The ACE Advisory Board is made up of individuals representing healthcare systems and GPOs. These industry leaders provide input and guidance in development of the ACE Summit education program.
Chairman -- John Sdanowich
Director of Capital Sourcing
Johns Hopkins Health System & Nobilant
Baltimore, MD
John Sdanowich is the Director of Capital Sourcing for Nobilant and The Johns Hopkins Health System in Baltimore, MD. He has been with Johns Hopkins for more than 25 years, 17 of those years as the Capital Administrator, responsible for the financing and negotiations of all health system medical equipment and service contracts. John is responsible for the capital sourcing for the 6-JHHS hospitals and the sourcing of the other 12-GPO hospitals, totaling over $700-million in capital spend. The sourcing includes the total cost of ownership, all consumables and services as well as capital acquisitions. His focus on equipment is the technology, life-cycle-management and the obsolescence risk of the medical equipment. John’s approach includes reviewing the changes in vendor’s medical equipment, evaluating products at the factory and with senior management in research and development, to access the most economically feasible acquisition methodology. He is also responsible for making financial acquisition decisions for JHHS that includes lease-buy analysis and related finance polices.
John Co-Chaired the RFID committee, tasked with finding a real time location solution for tracking equipment, patients and employees, which was installed in the two new clinical towers. John has also worked in the Department of Emergency Medicine as the Assistant Administrator and as a Management Engineer, working on the re-engineering of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. The main focus of the restructuring was in the departments of Surgery and Medicine. John has published: A White Paper, “Life-Cycle Financing for Capital Investments”, “Strategies to Maximize your Capital Dollars”, in Medical Imaging/MedAssets.Com Forum, and “How to Create a Capital Process to Maximize Investments”, in Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology. John is a regular speaker at the IDN Summit, and Chair of the Advisory Board of the ACE Summit. He is a board member of The John Carroll School and the Johns Hopkins Federal Credit Union.
Frank Cirillo
Vice President, Business Strategy
Acurity, Inc.
New York, NY
Frank Cirillo is vice president, business strategy, of Acurity, Inc. His main duties at Acurity are to bring value to health systems’ supply chain operations through group purchasing program participation and process improvement. Additionally, Frank provides consulting services to health systems with Acurity’s consulting arm, Nexera. For the previous 25 years, Mr. Cirillo held several senior management positions at HHC. During the latter two years of his tenure, Mr. Cirillo, HHC’s first chief restructuring officer, led HHC’s priority project—the restructuring of HHC’s clinical and operational programs—yielding HHC an implementation change roadmap resulting in savings and additional revenues of over $300 million annually. For the prior 13 years, Frank was HHC’s chief operating officer.
Rebecca Gayden
Vice President, Contract & Program Services, Sourcing Operations
Vizient, Inc.
Dallas, TX
Rebecca Gayden serves as Vice President, Sourcing Operations with responsibility for Vizient’s Capital, Imaging, and Construction portfolio and program. Gayden joined Novation in 2005 as Capital Equipment Manager with responsibility of starting the Capital Group Buy program. She has since provided leadership across a range of areas including Provista’s diversification strategy. Prior to joining Novation, Gayden worked as an Equipment Planner for over 11 years, where she served as Project Manager on projects ranging in size from small ambulatory surgery centers to 1 million square foot replacement facilities. Gayden holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from California State University Sacramento.
Jerry A. McKinney
Senior Vice President Material Management/Chief Purchasing Officer
Quorum Health
Brentwood, TN
My hospital career began with Hospital Corporation of America in 1979. I had over 14 yrs in Material Management with HCA hospitals in New Mexico, Arkansas, and Texas. I also began specifying equipment and managing the annual capital equipment budgets for each of these hospitals.
In 1992 I accepted the role of Project Manager at Northwest Texas Hospital in Amarillo, Texas. While there, several critical care additions including ED, NICU, ICU, Surgery, and PACU were completed.
In 1997 I accepted a Corporate Material Management/Capital Equipment position with Community Health Systems. During 18+ years with CHS I had responsibility for both routine capital and for all corporately managed capital projects. Corporately managed projects included renovations, expansions, and full hospital replacements. I developed, and implemented CHS procedures and processes including the creation of a refurbished equipment acquisition program all of which are used by CHS today. My role was to insure that the needs of our facilities were appropriately addressed, provide coordination with the entire project team, and to insure that each project schedule was completed as planned. The expectations were to complete the project at the best cost, and to achieve the highest level of GPO contract compliance possible. This was accomplished by adhering to comprehensive equipment standards, and by taking advantage of the purchasing volume this creates. We tracked as many as 120 active projects of various sizes. In 2015 equipment plans for these projects totaled approximately $409 million.
In August of 2015 Community Health Systems announced plans to spinoff 38 hospitals and Quorum Health Resources into a new company. Quorum Health Corporation was born on April 29, 2016 and I was selected to be the Senior Vice President of Material Management and Chief Purchasing Officer. My role encompasses responsibility for the full scope of supply chain activities, and all capital purchases.
In 1992 I accepted the role of Project Manager at Northwest Texas Hospital in Amarillo, Texas. While there, several critical care additions including ED, NICU, ICU, Surgery, and PACU were completed.
