Robert B.  Azar joined Norton Healthcare in 2005 as vice president and general counsel.
 
As a member of the senior management team, he is responsible for legal services, corporate compliance, internal audit, risk management, risk financing and corporate health services. Norton Healthcare is the largest healthcare system and 3rd largest private employer in the commonwealth, with 5 hospitals including an academic medical center, freestanding children's hospital, over 450 employed physicians and 11,000 employees.
 
Before joining Norton Healthcare, Azar was vice president and general counsel for Alegent Health in Omaha, Neb., the largest health care system and largest private employer in the state. Alegent Health is a faith-based health care provider that includes over 9000 employees, nine acute care hospitals, two long-term care facilities and more than 200 employed physicians. The system also is affiliated with  Creighton University School of Medicine. Azar's overall responsibilities included the legal and regulatory affairs of the organization and its affiliates, including compliance, governance, managed care, risk financing, risk management and legal services.
 
Before Alegent Health, Azar was vice president and general counsel for Immanuel Healthcare Systems in Omaha, where he performed similar responsibilities while also playing a key role in the consolidation of Immanuel Healthcare Systems and Bergan Mercy Health System to create Alegent Health.
 
Azar has law and masters of health administration degrees from Washington University in St. Louis, and a bachelor's degree in communication from the University of Southern California. He grew up in the Los Angeles area.

 

Brian Browder is a partner at Waller Lansden and practices in the areas of mergers and acquisitions and corporate law, primarily in the healthcare industry. Mr. Browder chairs Waller Lansden’s healthcare department, a multidisciplinary team of more than 60 healthcare attorneys representing investor-owned and tax-exempt healthcare providers throughout the United States. In 2011, Mr. Browder was recognized for his health law experience in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business. In 2009, he was honored in Nightingale’s Healthcare News in the publication’s list of Outstanding Young Healthcare Lawyers.

Mr. Browder's extensive experience entails a diverse array of complex corporate transactions, including acquisitions, dispositions and joint ventures; leveraged/management buyouts; venture capital and private equity investments. Mr. Browder assist publicly traded and privately held companies as well as tax-exempt healthcare systems and governmental providers.

In 2011, Mr. Browder represented LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. in the formation of Duke LifePoint Healthcare, an innovative joint venture with Duke University Health System to build a network of community hospitals in North Carolina and surrounding areas. Also in the investor-owned healthcare sector, he provided counsel in the $400 million acquisition of a dental practice management company in a transaction financed through a combination of private equity, senior debt and mezzanine financing.

Mr. Browder's experience also includes transactions involving financially distressed or insolvent healthcare organizations. He represented LifePoint in connection with the $145 million acquisition of Sumner Regional Medical Center, a four-hospital, tax-exempt healthcare system that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and advised a behavioral healthcare company in connection with its acquisition of a 90-bed facility in a Section 363 bankruptcy transaction.

In the tax-exempt healthcare sector, Mr. Browder assisted a newly formed tax-exempt corporation in acquiring a 25-bed critical access hospital in Tennessee, represented a state medical college in the negotiation of  a 50-year academic affiliation agreement with an investor-owned hospital company, assisted a county-owned medical center in Mississippi in the acquisition of a hospital from an investor-owned hospital system, and advised a municipal hospital district in its joint venture with an investor-owned hospital company that resulted in the construction of a new hospital and the formation of a nonprofit organization focused on general health activities for residents in the region.

Mr. Browder’s healthcare experience also includes acquisitions, dispositions and joint ventures involving dialysis clinics, ambulatory surgery centers, home health agencies, diagnostic laboratory services, sleep laboratories, managed care plans, practice management companies, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, continuing care retirement communities and rehabilitation hospitals.

Mr. Browder has authored and co-authored numerous articles on health law topics, including a September 2011 article on partnerships between tax-exempt healthcare providers and investor-owned companies published in The Deal. He lectures frequently on transactional issues such as due diligence in healthcare transactions, buy-sell agreements, asset purchase agreements and stock purchase agreements., as well as the topic of ethics for transactional lawyers.

Mr. Browder earned his J.D. in 1994 from Vanderbilt University and his B.S.B.A. in Accounting in 1991 from Georgetown University.

 

Randy Buchnowski joined the Centura Health Physician Group in February 2010 as Chief Operating Officer. Centura Health, Colorado’s largest health care system, is a faith-based system that includes 14,500 employees, 13 acute care hospitals, a home care division, hospice, seven senior living centers, and more.

The Centura Health Physician Group (CHPG) manages and operates 80 practices at more than 100 locations across Colorado, supporting 460 employed and affiliated providers. A member of the senior management team, Randy is responsible for practice leadership management and operations, training, provider integration and strategic planning. Randy helps CHPG physicians increase patient satisfaction, implement electronic medical records, and optimize risk management, in an effort to make them as successful as possible.

