BRIGHT PEOPLE
Leesa Tori, Chief Executive Officer and President
Hear Leesa's excitement about health care reform and its impact here.
Leesa Tori, President and CEO of The Tori Group, is uniquely positioned to help public and private organizations of all shapes and sizes navigate the turbulent waters of health-care reform as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) continues to take effect across the country.
Leesa founded The Tori Group in late 2012 by assembling a team of some of the nation’s top health policy experts. The consultancy was quickly tapped by Covered California, to build a marketplace of health insurers and benefit plans to cover millions of uninsured Californians. Because of the support of The Tori Group, which included overseeing risk management, the state of California has significantly decreased its numbers of uninsured men, women, and children.
Prior to founding The Tori Group, Leesa was Vice President of Product Innovation at The Vitality Group, charged with paving the way for the South African-owned firm to adapt its innovative wellness programs to the demands of the U.S. market.
Leesa also served for 10 years in various roles at the Pacific Business Group on Health (PBGH), including as Senior Director of Strategy and Business Development. In that role, she worked on enterprise strategic planning and risk management, as well as implementing rapidly shifting health policy regulations from state and federal governments. Her decade of work there includes six years as Vice President of Programs and Product Development at the PacAdvantage small business health care exchange. In that role, she was responsible for the full portfolio of health plan products, risk management, pricing, and legal and regulatory compliance. Leesa has particularly deep knowledge of California’s health care exchange programs.
Prior to that, Leesa served as Director of Strategy and Product Innovation, Specialty Benefits at Blue Shield of California, where she managed the full spectrum of benefits including dental, vision, and life. Additionally, Leesa has been hands-on in many projects applying technological innovations to the health care field.
Drawing on her vast experience, Leesa successfully guides businesses through ever-shifting government health care regulations, enabling them to take full advantage of opportunities to improve health care and business efficiency for their organizations.
Leesa earned her MA in Public Administration from the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government. She can be reached at [email protected].
Leesa founded The Tori Group in late 2012 by assembling a team of some of the nation’s top health policy experts. The consultancy was quickly tapped by Covered California, to build a marketplace of health insurers and benefit plans to cover millions of uninsured Californians. Because of the support of The Tori Group, which included overseeing risk management, the state of California has significantly decreased its numbers of uninsured men, women, and children.
Prior to founding The Tori Group, Leesa was Vice President of Product Innovation at The Vitality Group, charged with paving the way for the South African-owned firm to adapt its innovative wellness programs to the demands of the U.S. market.
Leesa also served for 10 years in various roles at the Pacific Business Group on Health (PBGH), including as Senior Director of Strategy and Business Development. In that role, she worked on enterprise strategic planning and risk management, as well as implementing rapidly shifting health policy regulations from state and federal governments. Her decade of work there includes six years as Vice President of Programs and Product Development at the PacAdvantage small business health care exchange. In that role, she was responsible for the full portfolio of health plan products, risk management, pricing, and legal and regulatory compliance. Leesa has particularly deep knowledge of California’s health care exchange programs.
Prior to that, Leesa served as Director of Strategy and Product Innovation, Specialty Benefits at Blue Shield of California, where she managed the full spectrum of benefits including dental, vision, and life. Additionally, Leesa has been hands-on in many projects applying technological innovations to the health care field.
Drawing on her vast experience, Leesa successfully guides businesses through ever-shifting government health care regulations, enabling them to take full advantage of opportunities to improve health care and business efficiency for their organizations.
Leesa earned her MA in Public Administration from the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government. She can be reached at [email protected].
Corky Goodwin, Vice President Product Design and Implementation
Hear Corky explain her love of health care policy here.
For the past year and a half, Corky Goodwin has played several key roles as a consultant to Covered California, the State's health care exchange. She has served first as advisor to the SHOP program, and then as its Interim Director while the organization searched for a permanent employee. In addition, she served as Interim Deputy Director of Plan Management for the Exchange while a permanent deputy was being sought.
Before joining The Tori Group, Corky served for six years as the Product Manager for LISI, one of the largest and most successful insurance general agencies in California. In that role, she served as primary contact for all existing carrier partners. In addition, Corky was responsible for identifying gaps in the company's portfolio, researching and rigorously vetting potential new business partners to fill those gaps, completing all aspects of contracting new partners, and implementing those contracts within the organization. Finally, she served as the primary legislative and compliance expert for the organization and was responsible for enterprise-wide education of all aspects of health care reform.
