Meet the speakers

David L. Holmberg is president and chief executive officer of Highmark Health, a $27.1 billion blended health organization that includes one of America’s largest Blue Cross Blue Shield insurers and a growing regional hospital and physician network. Based in Pittsburgh, PA, Highmark Health’s 44,000 employees serve millions of customers nationwide through the nonprofit organization’s affiliated businesses, including Highmark Inc., Allegheny Health Network, HM Insurance.

Holmberg is shaping the future of the healthcare industry by engaging with trade associations, regulators, peer organizations, strategic partners, and government to resolve critical health care issues. In 2016, Highmark Health sued the U.S. government in federal claims court, resulting in a 2020 Supreme Court ruling that affirmed that the federal government must fulfill its promises to preserve the trust that ensures the successful of public-private partnerships, including the ACA marketplace.

Despite national challenges including inflation and staffing, Holmberg has overseen Highmark Health’s consistently strong consolidated financial performance—proving the success of the blended health and diversified business model. During his tenure, the organization has grown from $15 billion in revenue in 2013 to $27 billion in 2023.

Holmberg has also expanded the footprint of the organization’s insurance markets to western and central New York and southeastern Pennsylvania, while also growing the government business segment. Allegheny Health Network has also grown to include 14 hospitals in western Pennsylvania and five multi-specialty medical malls.

Holmberg is investing to build a better-connected ecosystem for health, coverage and care, designed to improve the consumer and clinician experience. In 2022, Highmark Health launched My Highmark, a first-of-its-kind health platform providing seamless care navigation, shared care plans, virtual and digital health, simplified bill payment, and cost transparency to Highmark’s 7 million members.

Christine Turner is Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Santa Clara Family Health Plan (SCFHP). She brings more than 30 years of experience in health plan operations, information systems, and contract administration to SCFHP. As COO, Ms. Turner provides leadership and direction to operational areas including Customer Service, Enrollment & Eligibility, Grievance & Appeals, Marketing & Communications, Medicare Outreach, Provider Network Operations and Vendor Management.

Prior to joining SCFHP in 2015, Ms. Turner was Chief Operations Officer at Soundpath Health, a subsidiary of Catholic Health Initiatives, having previously held positions at Soundpath Health in Network Development and Sales & Marketing. Before joining Soundpath Health, she held operations and provider network management positions at The Polyclinic (Seattle) and PacifiCare of Washington.

Ms. Turner earned her undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Washington.

Jeff Leger is President of Shoppers Drug Mart, a leading Canadian pharmacy retailer and one of the most trusted retail brands in the country. Shoppers Drug Mart is a division of Loblaw
Companies Limited.

With its roots in pharmacy, Shoppers Drug Mart has been named one of the most admired companies in Canada on the Leger Reputation Ranking; one of the most trusted brands by the Gustavson Brand Trust Index, a study that gauged consumer trust in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic; and one of the most valuable Canadian brands in the Brandz 2020 report.

As the country’s leading pharmacy retailer, Shoppers Drug Mart has a network of thousands of established healthcare professional delivering care and wellness to millions of Canadians, both in-store and virtually.

In his role at Shoppers Drug Mart, Jeff oversees the enterprise-wide strategy to provide a digitally connected healthcare solution for Canadians, making care convenient and seamless. His team is responsible for a number of efforts to make healthcare more accessible to Canadians, including the introduction of the PC Health app, investments in virtual care through Maple, the expansion of the retail brand to The Health Clinic by Shoppers and the acquisition of Canada’s leading physical therapy clinics, Lifemark.

Jeff serves on the Board of 2 Digital Health startups: Maple and League, and is an active contributor to industry associations, including acting as past Chair of the NPAC Board of Directors
for several years.

In 2019, Jeff was recognized as Chain Drug Review’s 2019 Retailer of the Year. A proud native of Moncton, New Brunswick, Jeff is a licensed pharmacist and has worked in the
hospital and generic pharmaceutical manufacturing sectors prior to joining Shoppers Drug Mart in 2008 as Director, Category Management. Jeff holds a BSc. Pharm. from Dalhousie University and M.B.A. from Université de Moncton.

Lisa Prasad is the Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer for Henry Ford Health, a world-renowned integrated healthcare system in Detroit, Michigan. She has successfully created and driven the institution’s innovation strategy that leverages technology, intellectual property, and clinical expertise to improve quality and access of patient care. Henry Ford Innovations is recognized nationally as the leading innovation program for healthcare equity. Lisa has also led the System’s successful entry into international markets through licensed hospital projects in the Middle East and India, as well as the Global Technology Program for Henry Ford to partner with early-stage companies around the world and launch them in the U.S. market. Lisa’s diverse accomplishments spanning healthcare innovation, university administration, international business and community development have made her a respected and sought-after leader at the nexus of healthcare innovation and business value creation.

