Ken Chandler is a strategic healthcare leader with over 20 years of experience in health care operations. Prior to Opala, Ken was with Premera Blue Cross, most recently serving as senior vice president of National Accounts. In that role, he was responsible for an $8.9 billion business portfolio representing Premera’s largest, high profile, complex, and sophisticated employer clients. During this time, Chandler also served as Chairman of the Consortium of Health Plans Board of Directors and drove product solutions aimed at improving access to care and health innovations. He also served in a secondary role as CEO of Vivacity, a Premera-owned wellness company. Earlier in his career at Premera, Chandler served as vice president of National Account Operations and vice president of Operations for LifeWise Health Plan of Oregon, a Premera-owned company.
Scott Ross is a dynamic technology and product leader dedicated to bringing innovative collaboration to the areas of healthcare that need it most. Prior to Opala, he was a product leader at Teladoc Health, where he integrated multiple acquisitions into a unified telehealth product experience, advancing the vision of delivering whole-person care to over 75 million members across the world’s largest health organizations. At InTouch Health, Scott spent over a decade building provider experiences that pushed the boundaries of telemedicine—before the pandemic—in areas such as patient intake, clinical documentation, imaging, IoT fleet management, and analytics, ultimately leading to InTouch Health’s $1 billion acquisition by Teladoc in July 2020. Scott’s career has spanned nearly every role in software development, from automating global telecom infrastructure to crafting the front ends of business collaboration tools at enterprises such as Citrix (now GoTo). He has also launched startups, such as Keltronix, where he applied a healthcare mindset to ag-tech by enabling beekeepers to monitor hive health using patented edge-network video analytics. He has built several mission-driven teams and is most grateful for the amazing people he has met and worked with along the way. Scott holds multiple patents within healthcare and telecom and earned a BS in Computer Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Dr. Meghan Quint is a multi-functional leader with a diverse background in strategy, data and analytics, and innovation. She led several strategic partnerships with Silicon Valley startups to accelerate digital transformation and healthcare innovation at Premera Blue Cross and has held research and instructor positions at various universities with expertise in organizational effectiveness, leadership decision making, corporate culture, and change management. She is a master at translating and solving business needs through efficient and automated technical solutions, especially in the healthcare industry. She has a PhD and MA in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Seattle Pacific University and a BA in Business Administration and BS in Psychology from the University of Washington (Seattle). She is a champion for women at work and is passionate about leveraging data and technology to improve the US healthcare system.
Jay Erickson is a seasoned growth executive with over 20 years of experience in sales, business development, marketing, and go-to-market strategy. Specializing in the healthcare technology sector, Jay has successfully led high-performing sales teams and driven strategic initiatives across value-based care, physician groups, ACOs, FQHCs, hospitals, and health systems. His expertise is scaling start-up sales organizations, driving sustained revenue growth, and penetrating new markets. Throughout his career, Jay has held executive positions at various leading healthcare technology startups, including his latest role at Inbox Health, showcasing his extensive industry experience. Jay is known for his strategic approach, exceptional team leadership, and passion for helping healthcare organizations solve challenges through innovative technology solutions. His dedication to fostering forward-thinking outcomes and building lasting relationships has made him a standout leader in the industry.
Jessica Owens has over 20 years of Talent Management experience building high performance teams and products. Jessica launched her career in the IT consulting industry where she supported clients, such as IBM, Mayo Clinic, and Wells Fargo for 10 years. Next, she transitioned to internal roles growing Fortune 500 and startups alike, including Starbucks and Bungie. At Bungie, Jessica grew the studio from 128 to 600+ employees and launched two major products during her tenure. Most recently, she spent 5 years scaling Facebook’s Oculus AR/VR team both domestically and internationally with responsibilities across Recruiting, Research, Development and Product. As an advocate for diversity, Jessica is passionate about building a culture of equity and inclusion.
Kent Marquardt has over 30 years of healthcare experience with a track record of helping entrepreneurs create significant and successful enterprises. Kent joined Cardinal Partners as an advisor in 2017 and since October 2018 has served as a General Partner of the firm. Utilizing his over 30 years of healthcare and investment expertise, Kent’s investment focus at Cardinal is in AI and machine learning companies and technology-enabled services to drive next generation of member experience and engagement. Kent currently serves on the Board of Directors of Prealize, a Cardinal portfolio company and Brook. He is also a strategic advisor to VIM and Tuzag.
