Nexera :: Innovative Health Care Supply Chain Consulting and Management Services

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.

Contact Christopher O'Connor.  

Mr. John Strong leads the Management Services division for Nexera, Inc. He brings more than 35 years of health care experience in supply chain management and has served in senior management positions at a large tertiary teaching hospital. He has implemented programs that have generated millions of dollars in cost savings for his clients. Mr. Strong also designed and implemented one of the nation’s first “stockless” medical product distribution programs for acute care hospitals. He went on to serve in various executive positions at Premier, Inc. In his role as Chief Operating Officer at Premier, he was responsible for materials management and pharmacy group purchasing and clinical programs, alternate site services and international programs. He was also a key architect for Premier’s contracting, member services and marketing operations for the group purchasing program, increasing purchasing volume to more than $8 billion annually.

Mr. Strong’s experience also includes consulting as a Senior Vice President with Concepts in Healthcare, Inc., an Ashland, Massachusetts, consulting firm. He also served as the founding President and Chief Executive Officer of Consorta, a national group purchasing company with annual volume of more than $5 billion.

Mr. Strong received a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, with a comprehensive major in Management from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He received his Masters Degree in Business Administration with Distinction, with an emphasis in Marketing and Human Resource Management, from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois.

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Mr. Elliot Allen is Vice President, Management Services for Nexera, Inc. He has more than 30 years of experience as a senior administrator ranging from materials management, purchasing, supply chain management, support services, and consulting. Over the past 10 years, he has been the practice leader for two consulting firms, leading outsource teams on projects with an average return on investment (ROI) of five times the investment amount.

Mr. Allen has also overseen the following areas in acute care hospitals and medical centers in the Greater New York metropolitan area—materials management (purchasing, receiving, distribution, mail room, messenger, linen/laundry, patient transport, staff, housing, central sterile supply), pharmacy, morgue, clinical engineering, and dietary.

Mr. Allen received a Bachelors of Arts Degree in Economics, Finance and Political Science from Queens College, The City University of New York. He received his Masters of Business Administration in Health Care Administration from Adelphi University

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Mr. Carlos A. Maceda is Vice President, Management Services for Nexera, Inc. and is responsible for the oversight of several Management Services clients.

Mr. Maceda is an experienced health care management professional with over 20 years of supply chain management experience. He began his career managing inventory in the U.S. Military as an Inventory Specialist and has worked at Henry Schein Corporation as an Implementation Manager. He also worked at several health care institutions as Director of Materials Management. Most recently, Mr. Maceda worked for Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, where he served as Director of Support Services, and was responsible for materials management, OR materials management, central sterile processing, in-house laundry services, environmental services, and patient transport. Among other successes, he saved over $10 million in PPI, increased Press Ganey room scores by 25%, and instituted their Guest Services program.

Mr. Maceda is a graduate of Bloomfield College and received his Masters of Business Administration from Fairleigh Dickinson University with a concentration in Health Care Administration. He is also a Fellow with the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE).

Contact Carlos A. Maceda.

Ms. Victoria Miller is Vice President, Management Services for Nexera, Inc. She manages supply chain operations including procurement, inventory management, distribution, value analysis, and biomedical engineering.

Ms. Miller has been a hospital administrator for over 16 years. Before that she was a mental health professional and held various clinical and managerial positions in psychiatric hospitals and residential treatment centers, specializing in adolescent and family treatment.

Ms. Miller is a presenter at local and national conferences on various successes she has achieved for hospitals in physician preference items and other high-value product groups.

Ms. Miller has a Bachelor of Arts in History from Tulane University, a Masters of Psychology from Ball State University, and a Masters of Business Administration in Health Care Administration from Mt. Sinai Medical School and Bernard Baruch College. She is also a Fellow with the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) and served as Treasurer of the Greater New York chapter of The Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM) during which time they won Chapter of the Year.

