Presenters
Keynote speakers
Dr. Robert Mecklenburg, Medical Director, Center for Health Care Solutions, Virginia Mason Institute
Dr. Mecklenburg trained at Northwestern University Medical School, the University of Washington and at the National Institutes of Health. He joined Virginia Mason Medical Center in 1974, served as Head of the Section of Endocrinology and Diabetes from 1986 to 2000 and also led the Diabetes Clinical Research Unit. He was Chief of Medicine and a member of the Health Systems Board at Virginia Mason from 2000 to 2007. He became Medical Director of the Center for Health Care Solutions at Virginia Mason in 2007.
Dr. Mecklenburg has served in the Food and Drug Administration, as a National Board member of the American Diabetes Association, as Chair of the Council on Health Care Delivery for the ADA, and Chair of the Washington State Health Care Initiative Committee on Benefits for Chronic Conditions, as Co-chair of the Quality Improvement Committee of the Puget Sound Health Alliance. He is a current member of the Robert Bree Collaborative.
He has authored over 50 scientific articles and has been lead author on two studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine. He has studied the Toyota Production System in Japan and is a certified instructor in these methods. He has completed formal training as an instructor in Evidence-Based Medicine at McMaster University. His work with employers in producing, reimbursing and purchasing quality in healthcare has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Health Affairs, and the Institute of Medicine’s volume, The Healthcare Imperative: Lowering Costs and Improving Outcomes.
Dr. Sanford M. Melzer, MBA, Senior Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer, Seattle Children's Hospital
Sanford Melzer MD, MBA is the Chief Strategy Officer and Senior Vice President at Children's and a Professor of Pediatrics and Health Services at the University Of Washington School Of Medicine. A specialist in pediatric hospital medicine, Dr. Melzer is responsible for planning and business development at Seattle Children's, whose service area spans four states and nearly 23% of the US land mass. For nearly 10 years, Dr. Melzer has served as a leader and executive sponsor of Children's Continuous Performance Improvement (CPI) initiative. Based on the applications of the principles of the Toyota Production System to health care, CPI has been instrumental in Children's success in delivering value in health care, including improved performance in quality, clinical access, patient safety, staff engagement, and financial results.
Workshop presenters
Alex Thompson, Premera Blue Cross
Trains and coaches others in Lean principles and methodologies. Alex joined the Kaizen Promotion office in December 2011 with an area of interest in Visual Management.
Barb Bouche, Seattle Children's Hospital
Barb Bouche has been a key principle in the strategic planning and implementation of Continuous Performance Improvement - CPI - (lean) at Seattle Children’s Hospital since 1997. Her consulting practice and leadership efforts focus specifically on the tools, systems and principles that lead to lean transformation within the healthcare environment. Barb has had the opportunity to travel to Japan numerous times to study the Toyota Production System in a wide variety of manufacturing environments. Her latest and most inspirational work in lean has been as a student and early practitioner of the Improvement Kata – the coaching and improvement patterns studied by Mike Rother and authored in the book – Toyota Kata.
Bob Brown, Point B
Bob Brown is a senior associate with a strong background in human performance improvement. With over 30 years of experience, he has worked with Olympic and professional athletes and teams, small business owners and with employees, managers and leaders of larger organizations. A certified lean leader, he has proven experience implementing waste reduction, value improvement efforts and organization change projects that positively impact the bottom line.
Brett Jackson, Workshop Leader, Premera Blue Cross
Performs as a Workshop Leader and Facilitator for Rapid Process Improvement Workshops/Kaizen events and educates Lean Leaders in Lean methods, principles and tools. Brett joined the Kaizen Promotion Office in October of 2005 as the first KPO specialist with areas of interest in problem Solving and Mistake proofing.
Brian Jorgensen, Point B
Brian has over 15 years of experience serving organizations in operational excellence, specializing in facilitating leadership teams through complex process improvement and strategy efforts. He helps lead Point B's Process Optimization line. His unique passion for and experience with operations improvement, strategy deployment, and learning organizations has benefitted companies in a number of industries including health care, retail, non-profit, energy, professional services, and manufacturing.
