Under the leadership of Mr. Perlman, GNYHA Services, Inc., a subsidiary of GNYHA, signed in March 2004, an innovative seven-year contract with Premier Purchasing Partners for group purchasing of medical/surgical and pharmaceutical supplies on behalf of more than 100 not-for-profit hospitals throughout the New York and New Jersey area. Under this new relationship with Premier, GNYHA Services is able to offer its members the benefits of a major national GPO with the advantages of regional flexibility to make group purchasing work better for hospitals. GNYHA Services and Premier have experienced a successful partnership since 1996. Mr. Perlman also serves as Chairman of Innovatix, the fastest growing alternate care purchasing corporation in the nation with approximately 14,000 members and $3 billion in purchasing volume.
Over the last decade, GNYHA’s affiliated businesses have generated more than $100 million in funds, and in 2008, the businesses will collectively be involved in more than $6 billion in commerce, represent approximately $90 million in revenue, and provide resources to fund $20 million in advocacy and support services to GNYHA members and customers.
Board certified in health care management and an ACHE Fellow, Mr. Perlman served as a Board member of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), an international professional society of nearly 30,000 health care executives from 2000–04 and prior to that was a Regent in the College from years 1996 to 2000. He most recently joined the Board of the National Center for Healthcare Leadership (NCHL). He is also on the board of the Institute for Diversity in Health Management and is the founder of the New York Summer Enrichment Program. In 1998, he received ACHE’s Robert S. Hudgens Memorial Award for Young Healthcare Executive of the Year. Mr. Perlman is also a past president of the Metropolitan Health Administrators’ Association.
Mr. Perlman received his B.A. from Binghamton (NY) University in 1980 and his M.B.A. from the Sloan Program at Cornell University in 1982.
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Mr. Christopher J. O’Connor, MBA, FACHE has worked in the management consulting and health care industry for close to two decades. He has held a variety of leadership positions over the course of his career and has built a reputation as an innovative and growth oriented thought leader. Mr. O’Connor has worked within the provider side of health care and at some of the top consulting firms across the globe.
Currently, Mr. O’Connor serves as Executive Vice President of GNYHA Ventures, Inc., the parent company for a number of for-profit businesses, and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA). GNYHA is a one-of-a-kind trade association comprising over 300 hospitals and continuing care facilities, both voluntary and public, in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico.
Mr. O’Connor also serves as President of GNYHA Services, Inc., an acute care group purchasing organization. In his role as President, he is responsible for the management and growth of the GNYHA Services/Premier portfolio, Business Solutions Group, Business Strategy, and Supply Chain Resources. Mr. O’Connor, along with his team, has been a critical component in client base expansion, strengthening, and growth. Under his tenure, the company’s profitability has grown from $16 million to over $45 million.
Mr. O’Connor is also President of Nexera, Inc., a health care consulting firm he created when he first joined GNYHA in 2003. Nexera’s initial focus was to assist hospitals and long term care facilities to identify and implement strategies to reduce supply chain cost through operational and strategic improvement. Today, the firm’s services have grown to include: organization wide process improvement and redesign, technology implementation assistance, contract evaluation, pharmacy and 340B tracking implementations, laboratory process, cost assessment and implementation, dietary assessment and management, and project and program management. Through Mr. O’Connor’s vision and leadership, Nexera’s impact on the health care community has been quite significant. Since its creation in 2003, Nexera has saved clients over $150 million and has achieved revenue and profitability goals every year.
In addition to his years at GNYHA, Mr. O’Connor has worked at KPMG (Bearing Point) and Deloitte. There he spent several years working internationally in Brazil, Holland, and South Africa on supply chain projects in financial services, manufacturing, and transportation. Once back in the U.S., Mr. O’Connor spent a year working with the United Nations and the then-budding Department of Homeland Security. Mr. O’Connor was appointed to the Document Security Advisory Council, United States Secret Service (2002-2003) while working with KPMG. He also successfully worked in the areas of cost reduction, M&A, reorganizations, strategy, system implementation (ERP), and technology optimization.
Mr. O’Connor is currently a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), member of the Association for Healthcare Resource and Materials Management (AHRMM), and Chair of the Premier Purchasing Partners National Technology Steering Committee (2003-2010). He is a former Board Member of the Health Industry Group Purchasing Association (HIGPA) and a former member of the Editorial Board-Materials Management in Healthcare (1998-2000). In addition, Mr. O’Connor was previously elected to both the Iona College Alumni Board (1996-2004) and the Pelham, New York Board of Education (2001-2004).
