Senior Team

Christopher McQueen

Chris is a healthcare industry consultant with an extensive C-level network and experience implementing mission critical initiatives for both payer and provider clients.

Chris provides thought leadership to senior executives on strategic topics such as: ACO Implementation, Dynamic Lean, Payer-Provider Partnerships, Hospital Performance Improvement, Healthcare Reform and Payer Turnaround. His recent work includes building new business models to address the implications of healthcare reform and to reduce the cost of healthcare. Chris' experience also includes back office operations transformation – from business planning to systems implementation and change management.

Focus areas:

• Business Performance Management - executing strategy from idea to project launch, Rapid Cycle Implementation, and building new management capabilities and disciplines.
• Organizational Change – transformation, executive coaching, organization design, project implementation support, large group change methodology.
• Executive Facilitation - leading to strategy development, solutions to complex business problems and organization alignment.

Clients include Blue Shield of California, John Muir Health, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Deloitte, Kaiser Permanente, Microsoft Corp and St Joseph Health System.

Chris spent 3-years as Vice President, Performance Management at Blue Shield of California where he helped the CEO, CFO and COO architect a performance turnaround leading to major gains in revenue, net income and membership.

Chris graduated from the London School of Economics and received an MBA from the University of Washington.

Aaron Wilkins

Aaron is a versatile executive with over 15 years experience driving complex change in provider, payer, and medical device environments. His operating roles include growing top line revenue, launching new products and services, implementing performance improvement initiatives and directing technology product life cycles from development to growth.

Aaron is a trusted advisor to many clients driving change and performance improvement programs in both the clinical and administrative settings. He leads large teams and delivers on complex initiatives

His areas of expertise include:

• Organizational Change – transformation, organizational design, rapid cycle implementation, large group change methodology, enterprise technology implementation and optimization
• Business Performance Management and Analytics – PMO optimization, project management methodology, executing ideas from strategy to launch, strategic portfolio management, and benefit realization
• Contact Centers – outsourcing, program development strategies and implementation, operational program development, CRM technology
• Quote to Card Processes - health plan sales, underwriting, and enrollment processes, including healthcare exchanges
• Product Development and Marketing –go to market strategies, new product and service launches, sales and customer training, and portfolio management

Aaron previously was Director of Business Transformation at Blue Shield of California, Global Product Director at Johnson & Johnson, and Director of Program Management at ConnextionsHealth.

Aaron graduated from Trinity College and received a Masters in Health Services Administration from the University of Michigan.

Tom Faure - Consultant

Tom has over 20 years of consulting experience, working in healthcare, hi-tech, communications, public utilities and the federal government. In healthcare enterprises, Tom was involved in implementing large-scale change with leaders committed to unprecedented performance.

Tom helps clients create caring environments in a range of diverse settings: hospitals committed to delivering an extraordinary experience to patients and their families, as well as to care givers and all stakeholders; building nurturing environments through self-managed teams.

He has assisted clients in areas such as:

• Supporting executive and project teams in achieving unprecedented results in accelerated timeframes
• Coaching leaders for breakthroughs in their own capability to realize results that were previously not achievable
• Development of the leadership agenda for senior executives and executive teams who are sponsoring major change efforts
• Developing organizational cultures characterized by accountability and shared responsibility for results

Tom recently led a project in a 450-bed hospital to create a patient-centered care environment. Results included higher PSAT and ESAT scores, and increased clinical quality through reduced falls and infection rates. Possibly the most important result for the long term viability of the hospital was how the methodology made it possible for new leaders to emerge from the staff. Employees who were the greatest cynics became champions. This occurred on every floor and unit throughout the hospital. Several employees were promoted to management positions because of their involvement and the growth that occurred in their ability to lead.

Many clients have commented about Tom's unique ability to "connect" with caregivers and assist them in embracing new ways of working together to create a future that re-ignites their spirit by having a greater ability to care for their patients.

Tom has been a featured speaker for the American Society for Training and Development and has taught courses at the masters and undergraduate level in the areas of Managing Change, Total Quality Management, Organizational Behavior and Leadership.

Matt Connors

Matt is a business performance management (BPM) consultant with 15 years experience delivering solutions in large organizations. His clients include health insurance and healthcare technology companies. Matt is a leader in the field of project and program management. He authored groundbreaking research into how leading companies leverage project capabilities to gain competitive advantage.

Matt's recent experience includes delivery of a critical phase of multi-year, $400 million, back office transformation for a major health insurance company. He also built enterprise wide performance improvement implementation capabilities and drove projects leading to benefits of $200 million.

