The leaders on this list run everything from a single cardiology center in rural New Mexico to a network of more than 370 sites. They’re working through the questions shaping outpatient surgery in 2026: which cases leave the hospital next, what anesthesia will cost and who owns the centers that do the work.
Note: Leaders are listed alphabetically. This list is not an endorsement of included individuals, organizations or their associated products.
1. Shakeel Ahmed, MD. Founder and CEO of St. Louis-based Atlas Surgical Group. Dr. Ahmed founded Atlas in 2003 and has spent about 25 years developing ASCs; the company now performs tens of thousands of procedures a year across multiple states. He writes a bimonthly column for Becker’s, is publisher and editor-in-chief of Surgery Business Magazine and has written nine books.
2. Cathie Biga, MSN. Chief strategy officer of Denver-based CardioOne. Ms. Biga joined CardioOne in October, when the company combined with CardioSphere and added Chicago-based Midwest Cardiovascular Institute. She served as president of the American College of Cardiology in 2024-25, the first non-physician in the role, and led Cardiovascular Management of Illinois as president and CEO, working with more than 100 providers and 14 hospitals. She was also the inaugural chair of MedAxiom’s board.
3. Terry Bohlke. CEO of Aventura, Fla.-based Keystone Surgical Partners. Mr. Bohlke took the helm in September at Keystone, a full-service ASC manager that pairs physician entrepreneurs with capital partners to build and run centers. He was previously vice president of ASCs at Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems. A former ASCA board president and former U.S. Navy commander, he has spent more than 20 years managing more than 100 ASC physician partnerships.
4. Peter Bravos, MD. Chief medical officer of the Surgery Center Division at Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health. Dr. Bravos oversees quality across the division’s 37 ASCs and surgical hospital, working in a dyad with the division’s CEO. Before Sutter, he spent two decades as a surgery center medical director and led physician and anesthesia groups. A board-certified anesthesiologist, he still practices anesthesiology and pain management in Yuba City, Calif.
5. Ravi Chari, MD. CEO of Tampa, Fla.-based Orthopaedic Solutions Management. Dr. Chari has led OSM since October 2024. In August, the management services organization completed its 23rd partnership, with Orlando Orthopaedic Center and its ASC, bringing it to 212 physicians and 504 providers across Florida. A surgeon who trained at Duke, he previously served as COO of InnovaCare Health.
6. Todd Currier, CASC. CEO and administrator of Bend (Ore.) Surgery Center. Mr. Currier was elected president of the ASCA board in May for a two-year term, after serving as treasurer since 2024. Bend Surgery Center, Oregon’s largest ASC provider, serves more than 20,000 patients a year. He previously ran ASCs in Wyoming, Montana and Washington, founded Wyoming’s state ASC association and is an officer of Oregon’s. He is a CPA and a fellow of the American College of Medical Practice Executives.
7. Jeffrey Flynn, CASC. Administrator and COO of New York City-based Gramercy Surgery Center. Mr. Flynn co-founded Gramercy in 2002 with Katy Ciang and helped grow its network to more than 350 physicians. He is president of the New York State Association of Ambulatory Surgery Centers and has spent more than 20 years in New York City healthcare. He was also Becker’s first “Administrator of the Week.”
8. Kimberly Fullone, BSN, RN, CASC. Administrator of Ambulatory Surgery Center of Niagara (Niagara Falls, N.Y.). Ms. Fullone has nearly 30 years in surgical nursing, including more than 15 at Brighton Surgery Center, where she rose to clinical director, and five as clinical director of Rochester Eye & Laser Center.
9. Charles Gressle. President of the Ambulatory Operations Group at Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare. Mr. Gressle took the new role Sept. 1, leading HCA’s Physician Services Group and overseeing its Surgery Ventures Group. He previously led HCA’s 14-hospital East Florida Division and was CEO of Medical City Plano (Texas). He started his career more than 30 years ago as a nursing technician and EMT paramedic, and joins the American Hospital Association’s board of trustees in January.
10. Gary Kirsh, MD. CEO of Cardiovascular Logistics. Dr. Kirsh, a urologist, co-founded and led Solaris Health, building it into the largest urology management services organization in the U.S., with 1,000 providers in 14 states, before Cardinal Health acquired it in 2025. In July, he became CEO of Cardiovascular Logistics, a cardiology MSO with more than 425 providers in seven states. His goal: outpatient-focused cardiology centers of excellence that operate independently of hospitals.
