Premier executives
General session speakers
Mike Alkire
As president of Premier Purchasing Partners, Mike Alkire has
responsibility for comprehensive supply chain services for more than 2,000
not-for-profit hospitals. Alkire worked closely with the Purchasing Partners
team to develop and implement a three-year Transformation Plan designed to
dramatically increase returns to the alliance’s shareholders while building
stronger relationships with members and suppliers. Under his leadership,
Purchasing Partners has delivered approximately $900 million in owner-validated
savings above and beyond year-to-year price discounts delivered by Premier’s
group contracts and cash distributions to shareholders. In addition, the group
recruited approximately $1.5 billion dollars of new purchasing volume and
developed world class data application tools, allowing members to strategically
identify supply chain savings opportunities. Alkire has 20 years experience in
running business operations and business development organizations at Deloitte &
Touche and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. Before joining Premier, he served in a
number of increasingly responsible leadership roles at Cap Gemini. He graduated
magna cum laude from Indiana State University and earned his MBA from Indiana
University.
R. Wesley Champion
Wes Champion is senior vice president of Premier
Consulting Solutions and has approximately 20 years of experience in healthcare.
He is the business unit leader for Premier for consulting and has responsibility
for all operations and services within PCS. Champion primarily concentrates his
efforts in leading large-scale organizational change that improves the quality,
service, operational and financial performance of the clients he serves. With
his financial and operational background, Champion also focuses on service line
and strategic planning as well as financial services areas. Prior to joining
Premier, he was a partner with Accenture and Ernst & Young and led their
business transformation services nationally. He has also served as chief
financial officer of a primary care network, ambulatory service division, and
provider-sponsored health plan for an integrated delivery and financing system.
Susan DeVore
Susan DeVore has been named the new CEO of Premier and will
assume her new duties in the summer of 2009. As current COO of the Premier
health alliance, she leads Premier’s three business units – Premier Purchasing
Partners, LP; Healthcare Informatics; and Premier Insurance Management Services,
Inc. She is also a member of the board of HIGPA, of which Premier is a member.
DeVore has been named to Modern Healthcare’s list of the 100 Most Powerful
People in Healthcare and to the magazine’s list of the Top 25 Women in
Healthcare. Prior to serving as COO for Premier Inc., DeVore was President of
Premier Purchasing Partners, which provides group purchasing and supply chain
services, technologies and solutions to Premier’s member hospitals and other
providers. DeVore spent more than 20 years with Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (CGEY)
as a senior healthcare industry management practice leader and member of the
executive committee for the North American consulting organization. She also led
high tech, manufacturing and other business units of CGEY, giving her a broad
understanding of supply chain solutions across multiple industries. Those
experiences, coupled with her four years in hospital finance, bring proven
skills in leading, managing and understanding
Richard Norling
Rick Norling is the president and CEO of Premier Inc. Before
that, he was president and CEO of Minneapolis/St. Paul-based Fairview Hospital
and Healthcare System where he served as a member of the board of directors of
American Healthcare Systems and was instrumental in shaping the merger of that
organization with the former Premier Healthcare Alliance and SunHealth Alliance
to form today's Premier. Norling is a broadly experienced healthcare executive
and frequent speaker on healthcare strategies, organizational development and
quality management. He is leader in many professional, business, and healthcare
industry organizations, and is past president of the board of directors of the
Malcolm Baldrige Award Foundation. He also has served many years on the board of
directors of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and was a visiting
international fellow at the King's Fund in London. Norling is a member of the
board of trustees of the national cross-industry Healthcare Leadership Council
in Washington, DC, and chairs the council's national task force working toward
increased safety for patients receiving health services. He formerly served as a
member of the board of directors of Express Scripts Inc., Pacificare Health
System, and Blue Cross of California.
Robert Dowdy
As president of Premier Insurance Management Services, Inc.,
Dowdy is responsible for maintaining the success of Premier's current insurance
offerings and developing new opportunities to benefit Premier’s membership.
Dowdy came to Premier from The GE Medical Protective Company in Fort Wayne, IN,
where he worked since 1984, most recently as senior vice president of sales and
marketing. In his sales and marketing role, Dowdy was responsible for developing
and designing the corporate marketing strategy for The Medical Protective
Company and assuring that strategies were appropriately implemented to achieve
corporate objectives. Prior to that, Dowdy worked for The Medical Protective
Company in Cary, NC, and Cleveland, OH. During his tenure, he became well versed
in Six Sigma approaches to performance improvement and achieved Green Belt
Certification. Dowdy earned a bachelor’s degree in education and a master’s
degree in science from Indiana University in Bloomington, IN.