Novocardia™ Announces Key Additions to Leadership Team Accelerating Company’s Mission & Growth

NEW YORK, Aug. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Novocardia, a value-based cardiovascular disease care delivery platform, today announced the appointment of several new executive team members charged with accelerating the company’s mission to improve access to high-quality, high-value cardiovascular disease care. These appointments include Geoff Wade, Chief Development Officer; Chris Richardson, General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer & Head of Human Resources; Jeff Dang, Chief Data Officer; Brooks Pollard, Senior Vice President, Operations & Value-Based Strategy; Ben Diestel, Vice President of Corporate Development; and Kiesha Mayes, Vice President of Human Resources.

The new members of Novocardia’s executive team provide the company and its growing network of cardiologists with an array of experts in physician practice management, value-based reimbursement models, payer contracting and advanced data & analytics. The team brings decades of combined experience at various private and public health care organizations. Their expertise will complement the clinical leadership of Novocardia’s founders – cardiologists Daniel Blumenthal, MD, MBA, and Julius Torelli, MD, FACC.

“The executives we’ve put in place will help clinicians adapt to changes in the health care landscape, including the shift to fee-for-value reimbursement models.” Dan Blumenthal, MD, MBA, CEO

“We are thrilled to welcome Geoff, Chris, Brooks, Kiesha, Jeff, and Ben to our leadership team,” said Dr. Blumenthal, Chief Executive Officer of Novocardia. “The executives we’ve put in place will drive the growth of our value-based cardiovascular disease care delivery platform and help clinicians adapt to changes in the health care landscape, including the shift to fee-for-value reimbursement models.”

Geoff Wade joins Novocardia as Chief Development Officer after spending more than 20 years as a senior executive working with physicians and health care companies building successful partnerships, joint ventures, and integrated care delivery strategies. Before joining Novocardia, Mr. Wade served as Chief Development Officer at Pinnacle Treatment Centers and Chief Development Officer at Reliant Renal Care. He also served as Vice President of Corporate Development at DaVita Healthcare Partners and Fresenius Medical Care.

Chris Richardson serves as Novocardia’s General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer & Head of Human Resources. He is responsible for managing all legal, regulatory, and compliance activities and oversees the development and management of Novocardia’s talent infrastructure. Before Novocardia, Mr. Richardson served as Senior Associate General Counsel at UnitedHealth Group where he provided strategic counseling and legal guidance on regulatory, compliance, transactional and operational matters across all lines of business, focusing on Medicare Parts C and D and Medicaid product offerings. While at UnitedHealth Group, Mr. Richardson also spent time in Optum’s legal department providing strategic support on wellness, preventive service, health care analytics, and direct-to-consumer initiatives. His expertise extends from regulatory compliance, risk, and litigation to corporate transactional law, intellectual property law, and corporate strategy.

Jeff Dang, PhD, MPH, MBA, will serve as Chief Data Officer leading Novocardia’s strategy and execution for the company’s data, analytics, and point-of-care solutions. Mr. Dang previously served as Vice President of Analytics at New Century Health, Senior Director of Statistics at FAIR Health, and Senior Statistician at the UCLA Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics.

Brooks Pollard, MBA, MDiv, has joined Novocardia as Senior Vice President, Operations & Value-Based Strategy and will lead operations and value-based strategy, payer contracting, and partnerships. Mr. Pollard has a wealth of experience in value-based care, MSO management, and population health and has also held roles with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Premier Healthcare Alliance, and Emory University.

Ben Diestel, a founding member of Novocardia, has been promoted to Vice President of Corporate Development and will be responsible for corporate development initiatives, including mergers & acquisitions, de novo growth, and market expansion opportunities. Previously, Mr. Diestel led business development activities at CareCentrix and was a Consultant at the Advisory Board Company, where he focused on value-based care transformation.

Kiesha Mayes has been appointed Vice President of Human Resources and serves as a strategic partner responsible for leading Novocardia’s human capital agenda, including talent acquisition, alignment, and succession planning; leadership development; culture, diversity, equity, and inclusion; and human resources operations. Kiesha previously served as Senior Associate General Counsel at UnitedHealth Group and its subsidiary, Optum, where she was a strategic legal advisor to human resources and business leadership.

ABOUT NOVOCARDIA™

Founded in 2020, Novocardia is on a mission to transform the delivery of cardiovascular care for all by building the national cardiovascular network of choice for high-quality, high-value care. Novocardia is committed to putting cardiologists, and their patients, at the center of care by investing in our partner practices, deploying purpose-built data and analytics tools to improve patient outcomes, and enabling our partners to transition more successfully to value-based care. To learn more about Novocardia, please visit www.novocardiahealth.com.