Tracy Saula is the Senior Vice President of Product & Health Experience for Highmark Health, a Pittsburgh-based national health and wellness organization and the second-largest integrated health care delivery and financing system in America. In this role, Tracy is responsible for leading the teams that develop health plan insurance products, revolutionize the digital experience, and design solutions aimed at optimizing the health care journey and experience for customers and clinicians. These solutions include offerings designed to manage or improve a person’s physical, mental, and social health with the goal of simplifying the care journey – freeing people to engage in their health by addressing head-on all the things they do not like about the health care system. In addition, they focus on clinician support by addressing the barriers that make it difficult for them to do what they do best – all supported by a new, transformative digital experience.

A passionate health executive with a broad array of experiences and successes at the health plan, provider, and integrated level, Tracy has a proven track record of developing new strategies and leading efforts to bring those strategies to life.

Before joining Highmark in 1998, Tracy worked as a CPA for KPMG. At Highmark Inc. and Highmark Health, Tracy has served in a series of leadership positions throughout Finance, Audit & Compliance, Transformation, and Strategy.

In her most recent role prior to joining the Living Health team, Tracy was the Senior Vice President of Operations at Allegheny Health Network.

Ashesh Desai is Head of Group Benefits, Manulife Canada which provides health benefits to over 23,000 employers across Canada and more than three million Canadians. Ashesh also oversees the International Group Program (IGP), a network of global insurers who collaborate to support some of the largest multinational companies’ pool benefit costs globally to better manage their employee benefits programs.

Before joining Manulife, Ashesh spent 21 years with Shoppers Drug Mart, most recently as Executive Vice President, Pharmacy and Healthcare. In that role, Ashesh oversaw the healthcare businesses and pharmacy strategy and operations for the pharmacy and health businesses.

Kevin Manemann is executive vice president and chief integration officer, Clinical Enterprise, for City of Hope, in this role, Manemann leads clinical enterprise integration initiatives across City of Hope, including patient access, strategic program development and system integration, regionally and on an enterprise-wide basis.

Before joining City of Hope, Manemann spent 20 years in progressive leadership positions with Providence St. Joseph Health in Renton, Washington. He most recently served as the chief executive of the Southern Division, which includes California, overseeing 17 hospitals, a physician organization, surgery centers, immediate care centers, community care agencies and a health plan with 700,000 lives covered, with combined revenues in excess of $12 billion. Prior to this, he served as executive vice president and chief executive for Providence Physician Enterprise across eight states. Earlier, he held senior leadership roles with St. Joseph Heritage Healthcare and was president and chief executive officer for over five years before merging the health system into Providence St. Joseph Health.

Manemann holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Iowa and a Master of Arts in organizational leadership from Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington.

At Google, Amy is an executive on the Global healthcare and life sciences solution strategy team, serving as the global solutions leader of their rapidly growing health plans business. She leads the vision, strategy, and execution of the industry product strategy. Amy drives business transformation innovation with emerging products leveraging Google’s industry leading interoperability, analytics and AI/ML capabilities. Amy works with leadership of global strategic clients, resources across Alphabet and partners in the cloud eco-system to create solutions improving end user experiences and value, operational efficiencies and positive social outcomes.

Amy serves as a featured speaker throughout the industry at organizations such as HIMSS, AHIP, Matter, HealthImpact. Recent speaking topics include delivering on the patient experience, leveraging technology to bridge healthcare inequities, women in tech, and meeting compliance and security requirements through use of cloud technology.

Prior to joining Google, Amy spent 20 years working with PwC in New York, Chicago and San Francisco, leading market growth strategies for emerging markets, new service lines and brands as well as leading in market “turn-around” situations. Afterwards, Amy became a partner at The Chartis Group, a healthcare advisory firm where she was focused on organic and inorganic strategic growth initiatives. Amy and her teams have been recipients of several awards including: 5 AVA gold awards for digital innovations, The Financial Communications Society’s “Differentiating a 21st Century Professional Services Firm” award and the Brandon Hall “Excellence in Learning” award. Amy has also been the recipient of the President’s Council on Service, the National Service to Youth Awards as well as several Innovation awards.

Amy has an undergrad degree from the University of Pittsburgh and an MBA in technology and strategy from Loyola University of Chicago. She has served on the ULC and San Francisco Boys and Girls Club Boards, is on the National Make-a-Wish Board, the American Health Association Chicago Heart Ball Board and serves on the Advisory Board to the Dean at Loyola University of Chicago.

