Leadership Bios

Ms. Noreen’s regularly presents for client board of director meetings and is a keynote speaker for webinars on healthcare trends and product opportunities. In addition, she advises capital investors on healthcare trends, organizational competencies and market maturity. Her experience spans several areas of healthcare including Payer and Provider markets for Commercial, Medicaid and Medicare programs. Examples include provider networks, medical devices, pharmaceutical, utilization and specialty benefits management, as well as payment integrity services.

Previously, Ms. Noreen served at Optum as Vice President of Payment Integrity for commercial, Medicare and Medicaid markets. She led Optum’s pre and post pay businesses that Fraud, Waste and Abuse, Claim Accuracy, Claim Edits, and Premium Audit Services.  Her teams generated over $200M in revenue annually.

At UnitedHealthcare, she designed and implemented the clinical analytic platform and analytic development that supported the identification over $750M in medical cost savings. She is the primary inventor of a patent on the method and systems of analyzing healthcare data.

Prior to joining UnitedHealth Group, Ms. Noreen’s experience included leading Clinical Analytics, standardizing pricing, developing payor mix and reimbursement contract strategy for Fairview Health Systems. She also developed the Internal Audit Department and assisted in the due diligence of the University of Minnesota Medical acquisition.

Before joining Fairview Health Systems, Ms. Noreen specialized in healthcare audit at LarsonAllen, LLP.

Ms. Noreen is a graduate of University of St. Thomas, and an inactive CPA. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Accounting and Business Management. In Rebecca’s leisure time, she spends time with her husband, daughter and two chocolate labs, learning and exploring local, national and international cultures as well as driving fun cars. She is thrilled when she can combine all of these loves together.

Paul’s experience encompasses operational leadership in the healthcare, disability, and life insurance arenas.  He is a payment integrity expert who developed both pre-payment and post-payment cost containment strategies resulting in billions of dollars in medical cost savings. Mr. Haberstock also launched and developed various post-acute care programs such as bundled payments and joint replacement for CMS, as well as work in the home health industry.

Previously, Mr. Haberstock served at Optum as Vice President of Payment Integrity, running the Fraud, Waste & Abuse, Claim Cost Management, and Audit & Recovery Operations departments, totaling over 1,000 employees globally. His teams saved over $1B in medical cost savings annually.

Prior to joining UnitedHealth Group, Mr. Haberstock had the responsibility of leading all strategic initiatives for CIGNA, including new claim system development and implementation, network expansion, and process development.

When not working, Paul enjoys spending time with his wife and two children attending concerts, shows, sporting events, and being outdoors.

Mr. Haberstock holds an MBA from Duquesne University and is a former officer in the United States Army.

Ms. Whitford has a successful track record leading healthcare organizations to mature analytics and systems, improve data sources, and develop new analytic capabilities and measures of performance. Flexibility to either lead or blend in with cross-functional teams made up of people with diverse skill sets, backgrounds and experience. Analytical thinker with the ability to translate the high-level aspirations and goals provided by clients, consultants and industry leaders to the detailed work of technical teams. Financial acumen to develop practical solutions, plans and product business case roadmaps that will ensure that the overall work effort creates value for the organization and its customers. 

Ms. Di Giacomo is a hands-on professional engineer with ability to quickly ascertain risks, gaps and strengths and translate into actionable remediation plans.  Jacqueline brings several years of experience from the nuclear industry where she worked to regulate the use of nuclear energy and materials to protect the health, safety, and the environment.

Ms. Di Giacomo successfully managed projects of various nuclear regulatory classes of licenses leading a team of specialists and engineers. Ms. Di Giacomo is passionate about environmental sustainability, community engagement and mentorship.  She continued this passion for the environment with several years of experience supporting community leaders to install pollution prevention projects, and educating community members in the field of storm water management.   She loves to empower all ages with scientific knowledge and translate that knowledge into the ability to make a difference in our world.

Steen is most passionate about enabling individuals and teams to perform at their highest to deliver a return on the IT investment made by the business. He considers project management and business analysis as much a communication and collaboration art as a management science, and enjoys developing and empowering the team.

Previously, Mr. Poulsen served at Optum as Sr. Director IT Project Management where he headed the Program Management team for several strategic initiatives, the largest of which was the 5 year, $100M+ new integrated healthcare Data Warehouse based on the Teradata DBMS (UDW). Steen and his team of seasoned program and project managers led all aspects of this large-scale effort with hands-on project management of a cross-functional and multi-disciplinary program team varying in size from 100 to 200+ healthcare and data warehousing experts. The UDW provided integrated and near-real time access to 50TB+ of medical and Rx claim history from five separate claims processing platforms.

