Directors
Bellwether League Inc.’s Board of Directors 2012-2013
The Board of Directors of Bellwether League Inc. comprises a veteran group of industry advocates who have volunteered their time and expertise to create and continually develop the organization and its ongoing educational activities. Board members include the following:
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Jamie C. Kowalski (Co-Founder and Chairman)
CEO
Jamie C. Kowalski Consulting LLC
5065 N. Idlewild Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53217
VOICE: (414) 218-0552
FAX: (414) 967-9710
E-MAIL: jckcllc@att.net
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Rick Dana Barlow (Co-Founder and Executive Director)
President
Wingfoot Media Inc.
904 S. Roselle Road, Suite 396
Schaumburg, IL 60193
VOICE: (847) 466-RICK (7425)
E-MAIL: rickdanabarlow@wingfootmedia.biz |
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Patrick E. Carroll Jr. (Secretary)
President
Patrick E. Carroll & Associates
5252 Orange Ave., Suite 100
Cypress, CA 90630
VOICE: (714) 236-3743
FAX: (714)236-8480
E-MAIL: pcarroll@peca.org |
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Mary A. Starr (Treasurer)
Assistant Vice President, AdvantageTrust
HealthTrust Purchasing Group
1475 E. Woodfield Road, Suite 400
Schaumburg, IL 60173
VOICE: (847) 592-7860
FAX: (847) 592-7801
mstarr@advantagetrustpg.com |
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James R. Francis
Chair, Supply Chain Management
Mayo Clinic
Rm. 4-10, 201 Bldg.
200 First Street SW
Rochester, MN 55905
VOICE: (507) 538-1310
FAX: (507) 266-1307
E-MAIL: francis.james@mayo.edu |
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Michael Louviere
Bellwether Class of 2010
System Vice President, Supply Chain
Ochsner Health System
1514 Jefferson Highway
New Orleans, LA 70121
VOICE: (504)-842-4987
E-MAIL: mlouviere@ochsner.org |
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Vance B. Moore
Senior Vice President of Operations
Mercy
14528 South Outer Forty, Suite 200
Chesterfield, MO 63017
VOICE: (314) 628-3584
FAX: (314) 628-3464
E-MAIL: vance.moore@mercy.net, vance.moore@roiscs.com |
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Jean M. Sargent
Director
Aspen Healthcare Metrics
MedAssets
Los Angeles, CA
VOICE: (310) 435-4658
E-MAIL: jsargent@medassets.com |
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John W. Strong
Bellwether Class of 2011
Principal
John Strong LLC
846 Tarrant Drive
Fontana, WI 53125
VOICE: (262) 275-3634
E-MAIL: mailto:johnstrongllc@gmail.com
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Mark A. Van Sumeren
Senior Vice President, Strategy & Business Development
Owens & Minor, Inc.
9120 Lockwood Blvd.
Mechanicsville, VA 23116
VOICE: (804) 723.7920 |
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At Bellwether League Inc.'s launch in July 2007, the Founding Board of Directors issued the following comments about the new organization's benefits to the industry.
Rick Dana Barlow
Bellwether League Co-Founder and Executive Director
President
Wingfoot Media Inc.
Schaumburg, IL
Hollywood typically depicts the supply chain manager – whether it’s the logistics officer/quartermaster in the military or the purchasing/materials manager in the private sector – as a swarthy pirate, tawdry scalawag or go-to guy willing to do whatever it takes to get what’s needed either from the open market or the black market. Of course, that’s Hollywood realism.
Such colorful characterizations make these individuals more entertaining and watchable.
However, outside of reel life and in real life, supply chain managers play essential roles in what happens to patients as soon as they walk through the doors of a healthcare facility. Unfortunately, many don’t realize or even recognize it. But we’re angling to change that.
Supply chain professionals represent a critical back-office function that has front line, top line and bottom line implications for the healthcare facility, the clinician and the patient. Supply chain professionals work in a complex environment, serving multiple customers – the hospital and clinician directly, the patient and payer indirectly. They supply the tools necessary for clinicians to provide care for patients and in a cost-effective way that keeps the facility offering the care in continual operation.
Without their clinical, fiscal and technological knowledge and skills, hospitals and clinicians alike would find it that much more challenging to provide quality healthcare to an increasingly demanding patient population. For that reason alone, supply chain management professionals deserve to be recognized and honored. That’s why we created Bellwether League.
If you don’t know who these people are and what they do, stay tuned. You will now.
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Robert P. “Bud” Bowen
Bellwether League Secretary
I applaud the Bellwether League for its efforts to identify and honor those pioneers of the healthcare supply chain for their innovation, vision and leadership. I am honored to be a part of this organization and hope that it will encourage future generations of supply chain leaders to produce even greater achievements in improving the efficiency and quality of healthcare delivery.
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Patrick E. Carroll, Jr.
