Press Release

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 9, 2023-- Global professional services firm Huron (NASDAQ: HURN) today announced 33 managing director and principal promotions to further support its strategic objectives and growth goals.

“Each of these talented leaders consistently makes a positive impact on our business and in the lives of our people and clients while living our values and leadership principles,” said C. Mark Hussey, chief executive officer and president of Huron. “I congratulate each of them on achieving this significant milestone in their careers and I am thrilled to see them take on new and exciting challenges in the years ahead.”

Huron is excited to acknowledge the following leaders and their newly conferred titles:

• Ashley Anderson is a managing director with more than a decade of experience in the healthcare industry and expertise in designing and implementing performance improvement processes across the revenue cycle. Ashley has led integrated engagements spanning many capabilities driving significantly improved financial results for her clients. Her clients include pediatric centers, large multifacility health systems and academic medical centers.
• Don Bieger is a principal with more than 20 years of experience developing technology solutions and strategic road maps to reengineer business processes and transform finance operations and cash flow reporting structures. His clients span numerous industries, including banking, financial services, manufacturing, utilities and healthcare. He has specific expertise in financial consolidation and planning and forecasting solutions.
• Mike Champa is a managing director with more than 16 years of experience in planning, designing and executing cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) and technology transformation projects across the higher education and healthcare industries. He has specific expertise leading project teams through cloud ERP and research technology initiatives, driving business process transformation, and aligning systems and data to industry best practices in order to provide meaningful financial and analytical data for executive management.
• Vivek Cherian is a managing director with more than 16 years of experience in planning, implementing, and optimizing enterprise solutions for both public and private research universities. Vivek has extensive expertise helping top institutions with optimizing business processes, service delivery design, and change management.
• Vikki Choate is a principal and international speaker with more than 35 years of healthcare leadership experience helping clients consistently deliver results. She specializes in guiding healthcare organizations and executives to improve patient safety and elevate cultures of safety, transparency, accountability, and high reliability. Vikki leads Huron’s quality, safety and high reliability strategy and services.
• Neal Cotton is a managing director and healthcare technology expert with more than a decade of experience of implementing, optimizing, and supporting Oracle Cerner and other supporting technologies. Neal provides technical and operational assistance to healthcare organizations ensuring technology alignment with his clients' strategic initiatives and goals. His Oracle Cerner experience includes oversight of large-scale complete life cycle implementations, management of application support teams, and development of near-to-long term EHR and supporting technology strategic roadmaps.
• Cathy Dove is a principal with decades of experience working with various stakeholder groups to create change-ready institutions. Cathy helps colleges and universities with initiatives ranging from transformational technology and athletic programs to organizational efficiency and partnership opportunities. She has led operations in all areas of higher education, including finance and budget, information technology, advancement/alumni relations, communications, community/government affairs, marketing, human resources, and facilities.
• Alex Faklis is a managing director with more than 10 years of experience helping institutions, from public flagships to small liberal arts colleges, innovate and transform operations, organizational structures, and technology systems to enhance the experiences of students and alumni. Working with institutional presidents, provosts, academic deans and department chairs, Alex takes a constituent-centric approach and collaborates with leaders to strategically assess and improve student, alumni, and donor initiatives.
• Simar Grewal is a managing director and an experienced change agent who has spent more than 20 years helping organizations adapt and transform in response to changes in the energy market. Simar helps global organizations in the oil and gas, utilities and renewables industry use digital solutions to transform their operations and improve performance.
• Abhi Gupta is a principal with more than 10 years of experience providing financial and management consulting services to enhance profitability and liquidity at public and private companies across varying situations and growth stages. He has worked in numerous industries, including food and beverage, steel, forestry, manufacturing, technology and telecommunications, engineering and construction, and financial services.
• Peter Haas is a managing director with more than a decade of experience managing and leading patient throughput, status management and workforce optimization projects at numerous hospitals, health systems and academic health centers. He has specific expertise improving interdepartmental communication, optimizing health information systems, and building, training and staffing in-house physician adviser programs.
• Kristine Hartley is a principal with more than 20 years of healthcare IT technical experience. She has vast expertise with reporting, report conversion, technical projects, and data mapping. As a leader, she has successfully directed numerous technical projects for clients, providing high-end expertise, lessons learned and industry best practices. Her proven and effective leadership has resulted in successful report conversion projects, technical integration projects, data extraction/mapping initiatives, and multiple implementations.
• Bridget Hayes is a principal with more than 25 years of healthcare experience, serving in leadership positions in both consulting and hospital environments. Bridget’s areas of expertise include healthcare strategy, operations, management structure redesign, and shared services.
• Kate Katz is a principal with more than 18 years of experience as an organizational change consultant and speaker, who specializes in working with organizations to create an environment of psychological safety, evolving their culture, team structures and processes for the future. She has deep expertise helping healthcare providers, payors, educators, and commissioners assess their organizations, identify areas for improvement, develop actionable future-state strategies, and support leaders through the transformation process.
• Amanda Kirkland is a principal with more than 16 years of experience in ambulatory leadership and medical group consulting. She has specific expertise in improving performance of providers and staff, enhancing ambulatory operations, and ensuring sustainable changes for all types of healthcare organizations, physician organizations, and ambulatory practices.