Matt's focus areas are:

• Business Performance Management - building new management capabilities, launching new products, improving the customer experience.
• Program Leadership - linking strategy to projects, building project capabilities, starting programs and leading high-risk investments.
• Performance Turn-around - assessing business and operational performance; designing and implementing transformational change.

Olga Milosavljevic

Olga Milosavljevic has 15 years experience in healthcare, financial services and international political development. Prior to McQueen Consulting, Olga was a Director of Direct to Consumer and Business Transformation for a large health plan. She transformed the insurance purchase process, dramatically improved customer experience, boosted revenue and decreased cost.

Olga's strengths include challenging assumptions, building trusted partnerships among competing stakeholders, and translating business objectives into technology solutions. She has worked in organizations as diverse as a major national stock brokerage firm and an international development non-profit.

Focus areas:

• Program Management – identifying and prioritizing business opportunities, translating strategies into projects and maintaining multi-year product/program roadmaps
• Practice Standards – creating consistent practice standards and working with stakeholders to commit to new ways of working
• Business Analytics – developing business cases, quantifying revenue, cost savings and quality/safety improvement opportunities
• Product Development – articulating customer needs across payer, providers and employers; bridging business-technology perspectives and managing program implementation through launch

Olga holds an MBA and BA from U.C. Berkeley and an MSc from the London School of Economics. She continues to audit alumni courses at Haas and volunteers with MIT/Stanford Venture Laboratories (VLAB). She co-authored the following works: "Algeria's June 5, 1997 parliamentary election," "Democracy and Local Government in Jordan: 1995 Municipal Elections," and "Albania: 1991 elections to the People's Assembly: a post-election report, April 30, 1991."

Thomlyn Binnett

Thomlyn has more than 15 years experience working in healthcare, financial services and educational industries. Her operating roles include Director of Foundational Services at Charles Schwab, with P&L responsibility for a business unit representing 1.6 million households and $470 million in annual revenue.

Thomlyn brings strong analytical and change management skills to clinical and business performance improvement projects - from marketing to operations to business strategy. Her clients include Blue Shield of California, Standard Financial Group and John Muir Health.

Areas of Focus:

• Program Management - designed and implemented program management frameworks, developed multi-channel enterprise-wide customer experience strategies and multi-year implementation roadmaps.
• Physician Engagement – managed implementation of a program to increase hospitalist engagement and development of new physician leaders
• Workplace Transformation – facilitated collaboration across stakeholders to identify and drive process, workflow and role and responsibility changes.
• Process/Product Management - identified opportunities and developing recommendations to drive improvements in the consumer experience and enhance internal process efficiencies.
• Business Analytics - led the development of economic models to forecast impacts of multiple future state scenarios and implemented dashboards to introduce cross-functional discipline in ongoing organizational prioritization.

Thomlyn holds a Bachelor of Arts from Mills College, in Oakland California.

Andrew Zappelli

Andrew is a Strategic Business Analyst with more than 20 years of experience across Healthcare, Technology and Financial Services Industries.

After building a strong foundation in financial planning and analytics, he took operating roles at Apple, Bank of America, Visa USA, Autodesk and Blue Shield of California. Among his accomplishments is the implementation of a $150 million cost reduction program.

Focus areas:

• Portfolio Management – Designed, built and implemented many portfolio management processes to track and deliver performance improvement projects.
• Business Financial Planning – Driven and executed processes that translate the goals of the Business Planning cycle into specific, executable and appropriate financial targets, plans and forecasts for the enterprise.
• Business Analytics & Reporting – Extensive experience identifying and assembling management metrics, business cases. dashboards and decision-making tools for management teams - from operating units to Board level.

Andrew graduated from New York University's Stern school of Business, earning both a Bachelors and an MBA. His degrees are in Finance, Management & International Business.

Will King

Will has over 16 years of experience in helping hospital and health plan leaders improve quality and service and while generating cost reductions that have ranged between $6 million and $110 million per annum. He has led a number of very tough projects that were mission-critical to CEOs, including the first introduction of care management in Canada, which increased volumes by 6% without materially increasing spending; the first instance of system-wide purchased services sourcing at one of the largest publicly-held hospital companies in the U.S.; and several early applications of strategic sourcing in health benefits for major employers in the financial services and media/entertainment industries. Services include:

• Performance Improvement - designing and implementing high-stakes cost reduction initiatives at the enterprise level, and rescuing endangered projects
• Clinical and Business Process Improvement - working with physicians, nurses and allied health professionals to deliver better clinical quality and patient satisfaction more economically
• Sustainability of Results - knowledge transfer, internal consultant training, quality assurance

His recent clients include Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, Adventist Health System, UC San Francisco Medical Center, Blue Shield of California and Tenet. For three years, Will was an internal consulting executive at The Permanente Medical Group and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, where he personally led two significant care delivery redesign projects.