Carlos Venegas, Senior Consultant in Association with Impact Washington
Carlos Venegas, principle of Lean Office Innovation, has led successful Lean Office implementations in a wide range of organizations. Carlos is the author of Flow in the Office: Implementing and Sustaining Lean Improvements, published by Productivity Press. He is a certified Lean consultant, and holds a Masters degree in Applied Behavioral Science.
Carole Washburn, Deputy Director for Operations, Washington State Department of Labor and Industries
Carole was appointed Deputy Director for Operations by the Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) Director Judy Schurke in June 2008. Carole started her state career at the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) as a budget analyst in 1979. She moved on to become staff to the House of Representatives, Ways & Means Committee during the early years of budget cutting. She returned to DSHS in 1984 as Director of Government and Community Affairs. When the legislature created the Department of Health in 1989, Carole joined the new agency as the Assistant Secretary for Infectious and Chronic Diseases. In 1994, Carole went to work for the State Energy Office as the Assistant Director for Energy Policy. Before her appointment at L&I, Carole was the Executive Director for the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission. Carole has a Bachelor's and Master's Degree in Business Administration. She has two sons and a step-daughter and lives in Olympia with her husband.
Christina Webber, Premera Blue Cross
Trains and coaches others in Lean principles and methodologies. Christina joined the Kaizen Promotion office in July 2010 with an area of interest in the three M's (Mura, Muri, and Muda) and Visual Management.
Connie Polzin, Point B
Ms. Polzin is a Lean Master with twenty years of project management and process improvement experience in both management consulting and technology firms. She is the Director of Point B's Process Optimization practice and has a history of facilitating transformations with her clients in a variety of industries.
Darrell Damron, Management Consultant, Accountability & Performance, Office of the Governor, Washington State
Darrell Damron is a Management Consultant in the Governor's Office, Accountability and Performance, leading the state's Lean transformation journey efforts. With a passion for helping state government deliver value to Washingtonians, Darrell joined Washington state government in 1991 and has served in the Department of Corrections and Department of Revenue. Prior to joining state government, Darrell served 6 years on active duty in U.S. Marine Corps.
Darril Wilburn, Managing Partner, Honsha Associates
Darril Wilburn was a leader in the development and implementation of some of Toyota Motor Manufacturing's highest profile leadership development programs. Darril led the Toyota Way 2001 (Toyota core values and principles) implementation at Toyota's largest manufacturing plant in North America. Darril worked with The Toyota Institute in Japan to develop the Toyota Business Practice (TBP) leading the global pilot of this program as well as the North American Senior Executive sessions. While at Toyota, Darril studied the Toyota Production System as a student of OMDD, Toyota's internal Sensei group. Darril was also part of the team that launched Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas where he led the assimilation and training of new to Toyota management.
As a Managing Partner at Honsha, Darril has had the opportunity to work with the public and private sector on projects that reflect the current global economic condition. Working with one of the largest mortgage banks in the USA Darril and his Honsha team have implemented a redesign of the workflow to increase productivity and reduce cost and lead times. Darril is currently working with the State of Washington to develop a Lean culture that will help transform the way state government does business.
Darril is also co-author and co-editor of the recently released book, Toyota by Toyota. Other clients include, Wrigley Europe, M&M Mars, Volvo Trucks, Carl Zeiss, Valero Energy, Kimberly-Clark, Monomoy Capital Partners, and Toyota Motor Manufacturing. Darril is also an active speaker delivering presentations and keynote speeches on Lean Principles around the globe including:
- Harvard Business Review-Latin America, lecture series in Chili, Equator, Mexico
- Lean Conference in Brazil
- MM Mars Latin American Leadership Team Retreat
- Abu Dhabi Talent Conference
- Washington State Government Lean Seminar
- Lithuanian Prime Ministers Conference
- Minister of Defense-Lithuania
- ISM University of Management and Economics, Vilnius, Lithuania
- Monomoy Capital Partners Annual CEO meeting
Darril is passionate about sharing the principles, culture and practices of Lean Leadership and Management.
