Our Team

Donald Berwick, MD Former Administrator of CMS | Faculty of HMS, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Berwick, a pediatrician by training, is President Emeritus and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, which he co-founded and led for 19 years. He is the former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, appointed by President Obama. Dr. Berwick obtained his bachelor’s from Harvard College and earned an M.D. from Harvard Medical School and an M.P.P. from John F. Kennedy School of Government. He has served on the faculties of the Harvard Medical School (where he is currently a Lecturer in the Department of Health Care Policy) and the Harvard School of Public Health.

Vita Cassese Former Chief Information Officer, Pfizer

Ms. Cassese has over 30 years of operations experience at Pfizer Inc., a $67 billion Fortune 30 company. She has served as a member of multiple boards in the Pharmaceutical Industry. Ms. Cassese holds a bachelor’s in Mathematics from the College of Mount Saint Vincent and a master’s of business administration from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Jeremy P. Goldberg Former Senior Operating and Business Development Executive, Endo Pharma

Mr. Goldberg is an experienced healthcare/pharmaceutical deal maker with a combination of operating/financial/transactional/business development experience in companies from start-ups to $1 Billion+ sales-operating companies. He currently serves on the Dana Farber Cancer Institute Visiting Committee, NIH/Cambridge/Oxford International Biomedical Alliance board, and Einstein Health Network board.

John D. Halamka, MD Chief Information Officer/President, Mayo Clinic

John D. Halamka, M.D., is the Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Beth Israel Deaconess System, Chairman of the New England Healthcare Exchange Network (NEHEN), and a practicing emergency physician. He also serves as Professor of International Healthcare Innovation at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Halamka completed his undergraduate studies at Stanford University, where he received degrees in Medical Microbiology and a Public Policy with a focus on technology issues. He attended medical school at the University of California, San Francisco and simultaneously pursued graduate work in Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley focusing on technology issues in medicine. He completed his residency at Harbor–UCLA Medical Center in the Department of Emergency Medicine.

Chip Hance Former CEO, Creganna-Tactx

Mr. Hance served as President and CEO of Creganna Medical through its acquisition by TE Connectivity. He was previously Senior Vice President of the Vascular Division at Abbott and President of Abbott’s Diabetes Care business. Mr. Hance earned a bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and master’s of business administration from Harvard Business School.

Julie Klapstein Former Founder and CEO, Availity

Ms. Klapstein has been a senior executive and CEO at multiple healthcare IT companies and is on the board of BLS, Amedisys, QSI (NextGen), eSolutions, and Dominion Diagnostics. She was the founding CEO of Availity LLC. Ms. Klapstein earned her bachelor’s from Portland State University in Portland, Oregon.

Mary Mirabelli Senior Vice President, Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) | Hewlett Packard Global Healthcare Practice

Ms. Mirabelli currently serves as the Vice President of Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s Global Healthcare Practice. She previously served as National Chair for the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) and as a senior executive at Hospital Corporation of America (HCA). She received a master’s of management from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University and bachelor’s in Occupational Therapy from the University of Illinois.

Caroline Popper, MD, MPH Founder/President, Popper and Company

Dr. Popper is Founder and President of Popper and Company, a boutique life sciences consulting firm. She has 25 years of hands-on biotech/life sciences operating experience. An internist and pathologist, she combines this perspective with that gained from managing a wide spectrum of life sciences businesses in diagnostics, devices, and drug discovery. She received an M.D. from University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, and served as internist and pathologist at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Popper was also trained in Health Policy and Economics at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

David J. Shulkin, MD , Former Secretary of the US Department of Veterans Affairs

The Honorable Dr. David J. Shulkin was the ninth Secretary of the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Previously, he served as chief executive of leading hospitals and health systems including Beth Israel in New York City and Morristown Medical Center in Northern NJ, as well as the Chief Medical Officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University Hospital, and the Medical College of Pennsylvania Hospital. Dr. Shulkin founded and served as the Chairman and CEO of DoctorQuality, one of the first consumer orientated sources of information for quality and safety in healthcare. He received his medical degree from the Medical College of Pennsylvania, his internship at Yale University School of Medicine, and a residency and Fellowship in General Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Presbyterian Medical Center.

Christine Shuster CEO of Emerson Hospital and Chair of the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association (MHA) Board of Trustees, Emerson Hospital

Ms. Schuster is the President and CEO of Emerson Hospital, Inc. She previously served as President and CEO of Quincy Medical Center Inc. Ms. Schuster received a master’s of business administration from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and a bachelor’s in Nursing from Boston University.