Prior to that, she served as Senior Manager of Program Management at PacAdvantage, Director of Provider Relations at MHN, and various other roles in the managed behavioral health care industry. She started her career as a scientist working in both clinical and research laboratories with a concentration in microbiology.
Corky's undergraduate degree is in Medical Technology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and her MBA is from San Francisco State University.
Before joining The Tori Group, Corky served for six years as the Product Manager for LISI, one of the largest and most successful insurance general agencies in California. In that role, she served as primary contact for all existing carrier partners. In addition, Corky was responsible for identifying gaps in the company's portfolio, researching and rigorously vetting potential new business partners to fill those gaps, completing all aspects of contracting new partners, and implementing those contracts within the organization. Finally, she served as the primary legislative and compliance expert for the organization and was responsible for enterprise-wide education of all aspects of health care reform.
Prior to that, she served as Senior Manager of Program Management at PacAdvantage, Director of Provider Relations at MHN, and various other roles in the managed behavioral health care industry. She started her career as a scientist working in both clinical and research laboratories with a concentration in microbiology.
Corky's undergraduate degree is in Medical Technology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and her MBA is from San Francisco State University.
Dan Frey, Principal
Hear Dan discuss stakeholder engagement and management here.
Dan’s career began with New York Life Insurance Company in New York, where he had several positions, focused on administration and client relationship for the life and health insurance industry. Dan moved to California in the mid-1980s and spent almost 20 years with Beneficial Administration Company in Irvine. There he held the position of Vice President of Operations, and then President for the last few years, ending in 2002. It was at Beneficial that Dan first began his comprehensive client relationship and business development career.
Dan also has thrived in the sales world, having spent three years as General Agency with PacAdvantage, a California small group exchange. During that time, he added close to 40,000 members, and managed more than 100 general agency sales reps. Dan has been a licensed broker since 2003.
Most recently, Dan was a sales executive for UMR, the third party administrator for United Healthcare, where he sold self-funded administrative services, with almost 20,000 member sales for 2012.
Dan’s career has spanned small group, mid-market and large group, with both fully insured and self-funded solutions.
Dan is currently a licensed agent in a number of states selling individual, employer and MediCare products via Frey Insurance Services.
Dan also has thrived in the sales world, having spent three years as General Agency with PacAdvantage, a California small group exchange. During that time, he added close to 40,000 members, and managed more than 100 general agency sales reps. Dan has been a licensed broker since 2003.
Most recently, Dan was a sales executive for UMR, the third party administrator for United Healthcare, where he sold self-funded administrative services, with almost 20,000 member sales for 2012.
Dan’s career has spanned small group, mid-market and large group, with both fully insured and self-funded solutions.
Dan is currently a licensed agent in a number of states selling individual, employer and MediCare products via Frey Insurance Services.
Tim von Herrman, Principal
Hear Tim explain how we set our clients up for success here.
Tim has over 20 years of experience helping business leaders and teams develop and execute strategy and raise business performance. Using a combination of analytics, content expertise, proven methodology and team leadership, Tim’s hands-on approach helps leaders focus their strategic direction and align people and resources to achieve their goals.
Tim previously worked as an Associate Partner within the Strategy Practice at Accenture where he focused on developing corporate and business unit growth strategies and enhancing company-wide operations for Fortune 50 companies. His portfolio of work includes business unit and corporate strategy development and implementation, enterprise-wide transformation, process engineering, people development, and operations effectiveness. Over the past ten years, his focus has been with the health care industry, primarily in the area of payer side operations. He offers significant experience also in the retail, financial services, insurance and consumer packaged goods sectors.
Tim graduated from Dartmouth College with a concentration in mathematics attended the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, from which he received his MBA in 1988.
Tim resides in Piedmont, California with his wife and four children. He enjoys sailing, triathlons, biking, skiing, 20th century European history and playing the piano.
Hear Tim explain how we set our clients up for success here.
Tim has over 20 years of experience helping business leaders and teams develop and execute strategy and raise business performance. Using a combination of analytics, content expertise, proven methodology and team leadership, Tim’s hands-on approach helps leaders focus their strategic direction and align people and resources to achieve their goals.