11. Winborne Macphail. CEO of Birmingham, Ala.-based SCA Health. Ms. Macphail became CEO in 2025 after more than a decade at SCA Health, most recently as COO and president. The company has more than 370 ASCs and specialty practices in 37 states, and her priorities include robotics, AI and moving higher-acuity cases into ASCs. She previously served as division president of Southeast operations at Apria Healthcare.
12. Travis Messina. CEO of Franklin, Tenn.-based Regent Surgical Health. In September, Regent formed a venture with Penn Medicine and Independence Blue Cross to build at least 18 ASCs across Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. A month earlier, it partnered with Integrated Surgical Center of Arizona in Avondale. Mr. Messina became CEO in 2023 after founding Contessa Health, a home-based acute care company.
13. Mahesh Mulumudi, MD. CEO and co-founder of Lynnwood, Wash.-based CardioNow. Dr. Mulumudi, an interventional cardiologist, launched CardioNow in 2025 with a team of physicians who left a healthcare organization to build an independent practice, with CardioOne providing technology, operations and staffing support. In January, the practice opened an Advanced Cardiac Center in Lynnwood offering coronary CT angiography and plaque analysis. “Our goal is to provide expert and timely cardiovascular services to our patients,” he said when the practice launched. He trained at Detroit Medical Center/Wayne State University and the Ochsner Clinic Foundation.
14. Kevin Plancher, MD. Founder of New York City-based Plancher Orthopaedics. Dr. Plancher owns his ASC independently and doesn’t hedge on why. “Independence drives physician performance every time,” he said at Becker’s Spine, Orthopedic and ASC conference in June. “Once you give up autonomy, it’s surrendered. It’s gone.” A sports medicine surgeon, he serves on the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons’ board of directors and is a physician for the U.S. Ski Team.
15. Chetan Puranik, MD. Founder and CEO of Centers for Pain Control (northwest Indiana). Dr. Puranik founded the practice in 2009 and now runs locations in Hobart, LaPorte, Munster, Valparaiso and Merrillville. Double board-certified in anesthesiology and pain medicine, he has added procedures such as genicular artery embolization and vein ablation as care moves outpatient. “The industry continues to trend aggressively towards outpatient procedural services,” he told Becker’s.
16. Christopher Raffo, MD. President of Watkins Mill Ambulatory Surgery Center (Gaithersburg, Md.). Dr. Raffo is a founding member of the center, which nine orthopedic surgeons from Maryland Orthopedic Specialists opened in March with two operating rooms and a procedure room. A sports medicine surgeon with more than 21 years in practice, he trained at Georgetown University and New England Baptist Hospital and has served as a team physician for the Boston Celtics.
17. Kenneth Rich, MD. Medical director and chair of the board at Raleigh (N.C.) Neurosurgical Clinic. Since Dr. Rich joined in 2013, the clinic has grown from two neurosurgeons to nine and runs its own ASC. He focuses on robotic and minimally invasive spine surgery, and argues that ASC profitability starts with case mix and reimbursement: “If you don’t understand those, you can’t maximize the profits of the surgery center,” he said at Becker’s Spine, Orthopedic and ASC conference in June.
18. Amanda Ryan, DO. CEO and owner of Advanced Heart and Vascular Center of New Mexico (Carlsbad). Dr. Ryan, an interventional cardiologist, brought electrophysiology in-house in 2025 after a six-month training program, sparing patients drives of three to four hours for care.
19. Benita Tapia, RN. Administrator and director of nursing at 90210 Surgery Medical Center and Precision Ambulatory Surgery Center (Beverly Hills, Calif.). Ms. Tapia has run Precision since 2010 and helped build 90210 Surgery Medical Center, a Cedars-Sinai affiliate, from the ground up. The center won the California Ambulatory Surgery Association’s ASC of the Year award in 2023 and its Award for ASC Excellence in 2023 and 2025. Her outpatient career began in 1982 at an ophthalmology ASC.
20. Daniel Tasset. Founder, CEO and executive chair of Leawood, Kan.-based NueHealth. Mr. Tasset returned as CEO in July, nearly three decades after founding the company as ASC Group in 1997. It has since developed more than 150 ASCs in 38 states, and nearly a dozen of its centers operate under risk-based cost-guarantee arrangements. In October, NueHealth-managed Kendall Pointe Surgery Center in Oswego, Ill., finished a $3.5 million expansion that added a fourth OR.
At the Becker’s 32nd Annual Meeting: The Business and Operations of ASCs, taking place October 29-31 in Chicago, ASC leaders, surgeons and healthcare executives will explore strategies to drive growth, enhance operational performance, navigate reimbursement challenges and prepare for the future of ambulatory surgery. Apply for complimentary registration now.