David Strand Former COO, Cleveland Clinic

Mr. Strand has spent more than 30 years providing executive leadership to some of the nation’s leading health care institutions. He served as CEO of a number of early stage companies, including ExperiaHealth. He also served as COO of the Cleveland Clinic; COO of Allina Health System, a leading integrated health system; and CEO of Medica, one of the nation’s largest and most reputable health plans. David received his bachelor’s from Gustavus Adolphus College and his J.D. from the University of Minnesota. David currently serves on the boards of Riverside Partners, the San Francisco Symphony, and La Luz.

Mark Zitter Founder and Chair, Zetema Project

Mr. Zitter is Founder and Chair of the Zetema Project, a panel of healthcare leaders from the political left and right as well as all the major industry segments, whose goal is to inform the national healthcare conversation. He is the CEO and Founder of Zitter Health Insights, a market research and data firm focused on access to prescription drugs. He also was the founding CEO and Chairman of Vital Decisions, a telephone counseling service for patients with life-limiting illness. Mr. Zitter holds a bachelor’s from Wesleyan University and a master’s of business administration from Stanford University.

Jeff Hargroves Founder, ProPharma Group

Jeff founded ProPharma Group in 2001 to create a company that would partner with clients to provide compliance-related services for long-term solutions. ProPharma Group became a leading provider of regulatory and compliance services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device customers for clients from early concept development through each clinical phase, product launch, and commercialization. The Company's primary service offerings include regulatory affairs, life science consulting, pharmacovigilance and medical information services. The company grew to 1,200 employees with 5 US-based offices and 10 additional offices across Canada, UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Japan and Australia. ProPharma was acquired by Odyssey Investment Partners in 2020. Prior to ProPharma, Jeff served in leadership roles with Ivy Animal Health, ALZA, BES Company and Coopers-Pittman Moore. Jeff earned a B.S. in Computer Engineering and B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Missouri.

Jason Arcediano Chief Business Officer, Multiply Labs

Jason Arcediano serves as Chief Business Officer at Multiply labs. Previously, Jason was the SVP Business Development at AGC Biologics, a leading global Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO). He also served as General Manager and VP Americas for Rentschler Bio-Pharma Inc. Jason earned a B.S. in Neuroscience at University of California, San Diego.

Rick Riegel Former CEO, Phlexglobal

Mr. Riegel is the former Chief Executive Officer of Phlexglobal and the former Chief Executive Officer of Liquent (sold to Parexel in 2012), which was a portfolio investment for Marlin Equity Partners and today is a division of Parexel. He has more than 25 years of management experience in executive, sales, and practice leadership positions with technology and professional services firms serving the needs of pharmaceutical and life sciences organizations. Mr. Riegel currently serves on the Board of Directors of IRISS, an industry consortium focused on the successful implementation of electronic submission standards in the life sciences industry.

Lynn Stofer President, Partners Community Physicians Organization

Jim Datin Former CEO, BioAgilytix

Mike Lehmann Former President Global Pharma Development Services and Chief Commercial Officer, Patheon

Bankim Patel Former Executive Director of Capital Projects at Moderna , Moderna

Bankim is a 35-year veteran of the pharma/biotech industry. Prior to retiring, he most recently served as Executive Director of Capital Projects at Moderna for which he previously held roles as Senior Director of GMP and Capital Projects and Senior Director of Facilities, Engineering, and Validation. In his most recent role, Bankim was instrumental in the production of the COVID-19 vaccine. He led the projects to create additional production space which enabled the facility to deliver over 600 million doses during the first year of production, while also leading the maintenance and engineering organization based in Norwood, MA. During this time, he increased the staff from just himself to over 100 employees.

Previously Bankim served as Senior Director of Facilities and Engineering at Alexion Pharmaceuticals; VP of Facilities, Engineering, and Validation at ImClone Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly; and Director of Technical Services at Bristol-Myers Squibb. During his career, Bankim led capital projects to create production facilities, research facilities, office buildings, parking garages, vivarium, etc. with expenditures over $300 million. His experience includes over 15 years of operational leadership including maintenance, calibration, office services, EHS, and security and validation groups.

Bankim earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rutgers University.

Robert Coughlin Former CEO of Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, JLL

Bob is a Managing Director at JLL and is the New England’s Life Science Practice Group lead. He specializes in the representation of lab, GMP manufacturing and technology space. Bob most recently operated as the CEO of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, where his mission was to advance Massachusetts’s leadership in the life sciences to grow the industry. He has also held senior executive positions in the environmental services, capital management and venture capital industries.

Bob has spent his career in both the public and private sectors. Before joining MassBio, he served as the Undersecretary of Economic Development within Governor Deval Patrick’s administration, where he prioritized both healthcare and economic development issues and was a strong advocate for the life sciences industry in Massachusetts. Prior to that, he was elected as State Representative to the 11th Norfolk District of Massachusetts for three terms.

