Meet the MedeFinance Executive Team

A message from the Mede Executive Team:

Jim Quist has over 30 years of successful entrepreneurship and business experience, 13 of which have been dedicated to delivering value to the healthcare industry.  Jim founded MedeFinance, Inc. in 2001, as a successor company to two healthcare technology companies he founded starting in 1994.  These companies provided electronic claims transaction processing and revenue-cycle services that leveraged technology to create operational efficiency.

Prior to Jim’s dedication to the healthcare industry he served as a founder and Senior Vice President for Triton Container International, a premier lessor of maritime intermodal equipment with annual sales in excess of $200 million.  During his tenure at Triton Jim successfully developed operations and sales worldwide. Before Triton, Jim served in executive level positions for ITEL Corp., a $1 billion lessor of transportation assets.  He also had operational responsibilities at Olympic Steamship Co. and Sea-Land Services.

Jim leads the company’s strategic growth, serving on executive committees and providing executive leadership for corporate development, sales, marketing and communications. Jim attended the University of Washington and served in the U.S. Merchant Marine. An avid outdoor sportsman, Jim occasionally escapes business through exotic fishing expeditions around the world.

Mike Gallagher has over 25 years experience in healthcare executive leadership, with demonstrated success in management, operations, strategic planning, financial controls, acquisitions and divestitures. Mike assumed the role of CEO in 2007 after serving on the MedeFinance Board of Directors since 2004, and as Vice Chairman since 2006.

Mike most recently served as a Partner in Shamrock Investments, LLC, a firm he co-founded in 1987. He has been an investor and advisor in numerous merger and acquisition and strategic planning engagements, and has served on the boards of several public and private providers and health plan organizations.  He was formerly Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Health Net of California and CEO of Paragon Ambulatory Surgery. Mike’s professional career included positions with Coopers & Lybrand and service in the United States Marine Corp.

Mike holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Southern California, and holds a CPA certificate. He currently sits on the board of The Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation.  Mike attempted retirement with extended stays in Ireland and 100-mile road-bike treks; however, his dedication to improving healthcare continues to pull him back in the office.

Brian Robertson has been with MedeFinance since 2001 and is responsible for operations, product innovation, technology operations and client services.  He has guided the company’s product innovation and strategy through close collaboration with clients, partners and industry thought leaders.

Prior to joining Mede, Brian served as President of Impact Receivables Group, an organization providing strategic business and financial improvement services to healthcare providers.  Brian has held a variety of senior management positions within the healthcare industry and is recognized as a thought leader in healthcare finance and revenue cycle improvement services as well as “software-as-a-service” delivery of healthcare business intelligence.  Brian’s practical hands-on experience and long-term strategic perspective drive his passion to deliver true order-of-magnitude value to the healthcare industry.

Brian holds degrees in corporate finance from San Diego State University and a Master of Science, Healthcare Administration, from St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California. Outside of work Brian can be found either riding horses with his wife and daughters or noodling around on his favorite 1957 Les Paul guitar.

Sal joined MedeFinance in 2004 and brings strategy, transactional, and financial experience to the company.  Sal is responsible for all business development initiatives, including channel and partnership development, as well as merger and acquisition activities.  He also helps to define corporate strategy, drives business planning activities, and directs the finance, accounting and legal functions.

Prior to joining Mede, Sal was a founding Managing Director of Nucleus Partners LLC, a venture capital and consulting business.  While at Nucleus, Sal supported Jim Quist and MedeFinance’s Board for over 18 months in developing and executing their business strategy and realizing the successful syndication of their Series B funding round.

