Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of hirings, firings and retirings throughout the industry. Please submit the good news—or the bad—from your shop, and we will feature it here at the end of each week.
Providence Health Plan
Lina Saadzoi has been named chief financial officer and Timshel Tarbet has been named chief equity officer at Providence Health Plan.
Saadzoi will be filling her new role in an extended capacity by leading finance along with Medicare and consumer growth strategies, strategic partnerships, corporate development and other core financial operations.
After spending two decades at Blue Shield of California, Saadzoi finished her time with the insurer as vice president and general manager of Medicare. She led profit and loss ownership and multi-year strategy development. Previously she held the position of vice president of corporate strategic integration where she oversaw a Blue Shield wholly owned subsidiary.
Tarbet joins PHP by way of SCAN Health Plan where she most recently held the position of vice president of business excellence and diversity strategy. She will help deepen the organization's focus on health equity initiatives across all internal and external-facing activities.
Prior to her time at SCAN, Tarbet spent 16 years at Cambia Health Solutions in various leadership roles addressing enterprise risk management, corporate responsibility and ethics. She also served as staff sergeant in the United States Air Force.
Independence Blue Cross
Obadiah Sang has been promoted to vice president of corporate development and strategic investments at Independence Blue Cross.
Sang has spent a decade in corporate development, investing and market strategy. Before his recent promotion, he held the position of managing director and head of corporate development and strategic investing. He has held positions for various healthcare organizations including Prosperity Behavioral Health, Spectrum Health and UnitedHealth Group.
Since joining Independence in 2020, Sang has played a key role in the payer’s expanded relationship with Penn Medicine centered on Penn’s minority equity stake within Tandigm Health. Independence will support Penn in its goal of helping Tandigm focus on improving patient outcomes and containing costs in primary care.
UC San Francisco
Julia Adler-Milstein, Ph.D., has been tapped for chief of the newly created Division of Clinical Informatics and Digital Transformation at UC San Francisco.
The new division at UCSF will promote the integration and application of information technology to improve patient care while being the home for applied clinical informatics researchers, UCSF’s Clinical Informatics Fellowship and foster research. Adler-Milstein plans to implement division initiatives in digital health equity, artificial intelligence and diagnostic excellence.
Adler-Milstein currently holds the position of professor of medicine and the director of UCSF’s Center for Clinical Informatics and Improvement Research (CLIIR). During her tenure, CLIIR has scored over $20 million in grants, collaborating with more than 50 publications and 25 different UCSF authors. She joined the UCSF team in 2017 to launch the center.
Rite Aid
Thomas Sabatino has joined Rite Aid as executive vice president and chief legal officer.
As CLO, Sabatino is set to oversee the retailer’s legal affairs, such as enterprise risk management, compliance, regulatory affairs and privacy. In the new role, he will also work to ensure the company’s growth strategy is successful. He will report directly to Rite Aid Chief Executive Officer Busy Burr.
Sabatino brings four decades of experience, most recently as the executive vice president and general counsel at Tenneco. He brings to the position previous experience in healthcare gained in companies such as Aetna, Walgreen Boots Alliance, Schering Plough Corp. and Baxter International Inc.
> Ochsner Health has named Jim Molloy as the organization’s next executive vice president and chief financial officer and treasurer.
> Alignment Health, a tech-enabled Medicare Advantage company, welcomed Todd Macaluso as health plan chief growth officer. David Milligan and Joe Kanatzar will serve as senior vice presidents of sales for California and all states outside California, respectively.
> Healthcare Leadership Council President Mary R. Grealy has announced her retirement after two decades in the position, effective at the end of this year.
> Podimetrics, an integrated clinical and patient support service that can help save the limbs and lives of people living with complex diabetes, announced Barbara Greising will be joining the executive leadership team as chief commercial officer.
> Tufts Medicine tapped Phil Okala as its new system chief operating officer.
> Holon Solutions appointed Jeff Peterson as its new chief financial officer.
> Shon Dwyer is resigning from her role as president of Vanderbilt University Hospital.
> SimpliFed, the telehealth platform dedicated to virtual breastfeeding and baby feeding support, announced Mary Hardy will join the organization as its new chief commercialization officer.
> Carenet Health, a provider of healthcare consumer engagement solutions, hired Holly McCann to join its leadership team as executive vice president of sales.
> Lifepoint Health, a healthcare delivery network, tapped Chris Hutchins to serve in the newly created role of senior vice president and chief data and analytics officer.
> Interwell Health, a kidney care management company, has appointed Daymon Smith as the company’s first chief product and technology officer.
> Eleos Health, a provider in CareOps Automation for behavioral health, has entered a partnership with Trilogy. Trilogy Chief Operating Officer Amanda Rankin will also join the Eleos customer advisory board.
> Imperative Care announced the appointment of Kirsten Carroll as chief executive officer of Kandu Health. The company also announced the appointments of Chief Financial Officer Stefan Heuser and Senior Vice President of Commercialization Clayton Duncan.
> Commonwealth Care Alliance added Peter Andruszkiewicz, Andrea Gelzer, M.D., Larry Neiterman and Karen Shields to its board of directors.
> Learn to Live, a digital mental health provider, promoted Sarah Thorstad to the positions of president and chief operating officer.
> DM Clinical Research has hired industry veteran Stephanie Ailey as vice president of business development.
> EmpowerHealth, formerly Care Angel, welcomed Margaret Kelly as chief growth officer.
> Astellas tapped Christie Bloomquist as vice president of government affairs and policy, replacing Joe Devaney.
> Chronus Health, a point-of-care diagnostics company, offered a seat on its board of directors to Ajit Singh as chairman.
> SetPoint Medical, a clinical-stage healthcare company, announced the appointment of Rohan Seth as its chief financial officer.