• Leah McCanna is a principal with more than 14 years of experience leading large-scale healthcare consumer experience and performance improvement engagements. She has led engagements, including consumer experience design facilitation and strategy development, journey mapping, and experience-related operational improvement engagements. Leah leads the development and delivery of Huron’s consumer transformation solutions.
• Christopher McElroy is a managing director with more than 22 years of experience helping clients across industries plan, build, and sustain organizational and operational transformation by optimizing their supply chain. He provides clients innovative supply chain solutions that empower them to elevate and optimize their systems and operations, unlock efficiency and productivity, achieve their business goals, and drive revenue.
• Brendan McHugh is a managing director with more than 15 years of experience leading large ERP implementation teams in higher education and healthcare, managing programs to achieve delivery on time and within scope and budget.
• Ellen McLaughlin is a principal with more than 20 years of experience helping cancer centers, academic medical centers and other research institutions prepare for the future. She specializes in guiding and advising leaders through research enterprise transformation and strategic planning.
• Wendy Meister is a managing director with more than 20 years of experience advising 30 research institutions, academic health centers and hospitals on ways to enhance institutional cost recovery and transform their approach to research administration.
• Eisar Mortazavi is a managing director with more than 13 years of expertise in advising clients on technology solutions including ERP/EPM, business intelligence, robotic process automation, and process mining tools to help streamline planning processes, reporting, and analytics improvements.
• Whitney O’Brien is a principal with more than 19 years of managing complex projects, implementing change management strategies, deploying technology enhancements, ensuring ongoing process improvement, and supporting change with appropriate communication strategies.
• Tom Olsen is a principal and an experienced leader with a track record of leading innovation, strategy, and cross-functional teams to drive results through both tactical improvement and transformational change. He is skilled at analyzing requirements and translating business needs into comprehensive technical strategies, road maps, build and implementation plans and architecture.
• Anthony Racki is a managing director with more than 15 years of experience guiding organizations through digital transformation. He is a healthcare technology and electronic health record (EHR) expert who works with healthcare providers to leverage current and planned technology investments to increase efficiency, improve clinical care, accelerate revenue cycle performance, and enhance the patient experience.
• Sounder Rajan is a managing director and technology and analytics expert with more than 17 years of experience helping organizations modernize their financial systems. Sounder has extensive experience leading large delivery teams responsible for implementing Oracle’s cloud-based solutions for budgeting, planning, profitability and cost management.
• Jennifer Ramey is a principal with more than 20 years of experience in higher education administration with a focus on strategy and operations improvements to enhance performance and maximize effective utilization of funds and campus resources. She is recognized for her strong communication and crisis management skills and ability to engage and increase employee and student satisfaction and success.
• David Richardson is a managing director with more than a decade of experience advising universities, children’s hospitals and cancer centers on ways to strengthen their approach to research administration. David works with organizations to identify and deliver operational and technology improvements to fulfill their strategic research initiatives. He oversees the technical teams responsible for helping institutions build, integrate and maintain solutions that automate research finance and administration.
• Nicole Risey is a managing director with more than 15 years of experience helping complex multifacility healthcare providers transform their revenue cycle, and design and implement leading-practice enhancements in large academic medical centers, public sector hospital systems and physician practices.
• Cathy Sales is a principal with a successful history overseeing project execution, implementing new processes, driving cultural change and collaborating with her clients to solve complex business challenges. She has specific expertise in patient access, case management, health information management, billing, collections, denials, and vendor management.
• Bobby Singh is a managing director with more than 10 years of healthcare experience focusing on financial and operational improvements. Bobby has led performance improvement consulting engagements for integrated health systems, academic medical centers, and community hospitals. His areas of expertise include management structure redesign and span of control, workforce optimization, and shared services, enabling him to assist healthcare provider clients with the achievement of their strategic goals.
• Lee Smith is a managing director with more than 16 years of experience working with institutions to champion transformation and successfully implement strategic, innovative initiatives. He specializes in guiding college and university leaders through efforts to evolve their organizations and strengthen their financial health, from operational assessments and process reengineering to fiscal analysis and technology implementations.
• Samba Subramanian is a principal with more than 20 years of experience helping global healthcare institutions improve performance and employee and patient engagement. Leading large-scale, end-to-end implementations, Samba brings expertise in strategic planning, revenue and growth planning, team building and motivation, culture development and refinement, healthcare analytics, and change management and adoption.
• Marisa Zuskar is a managing director with more than 16 years of experience working with research institutions to transform their sponsored research and achieve operational improvements, as well as addressing a variety of research compliance challenges. Marisa focuses on organizational transformation of sponsored programs across the award life cycle, with specialized expertise in pre-award, post-award, and research regulatory compliance.

ABOUT HURON

Huron is a global professional services firm that collaborates with clients to put possible into practice by creating sound strategies, optimizing operations, accelerating digital transformation, and empowering businesses and their people to own their future. By embracing diverse perspectives, encouraging new ideas and challenging the status quo, we create sustainable results for the organizations we serve. Learn more at www.huronconsultinggroup.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230109005316/en/

Allie Bovis
abovis@hcg.com

Source: Huron