In 2011, the American Diabetes Association honored Bob with their Father of the Year Award. In 2012, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation honored Bob with the CF Foundation Volunteer Leadership Award and in 2013 he received the Boston Irish Business Award from the Boston Irish Business Association. In 2014, he was awarded for his leadership in Biotechnology by the Massachusetts Society for Medical Research. He received the NTSAD advocate of the year in 2015 and was named to the Boston Business Journal’s Power 50 and Top 50 Most Influential Bostonians. In 2016, he was honored with the Boston Biotech CEO Lifetime Achievement Award. His latest honors include the first-ever awarded Governor Paul Cellucci Fatherhood Award from the Children’s Trust and the Breath of Life Award from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (2017).

Robert is a graduate of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy where he majored in Marine Engineering and served as an officer in the United States Naval Reserve.

Ed Benz, MD President and Chief Executive Officer Emeritus, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Dr. Benz is President and CEO Emeritus of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and is the Richard and Susan Smith Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Faculty Dean Emeritus for Oncology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Benz has served as Chief of Hematology at Yale and Chief of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He was the Physician-in-Chief at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and previously was a member of the Board of the Massachusetts Life Science Council. Dr. Benz is a graduate of Princeton and Harvard Medical School and received his training in internal medicine and hematology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston Children’s Hospital, the National Institutes of Health and Yale University School of Medicine.

John Libertino, MD Senior Vice President, Emerson Hospital

Dr. Libertino currently serves as SVP of Emerson Hospital and Professor of Urology at Tufts University School of Medicine. He previously served as CEO, Director of the Cancer Center, Chair of Surgery, and Chair of Urology at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center. Dr. Libertino received his M.D. degree from the Georgetown University School of Medicine, where he also was an NIH fellow in cardiovascular research. He completed his residency in Urology at the Yale University School of Medicine, where he also served as a Harvey Cushing fellow in Surgery.

Deborah Nagle, MD Former Chief, Colorectal Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Dr. Nagle is Medical Director, Endomechanical and Surgical Oncology for Ethicon Inc., a Johnson & Johnson Company. Previously, she served as Chief, Colorectal Surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. She received an M.D. from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Edward K. Rodriguez, MD, PhD Chief, Orthopedic Surgery , Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Dr. Rodriguez is the Chief of the Division of Orthopedic Trauma at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He received a bachelor’s in Engineering and master’s in Biomedical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. He completed a Ph.D. in Bioengineering at the University of California, San Diego, and received an M.D. from Harvard Medical School.

Peter Rosenblatt, MD Director, Urogynecology/Pelvic Reconstructive Surgery, Boston Urogynecology Associates at Mt. Auburn Hospital

Dr. Rosenblatt is the Director of Urogynecology and Pelvic Reconstructive Surgery at Mount Auburn Hospital, as well as an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School. He received his undergraduate degree at Brown University, and an M.D. from Tufts University School of Medicine.

Christoph Wald, MD, PhD Professor & Chair, Department of Radiology at UMass Chan-Lahey; Vice Chair, Board of Chancellors of the American College of Radiology, Lahey Hospital and Medical Center

Dr. Wald currently serves as Chairman of the Department of Radiology, as well as President of the Medical Staff, at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center. He is a founding member of Rescue Lung, Rescue Life and has been the executive sponsor in radiology of the nationally renowned Lahey Lung Screening Program. Dr. Wald previously served as Vice Chair for the Department of Medical Education and Chair of the Graduate Medical Education Committee at the Lahey Clinic. He attended Rheinische Friedrich Wilhelms University, Rheinische Friedrich Wilhelms University Medical School and Aberdeen University Medical School. He has also earned a master’s of business administration from Babson College.

Stephen Zappala, MD Assistant Clinical Professor of Urology, Tufts University

Dr. Zappala is a Board-Certified Diplomat of the American Board of Urology, specializing in pediatric and adult urologic surgery, and also the Founder of Andover Urology. He currently serves as the Assistant Clinical Professor of Urology at Tufts University School of medicine and is a fellow at the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Zappala received a B.S. from Boston College and M.D. from University of Massachusetts Medical School.

John Keaney Jr., MD Chief, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine; Co-Executive Director, Heart and Vascular Center at Massachusetts General Brigham;, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School

Dr. Keaney is Chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Executive Director of the Brigham Health Heart and Vascular Center.

Dr. Keaney received his medical degree from Yale University School of Medicine and trained in both Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Keaney is board certified in both internal medicine and cardiovascular medicine. Before returning to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dr. Keaney was Chief of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Keaney’s clinical interests are in the treatment of acute coronary syndromes and valvular heart disease.

Dr. Keaney has authored over 230 publications is a recognized expert in the biology of blood vessels and is currently Associate Editor for the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Keaney is a frequent consultant to the National Institutes of Health in matters related to vascular health.