Prior to assuming the Program Management responsibility for strategic healthcare analytics initiatives, Steen worked as a program manager on strategic assessments of healthcare organization and analytics opportunities at Healthia Consulting. Steen started his career in Healthcare data management at Express Scripts where he led a 3 year, $10M+ initiative that implemented Siebel CRM for account management functions including online benefit plan design configuration governed by underwriting assumptions and client service request management (First Impressions). Prior to developing the First Impressions system, Steen led the consolidated Clinical IT team and the successful integration of Clinical Systems across three separate companies. The resultant Integrated Medication Management System (IMMS) combined healthcare data and best of breed clinical capabilities from Express Scripts, ValueRx and DPS after the Express Scripts acquisitions in 1998 and 1999.

Mr. Poulsen earned a BA in Computer Science and Physics from MacMurray College.

Pat developed and implemented clinical care delivery programs that improved outcomes for the populations served, maximized staff resources, and increased revenues. Her experience includes human resource planning, operational design, organizational change, team building, organizational effectiveness and facilitative leadership.

She has experience nationally and internationally, has published, has received several honors and awards throughout her career, lead national nursing organizations, and is a clinical expert in the care of vulnerable populations. Her career has been dedicated to creating high quality, reliable systems of care and developing the next generation of health care professionals to lead in these ever-changing times.

Jennifer mentors graduate students entering the healthcare management workforce. She also holds board positions for MN HiMSS and several Cancer support organizations in both MN and FL.

Specialties:

• Statistical Analysis and Population Health
• Functional Medicine Management
• Portfolio and Program Management
• Lean Six Sigma and Agile Productivity Leadership
• Defining Operational Improvement Programs
• Situational Leadership Training and Coaching
• Strategic & Operational Planning
• Provider Collaboration Implementations

He has deep experience in Healthcare, with 15 years of developing applications and data warehousing systems for a Fortune 14 health plan. Among his many accomplishments there was development of one of the first daily data warehouses in the health care world, bringing insights to the business in hours instead of months. He also brought the telecommunications world one of the first reseller convergent billing platforms, allowing cross product billing between local, long distance, paging, phone system lease, video conferencing, and other telecom services.

He is skilled at taking on the big challenges, identifying an overall strategy and approach, breaking it into manageable chunks, and following up with crisp execution. His customer focus and business acumen has earned him a reputation with his business customers as a trusted advisor and key partner. His teams respect him as a leader and a mentor that provides clear direction and support. In his spare time he annoys his wife and three children with the many ways they can be more productive and efficient.

Prior to his analytics work in the health care industry, Nathan designed systems and data processes for many different companies in a variety of industries, including banking, military, retail, travel, among several others. His architecture and designs are driven by desire to streamline and automate critical processes that build and support business processes to maximize profits and minimize costs.

Since originating in large enterprise data warehouses, Nathan’s early exposure to big data analytics has enabled him to guide projects in a successful direction from disparate data to information to valuable insights. Past successes have yielded such benefits as saving nearly $1 million over the span of a year by standardizing and implementing governance to eliminate inaccurate regulatory reporting and 20% year over year increase in customer retention for an up-scale cruise line through enhanced segmentation and data enrichment.

When Nathan is not diving into data, he spends his time chasing his insanely busy children to sporting and club events or to the local mountain bike trails. And when time affords a little extra, Nathan devotes his time to volunteering for the local school district for such activities as the robotics club.

Mr. Cole earned a BA in Business Administration with a major in Management Information Systems from the University of Wisconsin.

Ms. Weihrauch has most recently worked for UnitedHealthcare (UHC) as Vice President of Operations for Medicare and Retirement.  During her twenty- three years at UHC she led many initiatives for Medicare and Retirement including the start-up of UHC’s Hospice business, Health plan integrations, built a premium collections function from the ground up, Operations implementation lead for House Calls as well as business lead for the Enrollment Administrative Process Improvement initiative. In addition, she was involved with several system initiatives including health plan migrations. Lois and her team successfully moved over 30,000 members to UHC platforms in six calendar days.

Prior to joining UHC, Lois served as Director of Patient Registration and the Business Office for North Memorial Medical Center and had primary responsibility for patient registration, billing, and accounts receivable.

Ms. Weihrauch also worked as Director of Operations for Partners National Health Plan for seven years.

