might be fuzzy until you consider what O’Toole

does. She describes much of her work as partnering with the human resources professionals to develop policies, communications, and management training programs. They help sort through local, state, and national regulations for supervisors who ultimately are on the front line of compliance.

“We take the complexity of the regulatory environment and break it down for those who manage people at the company,” she explains. “The vast majority of people leaders want to do a good job. We give them the training,

“DON’T BE A SHOW-OFF; YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE THE SMARTER PERSON IN THE CONVERSATION.”

“THE VAST MAJORITY OF PEOPLE LEADERS WANT TO DO A GOOD JOB. WE GIVE THEM THE TRAINING, TOOLS, AND CONFIDENCE TO SHOW UP AND DO GREAT THINGS.”

tools, and confidence to show up and do great things.”

In a tight labor market, particularly for companies that need workers with specific skills, that’s a pretty important place to be. Switzerland-based Roche also is a global company with operational locations in the US. Consequently, O’Toole faces a dizzying array of federal, state, and local employment laws. But she’s not new to this. In a previous job with ManpowerGroup, the international temporary staffing firm operating in all fifty states, navigating employment law in as many jurisdictions was all in a day’s work.

O’Toole’s job isn’t just about the letter of the law. Conditions around the lingering pandemic, in the varying phases of community risk, needed a careful, lawyer-approved approach and communication plan. For example, the company has a vaccine mandate that allows for employees to seek religious and medical accommodations. O’Toole partnered closely with human resources to ensure that the program both achieved the company’s goals and complies with the law. Roche also maintains a masking policy that is triggered when community

McGuireWoods congratulates Kathleen O’Toole on her leadership and achievements as director and senior corporate counsel for employment at Roche Diagnostic Solutions.

We value the relationship, shared sense of teamwork and confidence that Kathleen has placed in McGuireWoods to deliver on her goals.

and site infection rates are elevated. Straddling between the need to protect workers’ health and cultural opposition to vaccine and masking mandates required an important and artful legal/ human resources collaboration.

O’Toole proclaims her team is committed to not being “the department of no.” Instead, they are focused on finding workable solutions. “We roll up our sleeves to help human resources and the business recruit and retain employees,” she says.

Drawn to employment law since clerkships in law school, she offers advice to those aspiring to a similar career. “Find what you’re passionate about,” she says. “Put the work in to be a subject matter expert. Be a great listener, learning the business needs, the goals, and desired outcomes. Maybe a strict legal need is at odds with the business, but there are always to be both compliant and meet the business needs.”

O’Toole adds, “Don’t be a show-off; you don’t have to be the smarter person in the conversation. As a writer and communicator, brevity is your friend.”

One more nugget of advice: “Have fun. We work too long and hard not to.” AHL

We wish Kathleen and the Roche Diagnostic Solutions team continued success.

1,100 lawyers | 21 offices www.mcguirewoods.com

THE PANDEMIC HELPED VIKTORIYA TORCHINSKY-FIELD REALIZE IT WAS TIME FOR A MAJOR CAREER CHANGE. AT AVANTOR, SHE’S UTILIZING HER CONSIDERABLE SKILLS IN NEW WAYS AS SHE TAKES ON A GLOBAL, WIDE-RANGING ROLE. BY JULIA

THIEL

SPREADING HER WINGS

“T he pandemic crystallized a lot of things for a lot of people, and I’m not an exception,” says Viktoriya Torchinsky-Field. She’d been at Cigna for nearly fourteen years, working her way up to the role of vice president and chief counsel, when she began to consider her next career steps. While she and her team at Cigna had deftly adapted to the remote work environment necessitated by COVID-19, Torchinsky-Field concluded that she wouldn’t thrive in that environment long-term.

“I think generally speaking, office life and being together generates the kind of energy that propels better products,” she says. “Cigna is an incredibly mature organization that was able to keep firing on all cylinders in this new environment, but from a human-centered perspective things were lost. After being isolated, largely in a home setting, for two years, I was ready to take some risks professionally and stretch my wings.”

When she was scouted by an executive search firm for the role of vice president of legal at Avantor, she says, it was kismet. A Fortune 500 company with established global operations, Avantor had recently gone public in 2019. “The company shows up with a mission in the industry and the world at large,” Torchinsky-Field says, noting that it partners with customers and suppliers in the life sciences, advanced technologies, and applied materials industries and supports the R&D efforts for top biopharma companies by

providing customized materials for the treatments they develop. Among those are the COVID-19 vaccines; Avantor was one of a hundred companies involved in Operation Warp Speed to create them.

In addition to connecting with the company’s mission, Torchinsky-Field was keen to take on a new challenge when she began working at Avantor as global head of litigation, investigations, and employment law in April 2022. She got one. “The first three months were really a whirlwind as we were establishing a foundation for the function,” she says.

