events

Ian Adler has been responsible for overall healthcare strategy and policy at the Marwood Group since 2001. Mr. Adler provides strategic advisory services to the firm’s diverse healthcare client base of financial sponsors, healthcare lenders and both for-profit and not-for-profit healthcare corporations on regulatory, legislative, reimbursement, and general healthcare strategy.

Previously from 1996 to 2000, Mr. Adler was the Chief Financial Officer of CarePlus Health Plan, a Medicaid HMO acquired by AMERIGROUP in 2005. Mr. Adler was a member of the senior management team that established the company's Medicaid managed care, CHIP, and long-term care Medicaid managed care programs. Mr. Adler is also the former Vice President of Greater New York Health Care Facilities Association, a healthcare trade association in New York City that provides legislative, regulatory, labor relations and revenue cycle management services to nursing homes, assisted living facilities, home care agencies and ambulatory facilities.

Mr. Adler received his Masters of Public Administration in Healthcare Financial Management and Policy from New York University and his Bachelors of Science degree from Skidmore College.

Ms. Brier has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Maimonides since 1995, responsible for management of the hospital and for ensuring that the highest standards of clinical excellence, patient care and graduate medical education are met. During her tenure at Maimonides, Ms. Brier has raised the level of patient care, implementing new technology to support medical services. Ms. Brier has directed the Center\'s efforts to improve patient care by implementing new state-of-the-art information technology systems, recruiting top quality physicians, nurses and support staff and expanding clinical services and facilities. From 1992-1995, she served as Executive Director of Bellevue Hospital Center, New York City\'s oldest and largest public hospital. At the same time she also served as Senior Vice President of the Southern Manhattan/Northern Brooklyn Network of hospitals at the Health and Hospitals Corporation where she oversaw the management and had direct responsibilities for the fiscal and clinical operations of a $2 billion multi-hospital system, as well as the citywide Emergency Medical Services (EMS), and the operations of the HHC central office. During Ms. Brier\'s earlier tenure (1989-1992) as Executive Director of Jacobi Hospital, an acute care facility in the Bronx, she oversaw the installation of the first large scale electronic patient care system in the United States, providing improved and coordinated quality medical care through information technology. Ms. Brier\'s commitment to public health policy and community service are reflected in her many professional activities. They include appointments by: Mayor Michael Bloomberg to the New York City Board of Health and the New York City Workforce Investment Board; Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to membership on the Community Service Board; and Governor Mario Cuomo to the New York State Hospital Review and Planning Council and special Task Force on Health Care Reform. Ms. Brier holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree with honors from the University of California at Berkeley and a Master of Public Health in Health Administration from the University of California at Los Angeles. She currently serves as an adjunct faculty member of the New York University Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.

Caleb DesRosiers, Senior Vice President, Managing Director at Entrée HEALTH—a Cline, Davis, and Mann Company.  Caleb serves as a U.S. and Global Health/Payer Policy and Market Access Advisor to a number of life science companies, patient advocacy groups, and healthcare providers. In his role Caleb is focused on creating and executing market access and policy strategies for Entrée HEALTH clients.

Simon leads the US Life Science and Healthcare practice at Deloitte Corporate Finance LLC (DCF). He has provided advice on numerous M&A transactions representing both global multinational organizations as well as privately held family owned businesses. Prior to joining DCF, Simon was a Director at Houlihan Lokey where he specialized in financial restructuring and in the global investment bank of UBS. He started his career in finance at Chase Manhattan Bank.

Mr. Johnson is an experienced entrepreneur, having launched eight communications-related enterprises beginning with the Minnesota Collaborative, now in its 16th year, which publishes a venture journal (New Venture Review) that profiles early stage private companies, runs monthly networking events and annually hosts one of the largest venture capital conferences in the Midwest. Presenting companies have raised in excess of $2 billion since 1994. www.collaborative.net Mr. Johnson\'s publishing background is as founder and Editor-in-Chief of Minnesota Ventures magazine, a regional business publication focusing on small and growing companies in the region. He was also founder and publisher of Law & Politics magazine (now published monthly in Minnesota and Washington), www.lawandpolitics.com. His health care experience began in pharmacy, where he worked with the National Community Pharmacists Association and founded Cornerdrugstore.com, which as CEO, he built into an online network of almost 2,000 participating local drugstores throughout the United States. More recently his firm served as a senior consultant with Health Integrated, www.healthintegrated.com where he provided a broad range of services ranging from branding, marketing, training, communications as well as financing and investor relations. He has been instrumental in helping the company become one of the fastest growing healthcare companies in the United States. In the not-for-profit sector, Mr. Johnson formed the Environmental Initiative in 1990 to address regional environmental issues by bringing together environmental groups with industry and government. The organization has become a model for other regional environmental initiatives www.mn-ei.org. In 2002 Mr. Johnson founded the Charity Network of New York City which raises funds for small charities in the region www.cnnyc.org Also in 2002, he created the Harvard vs. Yale Charity Polo Match. www.hypolo.com His firm, BR Johnson Group, which is based in New York City is developing a series of Investment Digests and Portals to serve the communications needs of investors and emerging companies in healthcare and life sciences. The firm consists of a team of talented programmers, writers, researchers and designers experienced in all areas of communications including design, branding, database and web development, and industrial video. BRJG\'s emphasis is on innovative uses of technology to facilitate improved communication. Mr. Johnson received his degree in Economics from Harvard University.