Mike Serbinis is the co-founder and CEO of League. Previously, he was founder and CEO of digital reading company Kobo, the only global competitor to Amazon’s Kindle. His transformative career as an entrepreneur, engineer, pioneering technologist and investor includes founding and growing DocSpace—a messaging service that ran one-third of the world’s email. Today, Mike is a member of the Board of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, the Board of the Creative Destruction Lab, the Board of Trustees at the Ontario Science Centre, and YPO.

Stacy Byers is Senior Vice President of Experience, Design, & Digital for Highmark Health. In this role, Stacy is responsible for setting the vision and experience strategy for the enterprise, partnering with business teams to transform the way we work together to meet and exceed customer needs, and embedding research, insights, and human-centered design into our approach. Stacy and her team are responsible for Highmark’s digital transformation, working together to create remarkable digital experiences that will allow our customers and clinicians focus on health.

At Highmark since 2001, Stacy spent much of her career focused on delivering digital solutions. She has led diverse teams throughout her career at Highmark, including strategy and design, digital operations and software development, social media, e-commerce and CRM, content and copy, and cost transparency solutions.

Prior to joining Highmark, Stacy was a professor of English at Clarion University. She also taught writing workshops for high school students in partnership with the International Poetry Forum and the Indiana County Summer Happening arts program. Stacy holds a BA in English from Clarion University and a MA in Literary and Cultural Theory from Carnegie Mellon University.

Coreen Dicus-Johnson is President and CEO of Network Health, a Wisconsin corporation offering commercial and Medicare Advantage health insurance plans for employers, individuals and families, where she dedicates herself to the organization’s Mission of building healthy and strong Wisconsin communities. For more than 25 years, Coreen has been a Milwaukee area health care executive. Prior to joining Network Health, she held progressive leadership roles at Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare, now part of Ascension, serving as Senior Vice President of Payer, Revenue and Physician Operations and as a Market President responsible for three hospitals and physician operations in the central market. Sharing her time and talent with the community is Coreen’s passion and purpose. Coreen is actively serving, and over the past 25 years has served, on boards and committees of more than twenty non-profits helping to raise tens of millions of dollars all focused on improving the lives of people in the community. Coreen earned her undergraduate degree from Marquette University and a Juris Doctor from DePaul University College of Law.

As SVP of Customer & Engagement Experience Solutions at enGen, a wholly owned healthtech subsidiary of Highmark Health, Jennifer Magaro leads the digital and print technology teams where she focuses on driving an exceptional omni-channel experience for our customers.
Previously, Jennifer led the digital member experience program, and she led the diversified business technology platforms of Highmark Health, focusing on the United Concordia Dental and HM Insurance Group platforms, servicing over nine million members nationwide.
With more than 25 years’ business and technology leadership experience, Jennifer has a proven track record in her field, showcasing a skillset that includes platform ownership, portfolio management, process improvement, delivery methodologies, and employee engagement.
An active supporter of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs throughout her local community, Jennifer is a board member of the Technology Council of Central Pennsylvania and is an advisory board member of the STEM-Up Network.
Jennifer holds a master’s degree in management information systems from Shippensburg University, and a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Pittsburgh. Jennifer resides in Central Pennsylvania and is married to her husband, Shawn, and has two children, Nick and Gabe.

Dr. Olatokunbo Alli, a distinguished figure in Nigeria’s healthcare sector, currently holds the esteemed position of Chief Executive Officer at Leadway Health, the country’s premier and fastest growing Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) in West Africa. Educated at esteemed institutions worldwide, he received his Medical Degree from Olabisi Onabanjo University, Nigeria and his postgraduate degree in Public Health from the Yale University School of Public Health, with a concentration in Healthcare Financing, Policy and Management.

With an illustrious career spanning medical operations, policy analysis, and health insurance management, Dr. Alli embodies a steadfast commitment to revolutionizing healthcare accessibility, affordability, and quality. His major areas of interest include Universal Healthcare Coverage and developing sustainable healthcare delivery models. He began his health insurance career as a Policy Analyst at the Connecticut Health Insurance Exchange (USA), which was set up to implement the Universal Health Coverage program in the state (Obama Care). Upon his return to Nigeria, he joined AXA Mansard Health as a founding employee and exited AXA in January 2021 as the Head of Operations and Medical Services.

Dr Alli is an alumnus of the Global Health Delivery Program, Harvard School of Public Health and the IHT executive program at INSEAD Business School. He is also a member of the Chartered Insurance Institute of London, Royal society of Public Health, American Quality Society and the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria.