Bellwether League Treasurer
President
Patrick E. Carroll & Associates
Cypress, CA
As with Jamie Kowalski, HPN’s 30-Year Anniversary issue and the naming of the Most Influential Supply Chain Leaders of the past 30 years inspired my involvement with the Bellwether League. I was humbled and honored to be included in that list of leaders.
We are, indeed, fortunate to become leaders for healthcare supply chain in its relative infancy. Like many others, I had not planned to become a healthcare supply chain professional. At that time, there was little information as the industry was evolving to adopt more of a business model. Until the passage of the Medicare and Medicaid Acts in the mid 1960s, most hospitals did not even have a budget. Hence, in the late 1970s when I entered the field, the supply chain was very much a secondary consideration of management and any savings garnered would likely reduce reimbursement under the cost-based models of the day.
Despite these circumstances, several individuals took the initiative to establish a profession for the healthcare supply chain and promote its benefits. I found myself greatly influenced by these early supply chain leaders – not only for their supply chain expertise, which I was assimilating, but also for their consistent promotion of the importance of the supply chain and the professionals managing those processes. I found their promotion of the profession inspiring and recognized, although not at first, my fortune in being a part of the healthcare supply chain profession.
With the advent of the prospective payment system in the early 1980s, the focus of the healthcare industry was largely upon the labor component, ignoring for the most part, the supply chain. Several of us took the baton from the earlier supply chain advocates to further promote and endorse the profession to the various constituencies. It was exciting and energizing to see the growing importance of and interest in the healthcare supply chain. I remember stating that most materials managers – now, supply chain professionals – were under-appreciated, underpaid and under-realized – regarding the benefits they could provide – within their institutions. Despite the advances of the healthcare supply chain over the last 25 years, and those advances have been substantial, I still believe that phrase is appropriate. We have only begun to tap the potential we have!
What was so special in the earlier days was to be part of an advocacy movement. The movement was the promotion of the healthcare supply chain and the healthcare supply chain professionals. The industry was evolving and management of the supply chain was becoming increasingly important, although many institutions were slow to realize it. Circumstances enable many of us, including myself, to become the spokespersons for the advocacy of the profession. Yet there were others, many others, who more quietly demonstrated their advocacy of the profession through their loyalty, support, and incredibly competent management performance. Some of us might have been the fortunate marketing representatives of the profession, but without the solid efforts of the others we would have had nothing to market! These individuals set the standards!
Because of the relative youth of the healthcare supply chain profession, the legacy of the early leaders, both in advocacy and performance, needs to be recognized! This is not only for the recognition these leaders so richly deserve, but also for the inspiration they have provided, are providing, and will continue provide to the future leaders of the supply chain.
I fully support and endorse the Bellwether League! The Bellwether League will recognize these leaders of the healthcare supply chain for their accomplishments and provide guidance, inspiration and support for tomorrow’s healthcare supply chain leaders to confront the enormous challenges they face. I am extremely proud to be a member of the Bellwether League!
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Laurence A. Dickson
Bellwether League Board member
Retired Corporate Director, Materials Management
Sisters of Providence Health System
Seattle, WA
I think it is a great idea to recognize those many pioneering professionals who began the development in the late 1960s and early 1970s of what is today the supply chain and logistics management professional career path. It is also an excellent way to recognize those leaders in the field today and in the future.
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Derwood Dunbar Jr.
Bellwether League Board member
President and CEO
MAGNET, Co-op
Mechanicsburg, PA
I have spent my 40-plus career in this wonderful industry and finally our profession is getting the attention and recognition that it so rightly deserves. For years we have known that more than 30 percent of the budget goes into acquiring, using and disposing of supplies and equipment used to treat patients in our communities. Today, there are many to whom we owe a debt of gratitude, for it is these people who built the foundation for our profession. Similarly the Bellwether League will continue to honor those who will build upon this foundation in the future and take it to its next level.
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John B. Gaida
Bellwether League Board member
Senior Vice President, Supply Chain Management
Texas Health Resources
Arlington, TX
What’s in a name? To me the Bellwether League for supply chain management in healthcare says it all. Those individuals who have spent much, if not all, of their careers working hard to improve the profession, while at the same time they light the way for others defines this group. Their dedication every day, month and year to advancing supply chain technologies, reducing costs and generally taking risks makes them a special breed in this multifaceted profession. Those who have led the way for others should be acknowledged and celebrated. The Bellwether League is one way for all of us to recognize those individuals and their many accomplishments.
Personally, I admire individuals who take mentoring seriously. What better way can we pass on those things we’ve learned to others while giving them a chance to achieve even more? I would bet each and every person who will be honored by the Bellwether League has mentored individuals throughout their career. We take pride in not only what we accomplish, but in who we have touched along the way. The Bellwether League is a way to honor those who have touched individuals as well as the profession in a positive way – advancing both.
I am proud to have been one of a small group of folks who have helped to make the Bellwether League a reality. As the honorees are selected and inducted into the league I would hope each and every person in this supply chain profession will acknowledge that at least one – if not many – of those individuals were someone that touched their lives! I congratulate each and every one of them and thank them for what they have done and represent to all of us in this field!