Prior to Nucleus Partners, Sal had significant roles in managing The Halo Fund, a $25 million venture fund that co-invested with The Angels' Forum - an angel organization with a $20 million private equity portfolio.  While at Nucleus Partners and The Angels' Forum, he was an active advisor and participant on many of the Boards of Directors of his early and growth stage portfolio companies.  Prior to that, Sal was a Director in Andersen's Technology Corporate Finance Practice, where he advised and assisted clients on acquisition, divestiture, joint venture, and private equity transactions in a broad range of technology and healthcare segments. Sal has a Bachelor of Science, Business Administration from Temple University and is a Certified Public Accountant. Sal relaxes shooting hoops and coaching his son’s sports teams, and is a newbie in the world of wine-making.

Dave Watson is a senior IT executive with 25 years of delivering client facing solutions in the broad areas of application development, infrastructure engineering, business consulting, strategy, architecture and operations. Dave joined Mede from Kaiser Permanente in 2007.

At Kaiser Dave served as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer where his responsibilities included technology long term strategy, systems architecture and information security services across Kaiser’s hospitals, medical groups, and insurance companies; serving nearly nine million members in nine states. Prior to Kaiser Dave served in a variety of executive IT roles in the Life Sciences sector at Baxter Healthcare and at Allergan, Inc. Before his tenure in healthcare Dave worked for recognized industry leaders such as Northrup Grumman and Mattel.

Dave is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School’s Executive Development Program and holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California. He lives in the Bay Area with his wife and their two sons.

Bob Raddeman joined MedeFinance in 2001 and is responsible for client performance advocacy, ensuring Mede clients receive tangible value and improved financial performance from their Mede deployment.

Bob brings 20 years experience in a broad range of healthcare positions.  Most recently he was Chief Financial Officer for the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association, which provides advocacy and other services to the healthcare industry.  Prior to that Bob worked as lead consultant to Anthem Alliance, Inc., in development and support of their TRICARE contract, and has held a number of financial executive management positions with other hospital organizations including Samaritan Health System.  Bob also worked in Milwaukee for Peat Marwick as an auditor and consultant.

Bob received his bachelor’s degree in accounting from University of Wisconsin—Eau Claire and is active in Healthcare Financial Manager’s Association (HFMA), having served on the Arizona chapter’s board. Bob is an experienced traveler whose enjoyment outside work is life’s simple pleasures: friends, food, football and his beloved dog.

Michael Higgs joined Mede in 2007 with 25 years experience in healthcare and is responsible for all client delivery teams including Account Management, Account Operations, Implementation, and Learning and Client Support.

Prior to joining Mede Mike served as Vice President at Cerner Corporation in business development and was most recently responsible for client implementations, relationships and growth in over 20 organizations, and oversaw 235 employees. Previously Mike spend eight years as a healthcare consultant following various internal business administrative roles at healthcare providers.

Mike earned a Graduate Certificate in Health and Medical Services Administration from Widener University in Chester, PA, and holds a BA from Villanova University. Mike enjoys trying to keep up with his sons in golf and traveling with his family.

Karen Mitchell joined MedeFinance in 2005, bringing more than 18 years healthcare management experience for  both health plans and hospitals. She is responsible for market strategy and product solutions for Health Plans. 

Prior to MedeFinance, Karen spent nine years with Perot Systems in several leadership positions, focused on customer relationship management and enterprise-wide implementations for national health plans.  Previously, Karen spent six years in hospital management with a focus in patient financial services.

Karen earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism broadcasting from California State University, Northridge. An avid outdoors person, Karen is a dedicated runner who also enjoys skiing, golf, and travel.

Doug Stark joined MedeFinance in 2005, bringing more than 15 years of product and services management experience to the company.  Doug is responsible for the direction of Mede’s Adaptive Web Analytics offerings including product management, research and development and predictive sciences.

Prior to MedeFinance Doug held management positions at Metreo as director of product management, and at Manugistics as senior manager of price and revenue optimization Solutions.  Previously he was a senior manager at Andersen Consulting where he assisted health insurance and financial services organizations develop and launch new product and service offerings in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Doug earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Southern Illinois University.  Doug is a triathlete who competed in, and completed, the Hawaii Ironman.