Gala Prabhu is a senior manager in the Provider Administration (Revenue Cycle) practice at Accenture LLP, a global management consulting firm.  She has over twelve years of health care management experience, concentrating in the areas of Strategy and Revenue Cycle (patient access and accounts receivable) management at the Provider facility and multi - facility levels.  Gala has led several large scale transformation engagements in New York for Accenture.

Gala holds a BA from Coe College in Iowa and an MS and PhD in Molecular Biology from New York University.  Gala lives in New York city with her husband Rajeev and two children, Uma and Ram.

Barbara Ryan, Managing Director, joined Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. in April 1992 as a senior analyst covering Pharmaceuticals, focusing primarily on the U.S. majors. In 2005, she extended her coverage to include the major U.S. drug distributors. Barbara has been recognized twice by the Wall Street Journal All-Star Analyst survey, and is a four-time member of the Institutional Investor All-America Research Team (most recently in 2003). Barbara has been following the U.S. pharmaceutical industry since 1982. Prior to joining Deutsche Bank, she was at Bear Stearns & Co. for eight years and followed that with two years at Prudential Securities. Barbara studied at the University of Massachusetts, and majored in Finance.

Mark Wagar currently serves as President and CEO of Empire BlueCross BlueShield, the leader in providing health insurance coverage to over 5 million New Yorkers including individuals, families, and seniors across a diverse spectrum of community, culture, age, geography, employment, labor and economic status. A 33 year veteran of healthcare services, Mark brings a strong combination of health plan and provider management experience in both for-profit and non-profit organizations . His leadership roles prior to Empire included positions at Caremark, CIGNA HealthCare, and other managed care organizations , as well as with hospitals, physician groups, and outpatient care providers . Mr. Wagar and his wife of 34 years, Ellen, live in Manhattan and are both graduates of The Ohio State University. An experienced officer as well as director in public, private, community, and charitable organizations. Mr. Wagar currently serves on a number of private and community organizations. He is a board member for the Partnership for New York City, the Citizens Budget Commission, OxySure, Inc. and the Battery Park Conservancy, as well as a member of the Steering Committee of the Association for a Better New York (ABNY). He has been recognized as a Distinguished Alumnus of The Ohio State University, a recipient of the Dr. Jonas Salk Memorial Mentor in Medicine Award, and a member of the 1971 Big Ten Champion Ohio State University Basketball Team.

Rick ZallÕs law practice focuses on corporate and regulatory representation of a wide array of public and private health care clients, predominantly in the health care services, managed care, information technology, and medical device sectors. Rick provides counsel in the planning and execution of transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, equity and debt financings, and the structuring of joint ventures and contractual relationships among various health industry parties. He also represents health care clients on matters of state and federal regulatory compliance and reimbursements and negotiations with governmental agencies. Prior to joining Proskauer Rose, Rick was a partner at Mintz Levin, as well as a founding partner of Kalkines, Arky, Zall & Bernstein, LLP, a New York-based health care law firm. He also brings substantial business and industry experience to his client representations, having served as a co-founder and CEO of a venture-backed medical management company in the late 1990s. Rick has also served as a senior advisor to several consumer electronics companies in connections with the development of new remote health care monitoring service lines. This industry knowledge has enabled Rick to advise health care companies and health sector investors in connection with business strategy development, identification of acquisition and partnership targets, and planning for public market or other exit strategies. Rick is a graduate of Brown University and New York University School of Law where he was a member of the Law Review and an Arthur Garfield Hays Fellow. He has directed two health industry studies for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is a frequent invited speaker at industry trade conferences.