"Clients view Will as a Trusted Advisor who offers them ideas relevant to their objectives and shows them how to achieve those objectives. Whether pursuing a short term project or a long term implementation, Will identifies the value for the client, builds a compelling business case and follows through."
- CEO, database management firm

"Will transformed our loose concept for a project into a set of successful, concrete outcomes. He brought to the table a unique combination of creativity and savvy that - combined with his extensive knowledge and network within the health care field - has enabled our firm to effectively break into a new sector."
- GM, North American Operations of Lumni, Inc.

Laszlo Gyorffy

Laszlo specializes in strategy development and implementation for groups facing complex change.

For over 20 years Laszlo has worked with organizations to 'expand the possible,' helping them reinvent themselves in the face of disruption and competition. He has applied his innovation, strategy, change leadership, and training expertise in countries around the world and across a variety of industries. His client list includes pioneering organizations such as the BBC, THR, Discovery Communications, Homeland Security, Hewlett Packard, Kaiser Permanente, Medgate, Panera Bread, Stanford University, and Swisscom.

Laszlo specializes in refocusing, redesigning, and reenergizing innovation processes and practices. He helps companies unleash their collective genius by building and aligning their innovation tools, techniques, and teams to provide continuous and compelling customer value and meet performance objectives. Laszlo has worked on numerous projects where his unique blend of inspiration and discipline generated breakthrough results.

Laszlo spent three years with Deloitte Consulting in their Change Leadership practice, seven years with Co-Development International (CDI) consulting with their Supply Chain Management and Organization Development practices, and two years in Kaiser Permanente's Organizational Research Department.

Laszlo holds a Master's of Science in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from San Diego State University.

"Working with Laszlo for the past three and a half years has been a journey full of discovery, insight and growth, both personally and for our entire team. His skills of facilitation, focus, flow control, inclusion, learning and follow-up are unparalleled." - Heidi Clark, Director of Customer Experience, major food and beverage company.

Len Firestone, M.D.

Len is a board-certified anesthesiologist, health system executive and academic physician who has consulted for 14 years to hospital systems on business transformation and process improvement.

His principal focus is supporting and challenging physician leaders and their groups to work effectively with hospitals on performance improvement and information technology initiatives, and helping hospital executives to benefit from physicians' points of view during times of major change.

Len's clients include public and not-for-profit hospital systems, academic medical centers, adult general and children's hospitals throughout the U.S. He is often brought in by hospitals and consulting firms to help them design and implement projects including:

• Patient Flow - Care management, LOS, OR management.
• Clinical IT - implementing CPOE.

From 1995-2001, Len was a Department Chairman and senior executive at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Health System. He held positions including Executive Director of University of Pittsburgh Physicians, a multispecialty practice of 1,400 MDs, was on the Executive Steering Committee of the UPMC Health System, and was Chairman/CEO of the UACCM-Foundation, which is the fiduciary for physician retirement funds.

As an academic physician, Len held an endowed chair and was a University Professor at the University of Pittsburgh in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine. Previously, he was Residency Program Director in anesthesiology at UPMC, Medical Director at the School of Nurse Anesthesia at UPMC, Anesthesiologist-in-Chief and Chief of Cardiac Anesthesia at Presbyterian University Hospital in Pittsburgh, and Assistant Professor of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School/Mass. General Hospital. He is the principal author of over 250 original publications, and 4 textbooks.

A diplomate of the American Board of Anesthesiology, Len holds a Doctor of Medicine from Yale School of Medicine, where he also did his internship and residency as well as clinical and research fellowships. He also held postdoctoral clinical and research fellowships at Harvard Medical School. He maintains an active medical license in Pennsylvania.

Brett Trusko, PhD

Dr. Brett Trusko is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine at NYU in New York City. Additionally, he represents the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) on the Board of the United State Healthcare Information Technology Standards Panel (HITSP).

Dr. Trusko has a PhD in Information Technology Management and has over 30 years of healthcare experience including quality, strategy, medical informatics, clinical operations, administrative and financial operations. His education experience includes degrees in biology, business and technology. His research and consulting experience include utilizing information technology to improve quality and outcomes.

In the spring of 2007 Dr. Trusko published "Improving Healthcare Quality and Cost with Six Sigma." He has also contributed chapters to several other books and has been published over 100 times. He is considered a global leader in healthcare quality where he utilizes patient and family centered approaches to the evaluation of quality. He is the author of over 200 articles and is a frequent speaker.

He is an international speaker and writer and is a featured speaker at Speakers.com. He spent several years partnering with Russ Coile as a healthcare futurist before Mr. Coile's death in 2001. He has been a keynote speaker and facilitator to over 200 functions.