Tim previously worked as an Associate Partner within the Strategy Practice at Accenture where he focused on developing corporate and business unit growth strategies and enhancing company-wide operations for Fortune 50 companies. His portfolio of work includes business unit and corporate strategy development and implementation, enterprise-wide transformation, process engineering, people development, and operations effectiveness. Over the past ten years, his focus has been with the health care industry, primarily in the area of payer side operations. He offers significant experience also in the retail, financial services, insurance and consumer packaged goods sectors.
Tim graduated from Dartmouth College with a concentration in mathematics attended the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, from which he received his MBA in 1988.
Tim resides in Piedmont, California with his wife and four children. He enjoys sailing, triathlons, biking, skiing, 20th century European history and playing the piano.
Susan Bacheller, Principal
Susan is an accomplished executive with rich experience leading delivery on large complex health care business and technology initiatives. Susan enjoys partnering with technologists, clinicians and business partners to bring transformative ideas to life through ruthless execution.
Susan was most recently Health Innovation Technology Director at Blue Shield of California where she was responsible for deployment of programs and technology solutions that impact provider experience, patient experience and cost of health care. Susan played a key role in the development and roll out of California Integrated Data Exchange (Cal INDEX). She was also a proud contributor to the technology aspects of Blue Shield’s oncology practice of the future.
Susan has served in various roles at Blue Shield, Pacific Business Group on Health, GE Healthcare / IDX, and Managed Health Network. Over her 20+ year career she has developed and deployed compliance programs, health insurance products, provider networks, risk management programs, trainings, project management programs, account management, and technology solutions of all sizes.
Susan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from San Francisco State University, and studied at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Susan has a passion for yoga and spends much time at the parks and on the trails of Mill Valley, CA, where she resides with her husband and their two young boys.
Susan is an accomplished executive with rich experience leading delivery on large complex health care business and technology initiatives. Susan enjoys partnering with technologists, clinicians and business partners to bring transformative ideas to life through ruthless execution.
Susan was most recently Health Innovation Technology Director at Blue Shield of California where she was responsible for deployment of programs and technology solutions that impact provider experience, patient experience and cost of health care. Susan played a key role in the development and roll out of California Integrated Data Exchange (Cal INDEX). She was also a proud contributor to the technology aspects of Blue Shield’s oncology practice of the future.
Susan has served in various roles at Blue Shield, Pacific Business Group on Health, GE Healthcare / IDX, and Managed Health Network. Over her 20+ year career she has developed and deployed compliance programs, health insurance products, provider networks, risk management programs, trainings, project management programs, account management, and technology solutions of all sizes.
Susan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from San Francisco State University, and studied at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Susan has a passion for yoga and spends much time at the parks and on the trails of Mill Valley, CA, where she resides with her husband and their two young boys.
Melayne Yocum, Senior Consultant
As an independent healthcare consultant, Ms. Yocum is currently filling the role of Interim CAO (formerly Interim CEO) of Martin Luther King, Jr. – Los Angeles Healthcare Corporation, a start up non-profit entity. This non-profit organization has recently opened a new hospital (in July, 2015) to serve the communities of South Los Angeles. Ms. Yocum was involved from the inception of the new entity through the construction and fit up process and the hiring of the permanent executive team.
She recently completed another engagement for a large multi-specialty medical group which assisted them in successfully moving into a risk bearing, managed care environment. This involved moving the organization from traditional FFS thinking to a system-ness which assists the clinicians and staff to utilize evidence based medicine, new processes, and more effective decision making to improve the health care of the population they serve.
She has over 25 years in the healthcare field, including over 10 years on the senior leadership team of HealthCare Partners Medical Group (now DaVita HealthCare Partners) (“HCP”), one of the largest multi-specialty, risk bearing, physician organizations in the country. She is an expert at financial and operational improvement, process redesign, strategic planning, and cultural change for physician organizations, hospitals, integrated delivery systems, and accountable care organizations (“ACOs”). Ms. Yocum is experienced with the successful implementation of managed care processes, patient-centered medical homes and electronic health records and has served in interim management roles in hospitals, IPAs, MSOs, and medical groups as a CEO, CFO, CAO, and COO.