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Ms. Jennifer Silver is Vice President, Consulting for Nexera, Inc. Ms. Silver is responsible for practice leadership and client service for Nexera’s health care–related strategy, cost reduction, process improvement, revenue enhancement, information technology program, and project management initiatives in client health care facilities throughout the U.S. and the world.

Ms. Silver brings 20 years of leadership and management consulting experience spanning Fortune 200, not-for-profit and privately-held organizations. Formerly an Associate Partner with IBM/PricewaterhouseCoopers Global Business Services, Ms. Silver has extensive experience leading large scale initiatives from strategy through delivery, focusing on maximizing client value and achieving client objectives.

Ms. Silver graduated from State University of New York at Albany. She volunteers regularly within the community with organizations such as the New York University Langone Rusk Institute and the Jewish Community Center. Ms. Silver is a member of Easter Seals’ NYC Board and a former Board Member of the Council for Unity.

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Ms. Diane Mongiello is an experienced registered nurse with extensive clinical and administrative experience, moving into the supply chain arena as director of materials management for a large integrated delivery network (IDN) in the Northeast. In 2003, Ms. Mongiello joined Nexera as Operations Manager, with responsibilities for oversight of the Operations Division, provision of clinical support and expertise in consulting engagements, staff education, and sales and marketing. She is currently the Vice President for Administrative Services for Nexera and her responsibilities include staff development and training, recruitment, policy development, and marketing.

Throughout her career, she has successfully taken on many new and challenging roles. She has published numerous articles on supply chain redesign and cost savings opportunities, and has presented at local and national conferences.

Ms. Mongiello received her RN license from Queens Hospital Center School of Nursing and is a Certified Materials & Resource Professional.

Contact Diane Mongiello.

Dr. Bruce Vladeck is Senior Advisor for Nexera, Inc. His long and varied career has included senior leadership roles in the public, non-profit, academic, and business communities. He is a widely recognized expert in health care policy and finance, Medicare, Medicaid, long term care, and health care for the homeless, and a much sought-after speaker and writer in all of those areas.

In the health care community, Dr. Vladeck is perhaps most widely known for his tenure as Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) from 1993–97, a period that encompassed Health Reform, the Contract with America Congress and budget stalemates, and the Balanced Budget Act. Dr. Vladeck’s time at HCFA was marked by significant innovation in statewide Medicaid programs through demonstration waivers; the development of Medicare prospective payment systems for hospital outpatient services, skilled nursing facilities, and home care agencies; implementation of the first quantitative quality measures for managed care plans; major initiatives to combat fraud and abuse; and significant improvements in beneficiary services. His work at HCFA was recognized in 1995 by a National Public Service Award. He remained closely involved in Medicare policy in 1998–99 as a Presidential Appointee to the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare.

After leaving HCFA, Dr. Vladeck spent six years at Mount Sinai Medical Center, as Professor of Health Policy and Geriatrics and Senior Vice President for Policy of the Medical Center. In that latter role, he successfully undertook a wide variety of administrative assignments, from managing the medical school’s affiliation with New York’s public hospital system to acting as interim chair of the Department of Geriatrics.

Dr. Vladeck joined Ernst & Young’s Health Sciences Advisory Services in 2004. He left that position for sixteen months in 2006–07 to serve, at the request of Governor Jon Corzine, as Interim President of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) after it had entered into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement with the U.S. Attorney. While at UMDNJ, Dr. Vladeck restored fiscal stability to the system, rebuilt its governance, compliance, and internal control processes, and laid the groundwork for restoration of full academic accreditation.

A graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan, Dr. Vladeck has held full-time faculty positions at Columbia University and Mount Sinai, and has served as adjunct faculty at Rutgers, Princeton, New York University, and the Aquinas Institute of Theology. He was previously President of the United Hospital Fund for ten years. Dr.Vladeck is currently a member of the Institute of Medicine and the New York Academy of Medicine, and serves on the board of the Medicare Rights Center, the March of Dimes, and the New York City Board of Health.

Contact Bruce Vladeck.