Before joining Centura, Randy was with Providence Health and Services, and prior to that, the University of Colorado Hospital. He has a master’s degree in health administration from the Army-Baylor Graduate Program in Health and Business
Administration; as well as a master’s degree in public administration and bachelor’s degree in community health, both from Boise State University. Randy grew up in Buffalo, New York.

 

Jim is a founder of Cain Brothers and served as CEO through 2009. Jim is Chairman of the Board and a member of the firm's Executive Committee and is actively engaged with many of the firm's clients and the nation's leading health care providers.

Jim's industry knowledge and leadership talents have been developed over 37 years of health care finance experience gained while at Blyth Eastman Dillon, Salomon Brothers, and, since founding the firm with his brother in 1982, at Cain Brothers. Emphasizing a strong "relationship" orientation with his clients, Jim has worked with many of the nation's leading health care providers including Catholic Healthcare West, Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System, and Riverside Health System in Virginia. During his career, all of which has been in health care capital finance, Jim has participated as the investment banker or financial advisor in all types of capital financing for health care clients, as well as merger and acquisition transactions.

Jim grew up in Holyoke, Massachusetts and is a 1972 graduate of Harvard College.

 

Monica Cintado serves as Senior Vice President of Development for United Surgical Partners International. In this position, Ms. Cintado is responsible for development of joint ventures with hospital systems in the East and serves on several joint venture boards for USPI. Prior to development in the US, she was involved in the acquisitions of surgical hospitals in Europe and served as a member of the Board of Directors for USPI’s facilities in Spain. Before joining USPI in 1998, she worked in development with the International Group at Columbia/HCA. Ms. Cintado completed her undergraduate degree at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee and MBA from Rollins College, Florida.

 

Harry L. Eichelberger is a Principal of Oak Hill Capital Partners and is responsible for investments in the Healthcare group. Prior to joining Oak Hill in 2003, he worked at JPMorgan in its financial sponsors group. Mr. Eichelberger earned a B.S. degree and a B.A. degree with high honors from the University of California, Berkeley.

 

Mr. Gordon is a Managing Director of Bain Capital based in the Boston office and has been with the firm since 1997. He has played a leading role in numerous transactions in the healthcare sector. Prior to joining Bain Capital, Mr. Gordon was a consultant at Bain & Company, Inc.

Mr. Gordon currently serves as a director of HCA Inc. (NYSE: HCA), Accellent, Inc., Air Medical Group Holdings, Inc., CRC Health Corporation and Quintiles Transnational Corp.  He is a founding Director of the Healthcare Private Equity Association. He also volunteers for a variety of charitable organizations, serving on the Board of Directors of the Boston Public Library Foundation and Year Up – Boston, and as a member of the Children’s Hospital Board of Overseers.  Mr. Gordon received an A.B. in Economics from Harvard College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. 

 

Brent Henry is Vice President and General Counsel of Partners HealthCare (“Partners”)*, an integrated teaching, research, and health care delivery network based in Boston, Massachusetts with almost $9 billion in revenue and more than 55,000 employees.  He oversees the legal, corporate compliance and business ethics departments.

Prior to his arrival at Partners, Mr. Henry was Vice President and General Counsel of MedStar Health, a hospital system serving the Baltimore-Washington corridor.  He has also served as the Deputy Administrator of the New York City Human Resources Administration (where he directed the NYC Medicaid program), and as the Director of Business and Governmental Affairs for Greater Southeast Health Care System in Washington, DC.  Mr. Henry began his career as an attorney with the law firm of Jones, Day.  He has also taught health care law at the Howard University and University of Maryland graduate programs in health administration.

Mr. Henry received his J.D. degree from Yale Law School, and a Master of Urban Studies from the Yale School of Art and Architecture.  He received his B.A. degree from Princeton University, where he studied in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. 

Mr. Henry is a Trustee of Princeton University and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.   He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Fiduciary Trust Company and the Public Welfare Foundation, and is a Past President of the American Health Lawyers Association.

 

Reggie Hill is a partner at Waller Lansden. His practice focuses on the healthcare industry and his experience in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, securities, venture capital financing and health law is both extensive and well-known. Mr. Hill represented two outpatient surgery center companies in their initial public offerings; represented a publicly traded surgery center company in its acquisition by a publicly traded company; and represented a publicly traded company in the spin-off of its managed care subsidiary as a separate public company, and then in its subsequent acquisition by a third publicly traded company. Mr. Hill also has represented a publicly traded surgery center company in its acquisition by a private equity firm.

