Cynthia Cohen

IMPACT 2040 Founder and Chief Strategist, Cynthia Cohen, is a prominent business strategist, consultant and board member.  Considered a leading authority on consumer trends and strategic marketing, her areas of expertise include brand positioning, digital marketing, e-commerce, market intelligence and business strategy.  Cynthia’s clients range from global Fortune 100 companies to fast track start-ups. She has provided consulting services to retailers, consumer product companies, real estate firms, media companies and technology vendors.

Cynthia is an advisor to many startups and emerging growth companies helping them navigate the pathway from ideation to scaling for profitable growth and ultimately a liquidity event. Her passion is working with startup and emerging growth entrepreneurs who are innovating and disrupting their target market. At Boston University she sponsors the Innovation Pathway and judges business plans in addition to mentoring student entrepreneurs.  For the last few years, she has been a national judge for EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year award.

During the course of her career Cynthia has served on 11 public company boards and is currently a member of several private company boards.  She is a qualified financial expert for audit committees and has experience as Lead Independent Director as well as Chairman of Audit, Compensation and Governance Committees.  Recognized as a leader in the area of corporate governance, she has been a speaker at conferences including; KPMG’s Audit Roundtable, The Institute of Internal Auditors, Outstanding Directors Exchange, NACD and WCD. Cynthia was recognized as an outstanding director by Directors & Boards magazine in their Directors to Watch feature.

As a frequent speaker and authority on consumer trends, business strategy and digital marketing, Cynthia’s speeches are a lively combination of consumer insights and prognostications with realistic market penetrations strategies. She has guest lectured at Harvard Business School, Wharton, Babson College, Cornell, University of Miami, Pepperdine and University of Florida.

She is a member of the Board of Trustees at Boston University. In 2014 Cynthia founded Downtown Digital Salons where she is the host and curator of dinner salons (zoom events in 2020) for entrepreneurs, digital mavens and corporate digital officers held in major world cities. The salons are designed to inform, amuse and explore new ideas in technology.

Prior to founding IMPACT 2040, Cynthia founded Strategic Mindshare to provide consulting services to retailers and consumer brand companies.  Earlier in her career she was a Partner in Management Consulting at Deloitte.

Andy Garber

Andy Garber has spent most of his career at Deloitte Consulting as a management consultant, partner and professional services executive creating practices and growing businesses. Over his career he was part of the senior leadership team that grew the Consulting division from <1$B to >$10B. His most recent experience was leading the Corp Development unit to position Deloitte into new geographic and the new technology markets through a series of inorganic led growth strategies resulting in $1B of Deloitte’s total $10+B in revenues.

Andy has more than 35 years’ experience with a focus on consumer and technology related industries as well as in professional and technology services. As a client partner he has worked intensively in the areas of strategy, finance, organization, and M&A, with a focus on helping clients achieve transformative growth through targeted product and services expansion, operational alignment, technology adoption and M&A/integration of compatible businesses or technologies. His clients ranged from large corporations to midsize and startup.

As Managing Partner for Corporate Development, he adopted a corporate PE business and governance model, evaluated and prioritized high growth opportunities with capital, talent and operational investments resulting in a series of growth businesses leveraging new technologies in Digital, AI and Cloud.  Andy drove 15 small and midsized acquisitions and more than $1B in additional revenue.  In this role he advised and mentored the business unit leaders during all phases acquisition, integration, platform build and growth. Andy took a board seat as an advisor on each acquisition to advise/coach management and monitor progress.

As Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer and a member of the firm’s management committee he led the development of a growth and investment program for Deloitte Consulting resulting in a doubling of revenues to $5.0B which required both client segmentation and geographic and product line expansion as well as adoption of an offshore talent model.

Andy led the development and positioning of the Strategy & Operations business unit and served as the Managing Partner/CEO with P&L and Talent responsibility as it grew from $200M to $1B line of business moving Deloitte into one of the largest firms in that segment. Responsible for the strategic and operational performance of the practice spanning Strategic Services, Supply Chain, Operations and Finance.  He was responsible for the performance, evaluation, compensation and development of 200 Partners and more than 2,500 consultants.

Andy served on many firm wide committees including Partner Admissions, Partner Compensation and Leadership Development.  He previously has served on the board of Deloitte Consulting LLP.

Andy graduated from Franklin & Marshall College with a degree in Accounting and has an MBA from the University of Michigan. He began his career as a CPA with KPMG.

Suprit Patel

Suprit Patel brings over 15 years of experience in the Healthcare sector working with organizations to improve operational performance, optimize processes, and sustain improvements through the use of Analytics. Prior to leading the Healthcare vertical at Ionic Security, Suprit launched The Bestige Group, where he designed and developed an innovative application that helps Healthcare organizations understand their patient base in a new way – enabling these organizations to go direct to patient to fuel growth and expansion. Before starting his own enterprise, Suprit was a Management Consultant for leading companies such as Ernst & Young and The Advisory Board Company, where he helped Healthcare organizations strategically grow in a rapidly changing industry. Suprit is passionate about helping our clients develop effective, data driven strategies to drive their growth. Suprit received his BS in Economics from Duke University.

