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.
Solv
Teresa Asma as been promoted to chief operating officer of healthcare provider Solv.
Solv brought on Asma in 2021 as the vice president of finance and people following her work as VP of finance and strategy at VSCO. She began her career at Intel Corporation where she supported start of care architecture research and commercialization. Later, as an early finance hire at Google, Asma contributed to a wide range of research and development teams including Waymo, Google Glass, Wing and Google Life Sciences.
In her new position, Asma will help expand Solv’s national provider network of urgent care centers. Solv partnered with virtual care and health navigation company Included Health earlier this year to unite virtual care to same-day medical office visits.
BehaVR
Three senior executive positions were filled this week at digital therapeutics company BehaVR.
Marc Griffin has been named a chief commercial officer. Most recently, Griffin held the position of executive advisor of go-to-market strategy at Griffin Associates. He previously spent time at Babylon, RXRevu and AVIA.
Amir Gueron was tapped for chief financial officer at the company specializing in virtual reality. Gueron just completed seven and a half years at TytoCare as vice president of finance after joining the company as director of finance. He previously held the position of head of technology, media and telecommunications at Deloitte where he first held the position of enterprise risk services division consultant.
Jillian Ahrens is now the company’s first chief product and design officer. Before coming to BehaVR, she spent six years as associate director of product research and design at Pear Therapeutics. She holds extensive experience in art direction and visual design.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
David Corkum has accepted the position of executive vice president and chief growth officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.
Corkum will spearhead Blue Cross’ commercial market-facing functions, including sales and product, brand management and marketing. He will also lead the charge in the development of medical, specialty and health engagement products.
For the last six years, Corkum has worked as executive vice president of commercial markets and chief growth officer at CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield where he oversaw the health and specialty insurance coverage and administrative services used by 3.5 million members. He previously held a number of sales and leadership positions at Aetna.
Tufts Medicine
Brent P. Forester, M.D., began his work as psychiatrist-in-chief and chairman for the Department of Psychiatry at Tufts Medical Center, and director of behavioral health for Tufts Medicine.
The placement was announced in February before Brent stepped into the role June 1. Forester most recently held the position of chief of the division of geriatric psychiatry at McLean Hospital and senior medical director for value-based care in population health management at Mass General Brigham. His NIA-funded research has focused on novel therapeutic interventions for the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia along with the efficacy of team-based dementia care employed within primary care medical settings.
Forester will play a key role in the advent of a system-wide behavioral health service line. He will help guide the health system through large-scale changes, including its partnership with Acadia Healthcare to build a new 144-bed behavioral health hospital and Tufts’ work with Synchronous Health to provide new telehealth counseling services for the patients of primary care practices within its network.
> EmpiRx Health, a value-based PBM, announced that the company's president, Danny Sanchez, has been named chief executive officer.
> Sutter Health has appointed Todd Smith, M.D., to the newly created role of senior vice president and chief physician executive.
> Commonwealth Care Alliance, a healthcare services organization, has named Frank Scalise as chief financial officer.
> Lucet, a provider of behavioral health solutions and services to commercial health plans, today announced the hiring of Brian Doheny as the company’s chief operating officer.
> Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, an RWJBarnabas Health facility, has named chief operating officer Alan Lee as its president.
> Providence Swedish welcomed Payam Mohadjeri as the new North Puget Sound chief administrative officer.
> Chronus Health, a disruptor in point-of-care diagnostics, unveiled Ajit Singh as chairman of the company's board of directors.
> Innovive Health, a data-driven home healthcare agency, announced several appointments to the company’s recently established Colorado operation, Executive Director of Colorado Operations Daniel Politano, Clinical Director Leighann Stonefield and Case Manager Nina Britton.
> Providence, a not-for-profit health system serving the western U.S., announced the appointment of Laureen Driscoll as the chief executive for its south division.
> Carmot Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company, is pleased to announce the appointment of Michael Gray as both chief operating officer and chief financial officer.
> MedVanta, the musculoskeletal management services organization, hired its first chief information officer, Tony Yi, along with the hiring of senior vice president of managed care and payor strategy, Christine DeAngelis, and vice president of program development, Rachel Mazzotta.
> Abivax SA, a Phase 3 clinical-stage biotechnology company, appointed Ida Hatoum as chief people officer.
> Imperative Care tapped Shacey Petrovic for its board of directors.
> T-CURX named Professor Michael Hudecek, M.D., as chief medical officer and Karl Schumacher, M.D., as chief clinical officer.
> Absci, a generative AI drug creation company, gave a seat on its board of directors to Frans van Houten.
> Stratevi, a health economics consulting firm, picked Tim Brown as its new chief commercial officer.
> Medical Guardian, a provider of remote patient monitoring services, named Jim Spencer as executive vice president and chief financial officer.