Prior to joining Cardinal Partners, Kent was EVP and CFO of Premera Blue Cross for 19 years, where he led Innovation and Strategic Investments. He drove early development and Premera investments in the several companies, including Landmark, Mobe, Prealize, and VIM. While at Premera, he led the development of the Blue CFO group and developed key relationships with a number of Blue plans, including Florida Blue, North Carolina, South Carolina, Highmark, IBC, Nebraska, Arizona, Tennessee, and Michigan.
Most recently, Kent has been CEO of Maverick Advisors, LLC, since July 2017. Maverick Advisors specializes in innovation and strategy with early stage companies and focuses on companies using advanced analytics and customer engagement to reduce healthcare inefficiencies. Kent has worked with a number of early stage companies to develop and refine their strategy and transition to a viable product offering. One example of this is his work with VIM to shift their focus to be an innovative referral management and curator of specialists, along with the connector of the last mile of healthcare services to the member, health plans, and providers.
Kent is also the managing partner of Balboa Winery and Stoney Vine Vineyard. Kent received his BBA degree in accounting from University of Wisconsin (Whitewater) and MBA from University of Wisconsin (Madison).
Tom McKinley has over 35 years of venture capital investment experience with a successful track record of helping entrepreneurs create significant and successful enterprises. Tom joined Cardinal Partners as an advisor in 2008, and since January 2009 has served as General Partner. Utilizing his over 35 years of technology investment expertise, Tom’s investment focus at Cardinal is in healthcare information technology, technology-enabled services, AI, ML, and blockchain in healthcare. Most recently, Tom has been the founding CEO and chairman of Prealize Health, a project in conjunction with Professors Arnold Milstein and Nigam Shah at Stanford University. Tom led the firm’s investment in 2009 in virtual care company, Teladoc Health (NYSE: TDOC), a telehealth services provider of doctor consults to consumers. At Opala, a data automation partner that makes payer-provider collaboration easier and more reliable, Tom was the founding CEO and helped form a founding team in partnership with Premera Blue Cross.
As an alumnus, Tom maintains close ties with Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, as well as Harvard University, where he serves as class secretary and started the Harvard College i3 Innovation Challenge, an undergraduate startup competition. Tom received his AB degree in Economics from Harvard University, MS in Accounting from the Stern School of Business at New York University, and MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Dr. Julia Adler-Milstein is a Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for Clinical Informatics and Improvement Research. She is a leading researcher in health IT policy with a specific focus on electronic health records and interoperability. She has examined policies and organizational strategies that enable effective use of electronic health records and promote interoperability. She is also an expert in EHR audit log data and its application to studying clinician behavior. Her research identifies obstacles to progress and ways to overcome them and is used by researchers, health systems, and policymakers.
Julia has published over 100 influential papers, has testified before the US Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, has been named one of the top 10 influential women in health IT, and has won numerous awards, including the New Investigator Award from the American Medical Informatics Association and the Alice S. Hersh New Investigator Award from AcademyHealth. She has served on an array of influential committees and boards, including the NHS National Advisory Group on Health Information Technology, the Health Care Advisory Board for Politico, and the Interoperability Committee of the National Quality Forum. Her private sector experience includes advising numerous health IT companies and time as a consultant at Accenture.
Julia holds a PhD in Health Policy from Harvard and spent six years on the faculty at University of Michigan prior to joining the University of California San Francisco as a Professor in the Department of Medicine and the inaugural director of the Center for Clinical Informatics and Improvement Research.
John Wray is a global healthcare executive and corporate officer with over 25 years of leadership experience in the healthcare industry. John served as the Senior Vice President of Delivery System Collaboration at CIGNA for 9 years, where he was responsible for network contracting and establishing collaborative relationships with health care providers in domestic and international markets, including joint ventures. John also spent 14 years as Senior Vice President of Managed Care at CommonSpirit Health, a healthcare delivery system with 43 hospitals across the US. John has a J.D. and BA in Political Science and Sociology from Indiana University.