Mr. Hill represents hospital companies in acquisitions and divestitures of hospitals, as well as in joint ventures with other providers of healthcare services, including physicians and physician groups. Mr. Hill also has represented healthcare companies in hundreds of transactions, including the development, syndication, acquisition and divestiture of facilities. In addition, Mr. Hill advises Boards of Directors on corporate governance matters, including compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. He also provides counsel to individuals and companies in investments at all stages of the investment cycle.

Mr. Hill has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America® (Woodward White Inc.) since 1999 for his work in corporate law, healthcare law and mergers and acquisitions law. He also has been listed in America's Leading Lawyers for Business® (Chambers & Partners) since 2003. Mr. Hill also has been recognized in the Nashville Business Journal’s “Healthcare 100,” “Best of the Bar” and “Healthcare Heroes,” and Mid-South Super Lawyers.

 

Toby is a Managing Director in Citi’s Global Healthcare Group and leads Citi’s banking efforts as it relates to healthcare providers.

Before joining Citi, Toby spent 11 years at Merrill Lynch in the healthcare group.  Before that Toby worked for 3 years at HCA in the finance group.

Throughout his career, Toby has advised on over $50 billion of healthcare transaction including some of the most notable deals in the healthcare sector, such as HCA's leveraged buyout and its subsequent IPO.

Toby earned an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1999 and B.S. degree from Bellarmine College.

 

Mr. Pitts currently is Vice Chairman of Vanguard Health Systems. Vanguard is a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. It has a strong equity sponsor in the Blackstone Group, one of the largest sources of private capital in the U.S. and the company’s major shareholder. Currently, Vanguard owns and operates 26 acute-care hospitals and related outpatient businesses in five primary markets. Keith Pitts has over 25 years of health care experience, with varying responsibilities across multiple industry sectors. Mr. Pitts has significant experience in the acute care and managed care sectors of the health care industry. In addition, he has experience in the long-term care, physician practice management and specialty services sectors. Mr. Pitts’ experience covers the functional areas of mergers and acquisitions, development, strategic planning, organizational development, operations, finance and information systems. Prior to joining Vanguard, Keith was the Chairman and CEO of Mariner Post-Acute Network and its predecessor, Paragon Health Network. His career includes serving as OrNda HealthCorp’s Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer as well as over 15 years as a consultant to health care organizations, most recently as a Partner in Ernst & Young’s Healthcare Consulting practice. Mr. Pitts has served on the Boards of Directors of several public and private companies. More recently he has served as the Chairman of the Federation of American Hospitals (FAH), a post he held for four years.

 

Patsy Powers is Of Counsel with Waller Lansden. Ms. Powers' practice focuses on surgery centers, psychiatric facilities and acute care hospitals whom she advises on a wide range of regulatory and operations issues. She provides counsel on fraud and abuse matters, state and federal anti-kickback regulations and self-referral prohibitions, as well as in physician payment issues and Medicare enrollment and reimbursement matters. Ms. Powers also prepares and reviews surgery center and hospital contracts with third parties including healthcare practitioners and payors.

Ms. Powers provides advice and counsel on the structuring of joint ventures and facility acquisitions with respect to regulatory compliance. She served as special regulatory counsel for the merger of two publicly traded hospital companies. Ms. Powers served as regulatory counsel for the spin-off of 60 hospitals by an NYSE-listed hospital company which formed two new publicly traded companies. Additionally, Ms. Powers serves as regulatory counsel for physician joint ventures.

Ms. Powers is recognized in The Best Lawyers in America (Woodward White, Inc.) and America’s Leading Lawyers for Business (Chambers & Partners) for her work in healthcare law. For the past three years, she has been recognized by the Nashville Business Journal in the publication's annual listing of Healthcare Leaders and the "Best of the Bar." The Nashville Post has designated her a "Healthcare 100 Honoree." Ms. Powers has made presentations to the Federation of Ambulatory Surgery Administrators.

 

David W. Rowan has served as Chief Legal Officer and Secretary of the Cleveland Clinic since June 2005.  In 2006 he was also appointed as its Chief Governance Officer and serves on the Clinic’s Board of Governors.  From 1995 to 2005, Mr. Rowan served as General Counsel and Secretary of the Cleveland Clinic while remaining a partner in Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, LLP.  Mr. Rowan received his J.D. magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 1978 and a B.A. summa cum laude from the University of Toledo in 1975.  Mr. Rowan joined the law firm of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, LLP upon graduation from law school and became a partner in 1987.  Mr. Rowan served on the Squire, Sanders & Dempsey Management Committee from 1993-1996.  He left Squire, Sanders to become the Chief Legal Officer of the Cleveland Clinic in 2005.  The 30 attorney law department is responsible for all legal matters of the Cleveland Clinic and its Health System.

 

Speaker bio coming soon...