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Thomas W. Hughes
Bellwether League Board member
Executive Director
Strategic Marketplace Initiative
Scituate, MA
Many professions, such as healthcare supply chain, need to formally recognize its innovative pioneers of the past, including supplier, healthcare organization and group purchasing executives. These are the leaders that shaped the advances in healthcare supply chain as we know it today. With the support of our sponsors, the Bellwether League can also shine the light on others to provide innovative improvements in the way we do business and become part of the Bellwether League of the future.
I value the successes that this profession has brought to me and many of the professionals that I have had an opportunity to work with over the years and I will provide all the support that I can to the Bellwether League in the future.
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Jamie C. Kowalski
Bellwether League Chairman and Co-Founder
Vice President, Business Development
Owens & Minor Inc.
Milwaukee, WI
For me, the idea for the founding of the Bellwether League was inspired by Healthcare Purchasing News’ 30-Year Anniversary issue and the naming of the 30 Most Influential Supply Chain Leaders of the last 30 years.
I was fortunate to be among those so honored. The rest of the professionals named included those who preceded me and whom I never met or knew much about. Some I considered as role models and tried to emulate, some I learned from, and finally, some were peers/colleagues I got to know by working directly with them, competing with them or just rubbing – or bending – elbows with them at meetings around the country. Truly, it’s a group to be very proud to be associated with.
Why should anyone in supply chain management be so recognized? Supply Chain professionals can be proud of their role and contribution to the healthcare industry. What they do every day supports – arguably, allows – the care provided, while it helps maintain the providers’ positive bottom line. Through supply chain performance optimization and innovations, care can be provided at the required level, while operating expenses are reduced and hopefully, minimized. Every dollar saved through the supply chain goes right to the bottom line and the bank account. This provides the operating cash that supports expansion of services and future innovations in care and/or accommodates and helps fund care for those who need it. Not bad for a profession that typically is under the radar. Then again, those who join the profession know or learn that they do so for other reasons than notoriety.
That led to the question of, what about all those supply chain professionals who were not listed – the true pioneers who blazed the way for all who made the list? They developed the new ideas, solutions, adaptations of supply chain principles and practices from other industries. Their success and even their failures taught the profession something valuable. Those lessons included the actual technical efficacy and value of what they did – or failed trying to do – and equally important,
that it’s critical to the profession and the industry to think outside the box, keep trying to improve and never be satisfied with the current level of performance or outcomes. They deserved to be in a “hall of fame,” even if they were not famous because what they did was not publicized.
Somehow, a mechanism needed to be set up to both recognize all of these trail blazers and make sure the next generations of supply chain leaders who practice the art and science in the complex healthcare industry have knowledge of and at least, some access to, the people and what they did or tried to do. The next generations could benefit from such a common body of knowledge, albeit, established and maintained at a cursory level of detail. And, equally important, tip their collective hats to those from whom they could both learn from and strive to emulate.
There were veterans like myself who could name these people and what they contributed to advance the profession. By putting our heads together, we could create and fill the hall. And so the vision had a way to be achieved.
I believe strongly that this legacy be established and maintained in perpetuity. It allows the profession to remember and honor all the contributors – thus the designation of “honorees” to those inducted into the Bellwether League – and provides access to what they tried or accomplished so the profession can continue to progress/advance. And finally, it hopefully serves as an inspiration to those beginning their career in supply chain management to strive for being part of the Bellwether League; not for the sake of being honored, but for the contributions to the profession and the industry that being so honored represents.
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Richard A. Perrin
Bellwether League Board member
President and CEO
AdvanTech Inc.
Annapolis, MD
Many of us have long been involved in supporting educational activities in the healthcare industry. One area that has been lacking is the recognition of those who have made substantial contributions through their work and professional activities. The Bellwether League will provide the industry with the opportunity to recognize those who have made substantial contributions to manufacturers, distributors, service organizations and providers that have furthered the efficiencies and effectiveness of the healthcare industry and thereby provided benefits to all of us.
Over the years I have felt strongly that one of the most important things that I might do is to make a positive contribution to the healthcare systems in this country and throughout the world. Today, the U.S. spends a staggering percentage of our gross domestic product on healthcare, and yet our infant mortality rate places us somewhere around 40th in the world. Likewise, our longevity rates also place us far down the list (slipping from 11th several years ago to about 42nd today) when compared to other “peer” nations in the modern world (our economic/industrial class). Logistics and supply chain management activities, while pervasive in providing for state-of-the-art healthcare, are seldom recognized for the significant contributions provided.
The Bellwether League will provide the opportunity to focus attention on those who have made a significant contribution and deserve to be recognized for their efforts and good works and to serve as a model for others who seek to make contributions and improvements to operations and healthcare at their own organizations.
That is why I am involved... You, too, should really think about it. Your life or the lives of future loved ones may depend on it!
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