Media

Hall of Fame for Healthcare Supply Chain Leadership goes virtual for 2020 celebrations of leadership and performance excellence

SCHAUMBURG, IL (August 1, 2020) – Bellwether League Inc., the Hall of Fame for Healthcare Supply Chain Leadership, will host a virtual event to induct this year’s 8-member Bellwether Class and honor the 3-member Future Famers Class and the 2020 Ammer Honoree.

“Our Board’s overriding priority in determining this year’s event was to ensure the health and well-being for all of our attendees, while creating a venue that will salute the tremendous contributions and lifetime achievements our awardees deserve,” said Nick Gaich, Bellwether League Board Chairman (Bellwether Class of 2013). “Although our annual celebration this year will not be an in-person event, along with your support and participation, I know that our online broadcast will serve us well in recognizing all of our 2020 recipients’ accomplishments worthy of their distinction.”

The decision was made in the best interests of all, according to Rick Dana Barlow, Bellwether League Co-Founder and Executive Director.

“With the coronavirus pandemic claiming lives, affecting health and disrupting life all around, it was the right thing for the Board of Directors to do,” Barlow said. “It was by no means an easy decision to make because we would like our Honorees and Future Famers to enjoy fully the fruits of their careers and achievements. But we recognized that travel restrictions, legitimate concerns about the spread of the virus even with proper physical distancing and facemask-wearing, and the increased responsibilities and need of our healthcare community to remain at their posts as more contracted the virus, meant we had to set an example. For the best of the Bellwether Community, we chose health and safety over live celebration and camaraderie this year.”

As a result, the Bellwether Class of 2020 honorees will be inducted via an exclusive online broadcast this year. The Future Famers Class of 2020 and the 2020 Ammer Honoree also will be recognized for their achievements.

The 13th Annual Bellwether Induction Event will be a 90-minute dedicated online broadcast scheduled for Monday, October 5, the same day of the original live event, which once again coincides with National Healthcare Resource & Materials Management Week.

Bellwether League will promote the time of the online broadcast once the schedule is finalized.

Limited sponsorship and support opportunities are available – including video testimonials and tributes. Contact Bellwether League Inc. headquarters via email for more details at rickdanabarlow@bellwetherleague.org.

Meanwhile, the 8th Annual Healthcare Supply Chain Leadership Forum is being postponed to 2021 and likely will be rebranded to reflect updates going forward.

The Bellwether Class of 2020 includes: Jack R. Anderson, Doug Bowen, Gregory R. Bylo, Fred W. Crans, Kathleen Garvin, Edmond D. Hardin, Jr., David Reed and Rita L. White.

The Future Famers Class of 2020 includes: Hunter Chandler, Director, Supply Chain Information Systems, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Winston-Salem, NC; Jack Koczela, Director of Services, Supply Chain, Froedtert Health Integrated Service Center, Menomonee Falls, WI; and Kenneth Scher, CMRP, Vice President, End-to-End Supply Chain, Nexera Inc., New York.

The first Honoree of the new “Dean S. Ammer Award for Healthcare Supply Chain Performance Excellence” is Randy V. Bradley, Ph.D., CPHIMS, FHIMSS, Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management and Information Systems, University of Tennessee Knoxville, Haslam College of Business, Department of Supply Chain Management.

About Bellwether League

Bellwether League’s Board of Directors, a veteran group of industry advocates, evaluates and validates professionals submitted for consideration in its three award programs: Bellwethers, Future Famers and Ammer Honorees.

The Board selects deceased, retired and currently active professionals with a minimum of 25 years of exemplary service and leadership performance in supply chain operations that meet its criteria to be publicly recognized as Bellwether Class Honorees. Those honored demonstrate their qualifications by advancing the profession through work experience and performance and active participation in professional organizations and their communities.

Honorees include professionals from hospitals and other healthcare providers, manufacturers and distributors of healthcare products and services, group purchasing organizations, consulting firms, educational institutions and media outlets.

Future Famers represent supply chain professionals early in their healthcare careers who do not yet qualify for Bellwether consideration, but have contributed to the healthcare supply chain profession in a meaningful way.

Honorees who receive the “Dean S. Ammer Award for Healthcare Supply Chain Performance Excellence” represent noteworthy executives and professionals in the middle of their careers who, through their innovative leadership and influential project management experience, best exemplify the practice and spirit of healthcare supply chain performance excellence.

To date, Bellwether League has honored 120 innovators, leaders and pioneers in healthcare supply chain management in five distinct categories: Education & Media, Supply Chain Management, Group Purchasing, Supplier and Consulting Services. Bellwether League also has recognized 30 Future Famers, and its first Ammer Honoree.

Launched in late July 2007 by a group of influential veterans in the healthcare supply chain industry, Bellwether League Inc., is a 501(c)(6) not-for-profit corporation that identifies and honors men and women who have demonstrated significant leadership in, influence on and contributions to the supply chain from healthcare providers, healthcare product manufacturers and distributors, group purchasing organizations, consulting firms, educational institutions and media outlets.

Bellwether League currently is funded by six Founding and Platinum Sponsors – HealthTrust, Intalere, Owens & Minor, Premier, Vizient and VIE Healthcare – and a host of additional sponsors at the Gold, Silver and Bronze levels. For a listing of all of Bellwether League’s sustaining sponsors, please visit our web site at http://www.bellwetherleague.org/sponsors.html

For more information on how to become a sustaining or corporate sponsor or to nominate Bellwether Honoree and Future Famer candidates visit BellwetherLeague.org.