Steve Shihadeh
General Manager, Health Solutions Group, Microsoft Corporation

As general manager – Sales, Marketing and Solutions for Microsoft’s Health Solutions Group, Steve Shihadeh is responsible for Microsoft’s worldwide go-to-market strategy, sales, services and customer relationships.  Shihadeh’s efforts are part of Microsoft’s commitment to improve health around the world.  The Health Solutions Group is focused on becoming a leading provider of health solutions to health enterprises and consumers alike.

Shihadeh brings more than 25 years of broad experience and success in Healthcare Sales, Marketing and Management. In his previous role, as GM for Microsoft Health & Life Sciences, he led his team to record sales and recognition as the company’s top Industry subsidiary. Before joining Microsoft in 2003, Shihadeh led the North American sales and services while Senior Vice President of Sales at Siemens Medical Solutions. Siemens is one of the world’s largest suppliers of healthcare equipment, renowned for its innovative products, services and complete IT solutions.

Prior executive-level Healthcare industry appointments include Vice President of Customer Operations for Shared Medical Systems, a leading provider of clinical and financial applications as well as hosting and professional services for the healthcare industry, and General Manager of Healthcare Data Exchange, an innovative electronic information exchange services company offering comprehensive electronic transaction services.

Shihadeh holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from Shippensburg University. He serves as Chairman of the Board of the United Way of Chester County, PA and is a member of the American Health Information Community’s Consumer Empowerment Workgroup. He and his wife Aimee have two daughters and reside in Malvern, PA. In his free time, Shihadeh enjoys skiing, cycling, golfing and boating.

Susan A. Frank
Deployment Leader & Master Black Belt, Process Solutions, Medtronic, Inc.

Susan Frank is Medtronic’s LsRxSM - Lean Sigma Prescription for Healthcare  Deployment Leader & Master Black Belt.

Over the past three years, Susan has worked with Healthcare providers to help them learn and apply the principles of Lean and Six Sigma.  Initially working with Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Susan was instrumental in building that institution’s internal competencies in these improvement approaches. Medtronic & Johns Hopkins then developed a Healthcare-specific curriculum for Lean Sigma, which is now taught at Johns Hopkins and offered publicly in the US and Europe.

Susan also works extensively with hospitals and clinics in the US and Europe to improve their critical processes using Lean Sigma. Examples of these improvement areas include Sterile Processing, Pharmacy, Clinic Scheduling, Patient Falls, OR Utilization, Patient Wait Time and many more.

Before assuming her current role, Susan led organizations on the Medtronic corporate staff and in Medtronic’s Neurological, Gastroenterological & Urological businesses.

Christy Stephenson, RN, MBA
Partner, TRG Healthcare

Christy Stephenson has over 35 years of experience in the Healthcare field. She has expertise in both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, with particular expertise in performance excellence, team development, new business development, strategic planning, and medical staff process management.

Mrs. Stephenson has a consistent track record of significant increases in volume and financial growth through operational improvement for the organizations she works with. She also maintains a strong focus on quality and patient safety improvement in her consulting work.

Christy Stephenson is an expert in identifying and implementing the changes necessary to raise quality levels in Healthcare organizations to the top in their area – and in the nation.

Prior to joining TRG Healthcare, Mrs. Stephenson served as President and CEO for Robert Wood Johnson Health Care Corporation Hamilton, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital at Hamilton and the Lakeview Child Centers in New Jersey. Under her leadership, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton was recognized by the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program; becoming only the fourth hospital in the nation to receive the Baldrige Award.

She also served as Regional Director of Curative Health Services, responsible for the start-up and operation of 18 Wound Care Centers throughout the Northeast United States.

Mrs. Stephenson holds a Masters in Business and Health Care Administration from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, a Bachelors of Science in Liberal Studies from Rider University in New Jersey, and Registered Nurse Degree from Borgess School of Nursing in Michigan.