Before joining HCP and since leaving HCP, Ms. Yocum was/is a consultant who fulfilled interim management roles in a variety of healthcare settings. She was also a senior manager with the National healthcare practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Ms. Yocum received her bachelor’s degree in accounting from Truman State University and is a CPA (inactive). She lives in the South Bay area of Los Angeles with her husband. Together they share a passion for raising puppies for a national organization that breeds, trains and provides service dogs for the disabled to allow them to live more independent lives.
As an independent healthcare consultant, Ms. Yocum is currently filling the role of Interim CAO (formerly Interim CEO) of Martin Luther King, Jr. – Los Angeles Healthcare Corporation, a start up non-profit entity. This non-profit organization has recently opened a new hospital (in July, 2015) to serve the communities of South Los Angeles. Ms. Yocum was involved from the inception of the new entity through the construction and fit up process and the hiring of the permanent executive team.
She recently completed another engagement for a large multi-specialty medical group which assisted them in successfully moving into a risk bearing, managed care environment. This involved moving the organization from traditional FFS thinking to a system-ness which assists the clinicians and staff to utilize evidence based medicine, new processes, and more effective decision making to improve the health care of the population they serve.
She has over 25 years in the healthcare field, including over 10 years on the senior leadership team of HealthCare Partners Medical Group (now DaVita HealthCare Partners) (“HCP”), one of the largest multi-specialty, risk bearing, physician organizations in the country. She is an expert at financial and operational improvement, process redesign, strategic planning, and cultural change for physician organizations, hospitals, integrated delivery systems, and accountable care organizations (“ACOs”). Ms. Yocum is experienced with the successful implementation of managed care processes, patient-centered medical homes and electronic health records and has served in interim management roles in hospitals, IPAs, MSOs, and medical groups as a CEO, CFO, CAO, and COO.
Before joining HCP and since leaving HCP, Ms. Yocum was/is a consultant who fulfilled interim management roles in a variety of healthcare settings. She was also a senior manager with the National healthcare practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Ms. Yocum received her bachelor’s degree in accounting from Truman State University and is a CPA (inactive). She lives in the South Bay area of Los Angeles with her husband. Together they share a passion for raising puppies for a national organization that breeds, trains and provides service dogs for the disabled to allow them to live more independent lives.
Kat Winger, Senior Analyst
Listen to what the newest generation of health care industry leaders think about reform here.
Kat Winger is an Alumna of University of California, Davis where she received her Bachelors in Biological Sciences. Her passion for assisting others led to a term as AmeriCorps with the American Red Cross, where she served as Youth Development Coordinator and managed educational projects from development to implementation. Kat served as Chief of Staff to Leesa Tori during the implementation of Covered California and spear-headed numerous first of their kind project implementations.
Listen to what the newest generation of health care industry leaders think about reform here.
Kat Winger is an Alumna of University of California, Davis where she received her Bachelors in Biological Sciences. Her passion for assisting others led to a term as AmeriCorps with the American Red Cross, where she served as Youth Development Coordinator and managed educational projects from development to implementation. Kat served as Chief of Staff to Leesa Tori during the implementation of Covered California and spear-headed numerous first of their kind project implementations.
Hannah Klein, Senior Analyst
Listen to what the newest generation of health care industry leaders think about reform here.
Hannah Klein joined the Tori Group in September 2013 bringing her ambitious and creative energy to the group. She has a passion for people with her years of experience working in the senior care field as the marketing director for The Meadows Assisted Living in 2011 and opening her own senior care referral corporation early 2013. Prior to senior care Hannah was a territory sales manager for Money Mailer, a multimedia marketing company.
Hannah brings the tenacity that teams need to push across the finish line. Her most recent experience at Covered California demonstrates her quick and efficient issue management skills and team leadership. Hannah is a natural leader who brings passion and intensity to any team she joins.
Presently Hannah resides in Sacramento and is seeking her undergraduate degree in economics and business. Hannah spends her down time raising her elementary age son, restoring and building custom classic cars, and spending time cruising along the Sacramento River.
Listen to what the newest generation of health care industry leaders think about reform here.
Hannah Klein joined the Tori Group in September 2013 bringing her ambitious and creative energy to the group. She has a passion for people with her years of experience working in the senior care field as the marketing director for The Meadows Assisted Living in 2011 and opening her own senior care referral corporation early 2013. Prior to senior care Hannah was a territory sales manager for Money Mailer, a multimedia marketing company.
