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Our Story - Management Team
President's Letter |
Before and After Gallery | Management Team
Sylvia Aruffo, PhD
President
In 2005, Dr. Aruffo presented to the CMS in Washington, DC on Consumer Education. She had given the presentation on Quality in Patient Education at the
2003 JCAHO annual conference. Her PhD is in ethnography, research techniques applied to the development and adoption of new products. Prior to joining Baxter,
she had won state and national awards for innovative curricula and techniques developed from principles of ethnography. Dr. Aruffo speaks five languages and
worked for 12 years for Fortune 100 firms developing programs and products based on ethnographic research. She designed and implemented the training program
for retirees in the Peace Corps reducing the drop-out rate from 70% to less than 1%.
Dr. Aruffo received her MBA and PhD from Northwestern University. She had P&L responsibility
as Midwest Region VP of Sales for a former division of American Hospital Supply, growing
revenue from $4 million to $21 million in two years. In 1995, she founded her first company,
which sold electrocardiographic equipment in the US, Canada and Latin America. Proceeds
from that company launched Careguide Systems. She was Director of Science and Technology
Programs at Baxter Healthcare, where she was a Malcolm Baldridge quality examiner.
Shirley Grey, RN, MSN
Executive Vice President, Marketing
Ms. Grey has a rare combination: 13 years' home health preceded by 10 years' hospital nursing. For 8 years, she was administrator of a
$4 million home health agency. She handled national sales for one of the country's largest home health care firms. Ms. Grey consulted for
Careguide in 1997 before joining the Company in January 1998. She is a past president of the Illinois Chapter of the Case Management Society
of America. Ms. Grey is on the boards of several charitable organizations. Her master's degree in perinatal nursing is from University of Illinois.
Judith Franks-Farah, RN
Operations Director
Ms. Farah managed the emergency room at Mt. Sinai Medical Center on the south side of Chicago for 22 years. Concurrently, she was the
manager of a physician practice clinic. She knows the case managers' perspective from experience as a precertification nurse in an independent
physicians' association from 1996-98.
Carol Outland, RN, MSN
Clinical Product Development
Ms. Outland was professor of nursing and the director of an innovative birthing center at the University of Colorado. She has also been administrator
of a home healthcare agency and hospice.
Board of Directors
In addition to Dr. Aruffo as Chair, the Board comprises:
Cheryl Johnson Weldon
Ms. Weldon was part of the founding management team of Novoste Corporation, a cardiac catheter company focused on vascular brachytherapy.
She served as a Vice President and Corporate Secretary from 1992-2001, and she played a leadership role in all of the company's financing rounds,
including its IPO in 1996. She holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Georgia Tech and a MBA from Northwestern University.
Roger Ritley
Mr. Ritley is the president/CEO of Property Economists, Inc. a real estate development firm specializing in shopping malls and other large public
spaces in the Cleveland, OH area. He often serves as an expert witness regarding real estate valuations and other real property issues.
Norman R. Weldon, Ph.D.
Dr. Weldon is Managing Director of Partisan Management Group, Inc., an early stage venture capital company that assists with the funding and management
of medical device startups. He is also on the Board of two medical device companies he co-founded. Dr. Weldon received his BS in Biochemistry in 1956,
MS in Industrial Management in 1962, and PhD in Economics in 1964, all from Purdue University. He has been the CEO of three public companies:
CTS Corporation, Cordis Corporation (which was purchased by Johnson and Johnson as the basis for its cardiovascular division) and Corvita Corporation.
He was a co-founder of CTS Microelectronics, Inc., Corvita Corporation, Novoste Puerto Rico, Inc., Novoste Corporation and Enable Medical Corporation
and he is a director of two mutual funds: New Economy Fund and SmallCap World Fund.
Advisory Board
Fredric I. Orkin, PE
Fredric I. Orkin, PE, is currently President of Czarnek-Orkin Laboratories., a medical products design firm.
Mr. Orkin is an author of the Juran Quality Handbook and consults both domestically and internationally in FDA
compliance for manufacturing and medical device approvals. From 1978 to 1985, he was Corporate Director, Reliability
and Quality Engineering for Baxter International and from 1985 to 1993 he was General Manager of Baxter's intravenous
fluid delivery division. Mr. Orkin currently serves on the Boards of four medical device venture companies.
He received his B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Ohio State University, and completed the Executive Development
Program at San Diego State in 1974 while launch operations manager for General Electric Aerospace division.