Jason has held both Senior Business Analyst and Manager roles while with Optum and UnitedHealth Group.  His work at Optum focused on medical Fraud, Waste & Abuse through a number of channels including aberrant billing patterns, provider identify verification and medical record review, among others.  Jason also lead a team of Business Analysts in support of Medicaid provider data in support of various state regulator agencies.

Jason has experience working with Electronic Health Record systems, including replacing an existing EHR at MinuteClinic with a new system in a span of four months. While at MinuteClinic Jason identified a strategy to save over $1M in annual medical cost savings through a more streamlined use of medical supplies for one of the company’s key product offerings.

Jason earned a Bachelor’s degree from Viterbo University and currently holds a Registered Nurse (RN) license in the state of Minnesota.

Suzanne’s valuable experience has been gained in demanding, rapidly changing companies where responding to customer needs requires organized problem solving, motivation and continuous self-improvement. Industry experience includes Healthcare, Manufacturing, Oil, Nuclear and Aerospace.

Her expertise includes work with healthcare payers, PBM, and providers.

Through the Vikriti approach, Jolly helps organizations facilitate change when they face strategic challenges that require realignment, renewed commitment, or a new direction. This process engages all stakeholders through a human-centered approach that aligns everyone involved to the purpose, method, and mission.

She delivers proven results in the creation and execution of enterprise roadmaps that lead to optimization, process re-engineering, offshoring/outsourcing, reduction of operating costs and increased customer satisfaction.

Professional Experience

• Vikriti Management Consulting, Managing Member/Director
• Highmark Inc., VP, Client Delivery and Implementations
• Optum, VP Optum Cloud Operations, Payer Centralized Solutions
• UnitedHealthGroup, Sr. Director EDI Business Solutions
• PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Principal Consultant
• Deere & Co, and more

Education

• Bachelors of Science, Computer Engineering, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
• Masters, MBA, St. Ambrose University, Davenport, IA
• Women’s Senior Leadership Program, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

Ms. Kalish received a Bachelor of Science in Health Services Administration from UT Southwestern Medical Center’s Allied Health Sciences School and an MBA with top honors from Texas Christian University (TCU).  She is active in professional societies, holding a Certified Medical Practice Executive (CMPE) certification from the Medical Group Management Association and a certificate in business process analysis from University of Texas at Austin.  She is a graduate of Leadership Texas, serves on several academic advisory boards and holds an appointment as Adjunct Associate Professor in Health Management and Policy at University of North Texas Health Science Center. Ms. Kalish is a published author and a frequent presenter at professional conferences.

Prior to joining the PLSG, John held the position of President and Chief Executive Officer at NOMOS Corporation, an innovative leader in the field of radiation therapy treatment solutions for solid cancer tumors. At NOMOS, under John’s leadership, the Company grew from a $4 million domestic operation to a $30 million global healthcare company, and John led them through the initial public offering (IPO) process before merging with a public company in the radiation oncology sector.

Prior to NOMOS, John was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Secretary and Treasurer of Carnegie Group, Inc., a leading artificial intelligence company spun out of Carnegie Mellon University. As CFO, John led the IPO process, managing lawyers, accountants and investment bankers before presenting the company to investors in 22 cities in a global roadshow resulting in a successful IPO in 1995. John was also Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Government Business Unit and Manufacturing Business Unit, and directed more than 75 software systems developers. And, he was the lead in the merger with a publically traded software and services UK company in 1998.

Before Carnegie Group, John was a senior financial executive at Babcock & Wilcox Company, a leader in the power generation equipment industry, where he progressed through the ranks in finance, directed manufacturing scheduling for five facilities with over 7,000 employees and later was Group Controller, managing operations for a $600 million global organization with six operating divisions and joint ventures on 4 continents.

Healthcare segments include hospital, healthcare informatics, digital health & telemedicine, medical device, integrative medicine in provider, payer, pharmaceutical, insurer, public health sectors. Extensive experience in consulting, strategy development, product design / development, and structuring transactions.

Recent and current digital health and telemedicine strategic and proof of concept and commercialization product level works have been performed for Cleveland Clinic, Biogen, American Red Cross, Allegheny Health Network & Highmark, CVS Specialty Pharmacy, Express Scripts, Private Equity, and explosive growth Post-Acute clients. Invited as digital health and medical technology keynote speaker in China.

Gene has a M.Sc.Eng. and B.Sc.Eng. in Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Pittsburgh. Invited to the Committee on Oversight of Organ Transplantation in 2012.