Peter J. Plantes, MD, FACP

Peter J. Plantes, M.D. has 30+ years of experience creating service and delivery solutions that enhance marketplace success and clinical performance for clinical practice groups, academic faculty group practices, hospitals, health systems, and health care organizations.  Currently, he applies his extensive experience serving both as the Physician Executive to the bioinformatics firm of hc1, and as a Sr. Partner for O’Brien Group advising large health care delivery systems. His success stems from his ability to blend and synergize clinical knowledge, operational expertise, financial performance, and collaborative methodology with his deep commitment to serve patients and improve the health of the community via Population Health technique.

• Physician Executive at hc1 (Indianapolis) advising in the development and application of Precision Prescribing and Precision Lab Testing solutions for clinicians and healthcare systems. Laboratory data, Pharmacy data and Genomic screening are integrated via an Artificial Intelligence (AI) cloud-based platform to present safer, effective, and more cost-efficient prescribing and lab testing recommendations to the Physician /provider.
• Developed & delivered COVID-19 bio-surveillance tools and programming for employers & universities @ https://CV19Dashboard.org
• Previously, as System Senior Vice President – Physician Enterprises for CHRISTUS Health managed and operated the physician enterprises strategy encompassing over 1,250 Physicians and Advanced Practice Clinicians in 4 states.
• CEO & President of CHRISTUS Physician Group (CPG)- [2012-2017] a multi-state, nine (9) metro-market multispecialty clinical practice Professional Corporation 5.01(a) providing Physician Enterprise services to 550 physicians and employing a core provider group of over 200 Physicians/APCs (NPs & PAs) in 3 states.
• Physician Enterprise Executive Advisor to CHRISTUS International Team (Chile, Colombia) [2013-2016.]
• Previously, as Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs (interim) at University of CA- Riverside (the newest UC four-year medical school programs) developed a broad geographic practice strategy (“UCR Health”) targeted to improve the health outcomes of the Inland Southern California and resolve the severe regional physician shortage.
• Previous VP Medical Affairs & Executive Director of the University of TX Southwestern Group Faculty Practice (“MSRDP”) of 1300 employed clinical physicians; responsible for strategic clinical program enhancement, operational management improvement, financial management (>$600M /yr. revenues), and contract relationships with alliance partners including Parkland Health and UTSW Hospital System and other regional health care groups. Later, served as the Physician Execute Lead of the UT Southwestern Continuing Medical Education (CME) Department as the outreach platform to build active relationships with regional physicians and health care organizations.
• As the Chief Executive Officer & Sr. Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs of the Medical College of Wisconsin’s 750-physician adult academic group practice, developed a strategic growth strategy in a dynamic, complex medical environment, and enhanced MCW’s competitive market edge promoting suburban expansion.
• As VHA Inc.’s (now Vizient) Vice President (1998-2006) served as Service line Leader of Non-Acute & Physician Services in the National Operational Services division in Irving, Texas: service line sales revenues increased to greater than $1.1 billion with ~40% growth per year, and contribution margins growth from $4M to over $25M/year (600% increase).
• Included serving as Executive leader of com – a patient and physician ‘health information’ resource with over 6 million user-visits per year contracted to over 850 hospitals.
• As VP for Clinical Affairs for VHA’s national Clinical & Business Operations Division (2003-06) was responsible for defining, creating, and delivering a portfolio of ‘Clinical-Operational Performance Services’ that achieved measured excellence in clinical & economic performance. This included leading IHI’s 100,000 lives Campaign as VHA’s National Physician Coordinator for 700+ participating VHA hospitals.
• As Vice President / Senior Medical Director for United Healthcare of North Carolina, Inc., served as senior medical officer for the NC market achieving the initial 3-year NCQA certification and excellent financial performance (210k capitated HMO & 48k gatekeeper POS & 100,000k+ PPO lives with an 8,000-physician network.)
• As Vice President of Integrated Services at MetroHealth Medical Center (Cleveland, OH), oversaw expansion of the regional satellite system and integrated Quality, Utilization Management, Care Management, Information Systems and Clinical Database Development to improve quality outcomes of care across the healthcare system.

Dr. Plantes has served as a representative to the National Quality Forum and the NQF Hospital Standards Committee.  As a founding board member of Health Internet Ethics, Inc., he was instrumental in the development of national principles & standards for web-based consumer health information.  Dr. Plantes has over eleven years of active Internal Medicine clinical practice experience.  He graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University (DC), received his Medical Doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (AOA honors) and completed the Internal Medicine Residency and Chief Residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine (1985), and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP).

Jackie Gonzalez

Jackie Gonzalez is a senior executive in Austin, Texas. With over 20 years of VP/C-level experience in corporate sales, marketing, management and business and organizational development, she credits her “up through the ranks” success to the ability to lead teams and turnarounds while cultivating an environment of breakthrough performance. Working with CEOs and senior executives, Jackie has developed sophisticated solutions to business challenges with Fortune 100 companies including American Express, Allergan, Marriott International, and Pfizer; government agencies including the USDA and the United States Institute of Peace, and associations such as AdvaMed and MassDevice. She holds a Bachelors degree from Boston College and a Masters degree from Boston University. Jackie serves on the board of Kids Matter International and the Executive Committee of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation. J29 Associates is headquartered in Austin; but Jackie works in airport clubs and anywhere there’s a power source besides herself. Jackie is the author of the book Creating Culture, Why Some Organizations Thrive While Others Survive.