During those first few months, Torchinsky-Field built her team from

scratch in an extremely challenging talent market. In addition, she’s part of the core M&A deal team, leads the development of a centralized compliance program, and leads global legal support to the HR function, among other responsibilities. She notes that she’s gone from an exclusively litigation and investigation leadership role to one where “I am entrusted with a pretty significant wingspan, formally and informally.”

Torchinsky-Field credits her litigation training and a robust professional network cultivated over the years as foundational to this evolution. “Good litigators are notoriously good at collecting

“EVERY SINGLE PERSON ON THE TEAM IS A DYNAMO: SELF-MOTIVATING, EXPERT IN THE FIELD, BUT ALSO INCREDIBLY AGILE IN ORDER TO SUPPORT AREAS WHERE WE MIGHT NOT HAVE TECHNICAL EXPERTISE IN-HOUSE.”

just enough information to make sound judgments without becoming technical experts in the topic,” she notes. “That is a skill that I honed for decades in private practice and in-house, and I’m finally really able to put it to excellent use.” In addition, her close relationships with mentors and colleagues enabled a gut check on her move to Avantor.

Those colleagues have high praise for her recent work. “Viktoriya has brought incredible energy, leadership, and strategic thinking to Avantor,” says David Woolf, partner for labor and employment at Faegre Drinker. “As outside counsel, it’s exciting to collaborate with her

because, even with all of her competing demands, her active involvement shows through and elevates the work product that we are able to deliver together.”

Torchinsky-Field is also excited about the global aspect of her work; whereas Cigna’s operations were largely domestic, Avantor operates two hundred distribution, manufacturing, and sales locations in thirty countries, with fourteen thousand employees. Most of the colleagues with whom she collaborates are based internationally.

TAKING ACTION

Russia invaded Viktoriya Torchinsky-Field’s home country, Ukraine, right around the time she began her new job at Avantor. “I wanted to be sure that I expressed my thoughts and feelings through action,” she says. She not only joined the board of HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) Pennsylvania to support refugees coming to Pennsylvania but also worked to stand up the Philadelphia Ukraine Rapid Response organization, which connects to nonprofits that support Ukrainians who are staying in the country. They raised a lot of money for small nonprofits—well into the six figures—in a very short period of time, she says.

“We also were really on the front end of saying, ‘Ukraine has forty-four million people, and most of them will not be able to leave, so who’s going to support them? They’re going to need defense gear.’ That was a very touchy thing to fundraise for when people were still unsure how to think about military aid,” she adds.

While time zones can present scheduling challenges, Torchinsky-Field believes there are significant benefits to having international colleagues. She’s originally from Ukraine and immigrated to the US at the age of nineteen. “I’ve lived in the US longer than elsewhere, but the foundation is still there for seeing the world as it is, which is multidimensional,” she says. “Given Avantor’s global footprint, I find that this is a wonderful fit for me and the logic I apply to thinking through any challenge.”

She notes that for the first time ever, she’s had a chance to utilize her background from a legal perspective. “I have been asked over the course of my career, ‘How have you put your language and multicultural skills to work in your professional life?’” she explains. “And the answer had been that I was too busy assimilating. This is the first time in my professional career where I’m able to draw on my background. That’s kind of neat.”

Avantor’s rapid global growth has also presented welcome challenges for Torchinsky-Field. In 2021 alone, the company spent $4 billion of capital closing three large acquisitions, and in 2022 it significantly expanded the legal team. “Every single person on the team is a dynamo: self-motivating, expert in the field, but also incredibly agile in order to

Viktoriya Torchinsky-Field VP of Legal Avantor

Asya Shirokova

The language of business.

The Life Sciences Team at Ballard Spahr

support areas where we might not have technical expertise in-house,” she notes. Agility is especially important in a company that’s growing quickly amidst constantly shifting geopolitical business conditions. The nature of the legal and compliance function, Torchinsky-Field says, is that it has to adapt to changing conditions. “There’s a marriage between expectations and reality that demands adjustments and flexibility and continual reevaluation of priorities. Just like the needs of the company may evolve, my vision for what the function should look like or how the organization should transform would also be expected to evolve,” she explains.

In addition to helping lead the legal department through a period of rapid change, Torchinsky-Field has discovered her own capacity to adapt. “Jumping from a place of knowledge and expertise is a leap of faith,” she says. “I leapt, and I’m really happy to say that this is exactly what I hoped it would be.” AHL

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DLA Piper is a global law firm with lawyers located in more than forty countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific, positioning us to help clients with their legal needs around the world.

quality and value to our clients.

Ballard Spahr is proud to partner with Viktoriya Torchinsky-Field and the entire Avantor team, as they work alongside pioneers, scientists, innovators, and educators to help solve some

the world’s most complex challenges.

Our relationships with our clients are built on communication and collaboration. We want to see you succeed, which means being a knowledgeable legal and business adviser.