In 1997 I accepted a Corporate Material Management/Capital Equipment position with Community Health Systems. During 18+ years with CHS I had responsibility for both routine capital and for all corporately managed capital projects. Corporately managed projects included renovations, expansions, and full hospital replacements. I developed, and implemented CHS procedures and processes including the creation of a refurbished equipment acquisition program all of which are used by CHS today. My role was to insure that the needs of our facilities were appropriately addressed, provide coordination with the entire project team, and to insure that each project schedule was completed as planned. The expectations were to complete the project at the best cost, and to achieve the highest level of GPO contract compliance possible. This was accomplished by adhering to comprehensive equipment standards, and by taking advantage of the purchasing volume this creates. We tracked as many as 120 active projects of various sizes. In 2015 equipment plans for these projects totaled approximately $409 million.
In August of 2015 Community Health Systems announced plans to spinoff 38 hospitals and Quorum Health Resources into a new company. Quorum Health Corporation was born on April 29, 2016 and I was selected to be the Senior Vice President of Material Management and Chief Purchasing Officer. My role encompasses responsibility for the full scope of supply chain activities, and all capital purchases.
Jill S.M. Pearsall
Vice President, Facilities Planning & Development and Real Estate Services
Texas Children's Hospital
Houston, TX
Jill Pearsall is the Vice President, Facilities Planning & Development and Real Estate Services at Texas Children’s Hospital. She has leadership responsibility for facilities Planning, Project and Program Management, covering all aspects of planning, design, construction, and project delivery as well as on-going support programs of artwork, signage, interiors, logistics, space, parking, and facilities information and statistics. Jill is a licensed architect in Texas and California and holds a certificate from the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB).
Jill joined Texas Children’s Hospital in 2002, coming on the tail end of the 1998 facilities expansion that added 1.2 million square feet to the Texas Children’s campus. Through the organization’s 2005 Special Strategic Plan and subsequent Vision 2010 facilities expansion (a four building, 2.4 million square feet, $1.13 billion, 6 year initiative), Jill remained intimately involved in planning, developing and executing the Vision.
Jill is currently leading the development of the second Texas Children’s pediatric community hospital campus in The Woodlands, Texas, a $360 million development, and the 19 story vertical expansion of Pediatric Tower E on Texas Children’s main Texas Medical Center campus, a $506 million project, part of a $575 million expansion focused on critical care, surgery and emergency services.
Jill also serves on several organizational committees, including Environmental Safety, Emergency Management, Facilities Executive, Executive Space Management and Capital Management, and is a key member on many task forces.
Jill is a graduate of the University of Southern California with a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture. Prior to switching to facilities management and joining the healthcare industry, she spent several years as a practicing architect in both California and Texas, working primarily for commercial and institutional clients.
Jill joined Texas Children’s Hospital in 2002, coming on the tail end of the 1998 facilities expansion that added 1.2 million square feet to the Texas Children’s campus. Through the organization’s 2005 Special Strategic Plan and subsequent Vision 2010 facilities expansion (a four building, 2.4 million square feet, $1.13 billion, 6 year initiative), Jill remained intimately involved in planning, developing and executing the Vision.
Jill is currently leading the development of the second Texas Children’s pediatric community hospital campus in The Woodlands, Texas, a $360 million development, and the 19 story vertical expansion of Pediatric Tower E on Texas Children’s main Texas Medical Center campus, a $506 million project, part of a $575 million expansion focused on critical care, surgery and emergency services.
Jill also serves on several organizational committees, including Environmental Safety, Emergency Management, Facilities Executive, Executive Space Management and Capital Management, and is a key member on many task forces.
Jill is a graduate of the University of Southern California with a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture. Prior to switching to facilities management and joining the healthcare industry, she spent several years as a practicing architect in both California and Texas, working primarily for commercial and institutional clients.
Mike Reid
Vice President-Construction, Capital and Facility Services
Intalere
St. Louis, MO
Mike Reid has more than 30 years of experience in the healthcare industry and has been with Intalere since 2000. In his current position, he has responsibility for the administration and sales support for construction, capital equipment and facility management services programs. He is a member of the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) and Hospital Engineers of Southwestern Pennsylvania (HESP). He has authored numerous articles and lectures nationally on subjects as diverse as energy management and conservation, healthcare construction and renovation, safety and security, and group purchasing operations.
James T. Venker, AIA
Senior Director; Facilities, Construction & Environmental Services
Premier, Inc.
Charlotte, NC
James Venker has been instrumental in the development of Premier’s Construction program and collaborates in the negotiation of many of the agreements within the facility's portfolio as well as several construction web tools. He provides construction and facilities expertise to Premier members and their facilities teams, and assists members in capital contract utilization. His responsibilities include the promotion, education and utilization of Premier’s Construction Services Program in the areas of construction materials, infrastructure equipment and non-clinical equipment. Additionally, Jim provides construction spend and contract utilization reviews, assists members in integrating Premier agreement opportunities into construction contract document specifications, and works to assist contracted suppliers in addressing member needs.