1. Andrew Hayek, president and CEO of Surgical Care Affiliates. Mr. Hayek currently serves as president and CEO of Surgical Care Affiliates and chair of the recently launched ASC Advocacy Committee. Before joining Surgical Care Affiliates, Mr. Hayek served as president of VillageHealth, an insurance and care management company owned by DaVita, one of the nation’s leading independent providers of kidney dialysis services. He previously served as president and COO of Alliance Imaging, a $450 million-revenue diagnostic imaging and radiation oncology business, operating in 43 states. He also worked for operations consulting firm Capstone Consulting, merchant banking firm The Pritzker Organization and the Boston Consulting Group.
2. David “Buddy” Bacon, CEO of Meridian Surgical Partners. Mr. Bacon has around 15 years of experience as a healthcare executive — first as CEO and CFO of a healthcare IT company and then as CEO of Meridian Surgical Partners, which he founded with Kenny Hancock and Catherine W. Kowalski in 2006. From 1996 to 2003, Mr. Bacon served as CEO and CFO of Medifaxi-EDI, a healthcare IT company based in Nashville, Tenn. In 2001, when the company was acquired by Crescent Capital in Atlanta, Ga., Mr. Bacon was promoted to CEO of Medifax-EDI and spent the next two years significantly growing the company. It was eventually sold to WebMD in 2003 for $365 million.
3. Steven Geringer, chairman of the board of AmSurg. Steven Geringer has served as chairman of the board of AmSurg in Nashville, Tenn., since June 2009, when he succeeded Tom Cigarran, who had served as chairman for 17 years before becoming an AmSurg director. AmSurg acquires, develops and operates ASCs in partnership with physician practice groups throughout the United States. Prior to joining the company as a director in 1996, Mr. Geringer worked as president and CEO of pharmacy benefits manager PCS Health Systems in Minneapolis. He became president of PCS in 1993, when the company merged with Clinical Pharmaceuticals, of which Mr. Geringer was founder, chairman, and CEO. He also held various senior management positions in the hospital management and managed care industry.
4. Christian Ellison, vice president of business development for Health Inventures. As vice president of business development for Health Inventures, Mr. Ellison has formed numerous physician/hospital joint-venture partnerships and has helped the company increase business domestically and internationally. Prior to joining Health Inventures, Mr. Ellison was a senior consultant to the healthcare industry with Arthur Andersen. He focused primarily on physician venture formation and acquisition, strategic business planning and operations improvement for large, hospital-owned physician practices.
5. Keith Metz, MD, medical director of Michigan’s Great Lakes Surgical Center. A practicing clinical anesthesiologist and medical director at Great Lakes Surgical Center in Southfield, Mich., Dr. Metz organized a surgeon group to develop an ASC in 2003, hoping for a more efficient, intimate work environment. Dr. Metz told MarketWatch in an interview that for many surgeons, the possibility of more money is a “secondary” benefit to working at an ASC. Mostly, he said, “surgeons are very driven by efficiency and very impressed when things run on time and as scheduled.” In addition to running his practice, Dr. Metz serves on the board of directors for the ASC Association and was program committee chairman for the association’s first meeting held in San Antonio. Dr. Metz received his MD from Wayne State University in Detroit, Mich.