Mr. O’Connor is an active speaker and author on a variety of health care, leadership, and supply chain topics. Since 1993, he has served as an adjunct instructor at Iona College and Berkley College teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in Interpersonal Communication, Management, and English. In addition, he has guest lectured on the topics of Leadership, Career Management and Executive Perspectives within the Health Care Programs.
Throughout his established career, Mr. O’Connor has always been motivated to give back to the various communities he has been a part of. He is an active fundraiser for Project Family, an organization dedicated to providing counseling and maintaining a soup kitchen for the Mount Vernon, NY community, and SCHOLA Ministers, an organization that supports and promotes liturgical and contemplative arts. Mr. O’Connor also volunteers at the American Red Cross of Metro New York and Midnight Runs, an organization delivering food and clothing to the homeless people of New York City. He is a former Board Member of both the Mount Vernon YMCA Family Center and the Danny Fund, an organization providing financial assistance to families of children with cancer.
Mr. O’Connor received his Bachelor of Arts in English Education from Iona College. He also has a Masters of Business Administration in Production Operation Management and a Post Masters Certificate in Management from Iona College’s Hagan School of Business.
Mr. O’Connor, a private pilot, currently lives in Westchester County, New York with his three sons.
Mr. Jeffrey A. Ashkenase has worked at GNYHA Services since 2004. Mr. Ashkenase's areas provide the information and analytics necessary to support the GNYHA Services regional contracting effort; they also provide the information and analytics the field force uses to assist members in maximizing the value of the GNYHA Services Group Purchasing Program. Mr. Ashkenase is also responsible for deploying the GNYHA Services/Premier/GHX contract management technology to the member hospitals. Mr. Ashkenase has worked in the health care industry for more than 10 years in not-for-profit, managed care, group purchasing, and government settings. Throughout his career, he has been responsible for using technology to manage costs, implement systems, optimize the supply chain, and improve the decision support and budgeting process through the use of technology. Prior to joining GNYHA Services, he was an Associate Vice President of Finance at Maimonides Medical Center where his responsibilities included overseeing the budget, decision support department and materials management, and business information systems. Mr. Ashkenase earned his B.A. from SUNY Albany and his Masters from the NYU Wagner School.
Mr. Bill Larkin, who has more than 20 years of experience in pharmacy management, joined GNYHA Services in 1992. Before joining GNYHA Services, he was the Assistant Director of Pharmacy Operations at Lenox Hill Hospital and served as the GNYHA Services, Inc. Pharmacy Committee Chairman for four years. Mr. Larkin received a B.S. Pharmacy Degree from St. John’s University and a Masters degree from Long Island University’s Schwartz College of Pharmacy. During his tenure at GNYHA Services, the pharmaceutical contract program has grown to a volume of more than $900 million.
Ms. Nancy A. Vetter joined GNYHA Services in 2009 as Senior Vice President for Business Strategy. She is responsible for developing and strengthening relationships with the executive leadership of current and future clients, and ensuring the collective efforts of GNYHA are directly aligned with the strategic vision and supply chain goals of our member hospitals. In her role, Ms. Vetter engages directly with executive leadership to understand the strategic, operational, financial, and quality imperatives of their organizations. She also works with our members to customize solutions for their cost reduction imperatives not only across the supply chain, but the entire organization.
Ms. Vetter has more than 25 years of health care experience, working in both the hospital and consulting environment. During her tenure at BearingPoint, Inc. (formerly KPMG Consulting), Ms. Vetter was responsible for large scale cost reduction efforts. In her role, she helped hospitals achieve significant savings through clinical, financial, and operational improvement efforts. Ms. Vetter also worked for a large health system in New York City where she was responsible for conducting enterprise-wide operational assessments and developing and deploying improvement plans focused on revenue enhancement and cost reduction. Additionally, Ms. Vetter worked as a critical care nurse for over 10 years.
Ms. Vetter earned her Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the City University of New York, Baruch College and her Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing from the City University of New York, Hunter College. She is also a PMI-Certified Project Management Professional.
Mr. John Vivenzio manages GHYHA Services’ vast and comprehensive contract portfolio. He also directs a team of subject matter experts and leads GNYHA Services’ regional contracting strategies, which result in even more significant financial benefits for member participants. Before joining GNYHA Services in 2002, Mr. Vivenzio was the Vice President of Regional Network Operations at Joint Purchasing Corporation in New York City where his responsibilities included the operation of cooperative joint ventures with regional health systems in New Jersey and Indiana. Prior to that, Mr. Vivenzio served for a decade as the Associate Vice President for Support Services at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, where his areas of purview extended to state-wide operations on five campuses. Mr. Vivenzio earned his B.A. from Richmond College, Staten Island, NY, and his Masters of Professional Studies from New School University, New York City.