DLA Piper is proud to recognize our friend and client Viktoriya Torchinsky-Field of Avantor in her work as a legal thought leader.

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Real Leadership and Strategic Thinking

We cheer Viktoriya Torchinsky-Field! It’s a joy and an honor to partner with Viktoriya, whose experience, insight and involvement in strategy and development enable us together to achieve greater results for Avantor.

Faegre Drinker is a full-service firm designed for clients, with more than 1,200 attorneys, consultants and professionals, known for transactional, litigation and regulatory capabilities. Clients are at the start — and the heart — of all we do. We listen to priorities and pressure points. We bring fresh ideas that work. And we deliver excellence — without arrogance.

VP OF LEGAL ANDREA SORIA TALKS TONAL AND HOW SHE FOUND A HOME AT THE TECH-SAVVY WELLNESS COMPANY

BY ZACH BALIVA

FIXED ON FITNESS

Andrea Soria VP of Legal Tonal

Suz McFadden

Aly Orady may have lost seventy pounds, but it was a struggle. He had to devote hours of his day to traveling to the gym only to wait in line for his favorite pieces of equipment. So, the Silicon Valley veteran did what he’s always done when faced with a challenge— he innovated. Orady created Tonal, a fitness company anchored by a smart, space-saving, digitally driven, allin-one home gym. The adaptive system’s sensors adjust to each user and features guidance, assessments, and dynamic modes.

Vice President of Legal Andrea Soria joined the company in 2021. She spoke with American Healthcare Leader to talk about what it takes to support development in wellness and how continuous learning and perseverance have helped her navigate a challenging field.

You’ve worked in law firms and in high-tech companies like Glu Mobile. What drove you to Tonal?

Aly’s story shouted to me. His profile is what I was seeing in my own family. Inaccessible gyms and equipment and certain health issues were part of his story, and that’s been part of mine too. Tonal is creating a sense of empowerment for people who want to guide themselves on their own health journey.

How did you get into law?

My dad is a lawyer. He built his practice around worker’s compensation and helped migrant farm workers and others with serious injuries.

And why have you worked so often in the high-tech space?

It’s just so interesting. I’ve had to learn a lot. Thankfully, I had strong female lawyers mentor me before I went in-house at Glu Mobile. It was a company that evolved

and pivoted. It moved to smartphones, and that launched my career in privacy, as I also had to pivot. I had no background in the area but had to roll my sleeves up and dive in. That’s what I love about this kind of work. It’s fun.

Tell me about going from gaming to health and wellness. How did that happen?

I felt like I had developed the legal skills to be helpful in other types of businesses. I started asking myself where I want to be of service in the world and things aligned. I had established my own workout routine, and my role at Tonal is all about how tech and media can help people thrive.

You mentioned your own family story with this journey. Tell me more about that.

My grandmother was a diabetic, as are my mother and aunts and uncles. The same grandmother had a quadruple bypass; one of my uncles had a bypass within the same year. I’ve observed how much of your own health outcomes are in your hands. There are things we can all do to have a better quality of life, but people get lost in options or slowed by barriers. I’m proud to use my legal skills at a company that wants to help people build discipline and make healthy choices that lead to results.

What are your main roles and responsibilities at Tonal today?

I was the first lawyer here. They value legal assistance, and now, we can rely on internal teams that really know how to shape contracts and advise strategy. It was important timing for Tonal since the pandemic was driving sales of our products up.

Has there been that same experience of rolling up your sleeves?

In a company like this, definitely. I never stop asking questions, because I want to understand everything that I can about Tonal and our users and our objectives.

What’s keeping you busy these days?

We’re launching a new feature called Smart View that helps people improve their workout posture/form. This requires reviews of and potentially updates to privacy policy and terms of service. But it really shows what is becoming more possible in health and wellness as we find appropriate ways to add in the latest technological advancements.

You’ve talked about navigating challenging professional times. What’s the secret?

I advise people to do what I’ve attempted to do, and that is to stay dedicated to ongoing learning opportunities.

Also, don’t sell yourself short. Remember the previous victories, believe in what you’re doing, keep an open mind, be ready to learn, and keep going forward.

Lastly, what do you most enjoy about working at Tonal?

I know we’re making a difference in people’s lives. We have success stories on our website, and we hear similar anecdotes often. People are taking charge of their fitness and getting stronger, and I get to be a part of that. AHL

Andrea leads by strategically navigating Tonal through an ever-changing—and, as of late, tumultuous—legal and economic landscape. Her work, expertise, and initiatives set a high bar for other companies, as well as their legal counsel, to meet. Durie Tangri congratulates her on this recognition, which is a welldeserved honor.

“I NEVER STOP ASKING QUESTIONS, BECAUSE I WANT TO UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING THAT I CAN ABOUT TONAL AND OUR USERS AND OUR OBJECTIVES.”

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