Hannah brings the tenacity that teams need to push across the finish line. Her most recent experience at Covered California demonstrates her quick and efficient issue management skills and team leadership. Hannah is a natural leader who brings passion and intensity to any team she joins.
Presently Hannah resides in Sacramento and is seeking her undergraduate degree in economics and business. Hannah spends her down time raising her elementary age son, restoring and building custom classic cars, and spending time cruising along the Sacramento River.
Howard Bolnick, Consulting Chief Actuary
Mr. Bolnick is a consultant to the health insurance industry. His current consulting activities focus on wellness programs and health insurance risk selection problems. He is Chairman of Actuarial Committee of the Discovery Holdings, Ltd (South Africa) Board. He is also a Member of the Board of the Illinois Comprehensive Health Insurance Plan.
Mr. Bolnick has developed and teaches a highly regarded international healthcare financing and health insurance to actuaries and insurance executives in actuarially developing countries. These seminars have been taught in a number of CEE countries, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Mr. Bolnick has developed and teaches a highly regarded international healthcare financing and health insurance to actuaries and insurance executives in actuarially developing countries. These seminars have been taught in a number of CEE countries, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
David Greene, Senior Consultant
Hear Dave talk about health care reform and its impact here.
Like all of us, David Greene builds on experiences. Most recently working toward marketable implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with Covered California, his background includes working at length with integrated, exchange, and contracted-network healthcare delivery models.
Dave has been requested to advise the California State Governor's office, the California State Assembly Committee on Health, and the California HealthCare Foundation.
Using a to-the-point approach and mix of humor, he is a healthcare executive accomplished in strategic planning (and the way too often ignored execution of those plans), operational streamlining, and successful product development and launches.
Dave worked seven years with Kaiser Permanente where he began focused on distribution channel strategy and value-proposition framing for California. Multiple promotions later he served as Director of Sales Operations with national purview leading preparations and go-live of Health Care Reform broker service strategies, exchange data sharing processes, membership transition marketing, and implementation of newly created market entities such as private exchanges. A degree in Organizational Psychology used in change management, his work also utilizes an MBA in Marketing. This includes four years at Pacific Business Group on Health (PBGH) as Vice President of Marketing for the PacAdvantage small business group exchange driving development of multi-carrier product offerings, distribution management strategies, and organization re-branding. Previous to this, he quickly rose to Director of Commercial Marketing during seven years at Health Net. He was in a key role launching Health Net’s individual product line as well as helping initiate ethnic marketing efforts.
Additionally, Dave's charitable board chair position over a four year period led to the turn-around of an in-debt youth leadership organization resulting in it doubling in size with excess reserve funding.
Hear Dave talk about health care reform and its impact here.
Like all of us, David Greene builds on experiences. Most recently working toward marketable implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) with Covered California, his background includes working at length with integrated, exchange, and contracted-network healthcare delivery models.
Dave has been requested to advise the California State Governor's office, the California State Assembly Committee on Health, and the California HealthCare Foundation.
Using a to-the-point approach and mix of humor, he is a healthcare executive accomplished in strategic planning (and the way too often ignored execution of those plans), operational streamlining, and successful product development and launches.
Dave worked seven years with Kaiser Permanente where he began focused on distribution channel strategy and value-proposition framing for California. Multiple promotions later he served as Director of Sales Operations with national purview leading preparations and go-live of Health Care Reform broker service strategies, exchange data sharing processes, membership transition marketing, and implementation of newly created market entities such as private exchanges. A degree in Organizational Psychology used in change management, his work also utilizes an MBA in Marketing. This includes four years at Pacific Business Group on Health (PBGH) as Vice President of Marketing for the PacAdvantage small business group exchange driving development of multi-carrier product offerings, distribution management strategies, and organization re-branding. Previous to this, he quickly rose to Director of Commercial Marketing during seven years at Health Net. He was in a key role launching Health Net’s individual product line as well as helping initiate ethnic marketing efforts.
Additionally, Dave's charitable board chair position over a four year period led to the turn-around of an in-debt youth leadership organization resulting in it doubling in size with excess reserve funding.