With a rich tapestry of academic achievements, professional accolades, and a steadfast commitment to societal impact, Dr. Olatokunbo Alli stands as a paragon of excellence, shaping the future of healthcare in Nigeria and beyond.

You may not recognize Matthew Luhn’s name, but you definitely know his work: The Simpsons, Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, Monsters Inc., Monsters University, Finding Nemo, Cars, Up, and Ratatouille. After a stellar 30 year career at Disney/Pixar, he turned his focus to helping the corporate world leverage the art and science of storytelling for business success, authoring The Best Story Wins and consulting to companies such as Charles Schwab and Adidas. A top speaker on storytelling, creativity and innovation, he has delighted a range of Fortune 1000 audiences including Apple, Capital One, Clorox, Facebook, Gartner, Google, Microsoft, PayPal, Procter & Gamble, Sony, Target, and Vrbo. His keynotes and workshops have been featured at BNY Mellon, BMW, Walt Disney Imagineering, Walt Disney Family Museum, Lego, Prudential Insurance, Salesforce, Volkswagen, Wells Fargo, and many more.

David Bates, PhD, is the CEO and co-founder of Linus Health. He is a scientist, engineer, inventor, entrepreneur and investor. David was a founding partner of Tamarisc Ventures and he co-founded Bode, a tech-enabled hospitality company for group travel. He is on the board of several technology companies, as well as the philanthropic TMCity Foundation. David has previously held positions at Morningside Ventures, F-Wave, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, University of Louisville, and Georgia Tech. David earned his PhD in Chemical and Materials Engineering from the University of Auckland and earned his BS and MSc in Applied Biology from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He resides in Boston with his wife and kids.

Julie Nix is a native of Arkansas and has worked in the healthcare industry in central Arkansas
for over 28 years. She serves as Baptist Health’s corporate vice president of Women and
Children’s, Surgery and Rehabilitation Services.

Julie’s journey in healthcare began with a desire to help people, which initially led her to pursue
a career in nursing. However, she soon realized she could significantly impact others from a
different perspective. Transitioning to healthcare administration was a pivotal decision that
allowed her to profoundly influence the lives of others. Since the mid-nineties, Julie has been at
the forefront of strategic growth, development, and clinical quality improvement initiatives,
shaping the healthcare landscape in central Arkansas.

Julie holds a master’s degree in health services administration from the University of Alabama
at Birmingham and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of
Arkansas at Little Rock.

Dr. Sharief Taraman, is dual board-certified in Neurology with special qualifications in Child Neurology from the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and Clinical Informatics from the American Board of Preventive Medicine.

Dr. Taraman was the former Division Chief of Pediatric Neurology at Children’s Health of Orange County and University of California-Irvine. He remains an active member of the medical staff and the Sharon Disney Lund Medical Intelligence, Information, Investigation, & Innovation Institute at CHOC.

He is a Health Sciences Associate Clinical Professor at UC Irvine School of Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics and Affiliate Professor at Chapman University, Dale E. and Sarah Ann Fowler School of Engineering.

Dr. Taraman is active in the community as the past president of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Orange County Chapter, board member of AAP-California, and committee member for the development of the AAP National CHILD health registry. He also serves on the Irvine Unified School District Medical Advisory Board, volunteers for the Capistrano Unified School District and with Girl Scouts of Orange County.

Recognized globally as an innovator and specifically an advocate in the field of pediatrics, Dr. Taraman has been involved with the development of three FDA designated breakthrough devices, awardee of the prestigious National Capital Consortium for Pediatric Device Innovation grant, and is an advisor to Board of Directors for the International Society for Pediatric Innovation.

He is the Chief Executive Officer at Cognoa and formerly served as the Chief Medical Officer leading the clinical trials that led to the FDA authorization of Cognoa’s lead product, Canvas Dx, the first and only FDA authorized AI based diagnostic device for autism for children 18-72 months old with concern for developmental delay.

Dr. Taraman graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Michigan having majored in Biochemistry. He completed his medical education at Wayne State University School of Medicine and went on to complete residency training in Pediatrics and Pediatric Neurology at the Detroit Medical Center and Children’s Hospital of Michigan.

Sarah is the Vice President of Product at League. She brings nearly two decades of healthcare technology experience and expertise across providers, payers and health tech companies.

Sarah is committed to building game-changing products for healthcare that allow consumers to feel empowered and confident about their healthcare decisions. She is passionate about building product teams who are experts in their fields and are similarly determined to change the healthcare industry.

Prior to joining League, Sarah was the Chief Product Officer at Quartet Health, where she developed products aimed at tackling the nationwide mental health crisis and providing access to high quality mental health care to patients and members across the United States.