Diane Schairer, Consultant, Improvement Promotion Office, Group Health Cooperative
Diane Schairer is an improvement consultant who teaches leadership development through Lean methodology.
For the past eight years, Diane has taught and facilitated Lean improvement at Group Health. She started with team-based improvement events in 2004, followed by value stream mapping events. She created Customer Focused Management Training, which was provided to help managers across the organization standardize and improve key processes. Most recently, Diane has focused on coaching and teaching leaders to create and use a Lean-based Daily Management System.
Between 2000- 2004, Diane taught courses in communication, team building and leadership development at Group Health. Given this background, it’s not surprising that she has a heightened awareness to the critical role of the leader in supporting and maintaining Lean improvement.
In addition to working at Group Health, Diane is a cyclist and hiker. She and her husband live to serve their cat, an orange tabby who lives in Des Moines, Washington and finds opportunities for their continuous improvement.
Elizabeth Bennett, MPH, MCHES, Director of Guest Services and Community Benefit, Seattle Children's Hospital
Elizabeth Bennett is Director of Guest Services and Community Benefit and a Continuous Performance Improvement Fellow at Seattle Children's Hospital. She trains staff and leadership on lean principles based on Toyota methodology and has facilitated improvement efforts within her own department as well as with other teams throughout the hospital. Ms. Bennett has been with Seattle Children's for thirty years and is also a clinical instructor in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington.
Gordy Anderson, Senior Consultant in Association with Impact Washington
Gordy Anderson has over 25 years' experience driving strategic and tactical business and operations initiatives. He specializes in helping organizations design and implement systems and solutions that leverage people and improve results. As the senior human resources leader at Genie Industries and an independent consultant, Gordy has gained extensive experience in guiding leadership in organizations to understand, plan for, manage and improve the performance of their people.
Gordy has an engaging style that maximizes classroom interaction and encourages participants to think about material at a deeper level. His content focus is leadership, performance management, coaching, team building and continuous improvement processes. He has a BA in Architecture, and an MBA from the University of Washington, Michael G. Foster School of Business.
Gordy integrates an approach to performance management that is based on nearly 40 years of research and experience consulting with organizations to accelerate results. It has been developed, refined and tested by The Performance Thinking Network, a NW-based consulting group that uses the Six Boxes® Performance Thinking approach to understand, communicate and improve human performance and engagement. Gordy is an Affiliate of the Performance Thinking Network.
Holly Valkama, Principal and Senior Consultant, Coraggio Group
Areas of Focus: LEAN Six Sigma Strategy and Implementation, Strategic Clarity, Organizational Change, Leadership Coaching and Development
Holly works with organizations to establish and redesign business processes and organizational structures to align with their strategic direction. Holly has worked at an executive level for over 10 years, across a broad range of industries in both the manufacturing and services sectors. Prior to joining Coraggio, Holly worked as an independent consultant.
Throughout her career, she has led numerous successful implementations of Lean and Six Sigma in global organizations. Holly is passionate about integrating continuous improvement into organizational cultures and strengthening the competitiveness of organizations by linking process and strategy. Holly has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School in Operations Management and Strategy and a B.B.A. in Finance and Economics from Loyola University.
Joel Sacks, Deputy Commissioner, Washington State Employment Security Department
Joel was appointed deputy commissioner of the state Employment Security Department by Commissioner Paul Trause in October 2010.
Prior to that appointment, Joel served for five years at Employment Security as assistant commissioner for the Budget, Policy and Communications Division. As assistant commissioner, Joel was responsible for the agency's budget and financial services, intergovernmental relations, communications, labor-market research, facilities and risk-management.
Prior to joining Employment Security, Joel was the deputy director of field services at the state Department of Labor and Industries. He also served four years at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in the U.S. Department of Labor.
Sacks holds a degree in political science from Haverford College in Philadelphia and a master of public administration from Syracuse University in New York.
John Bernard, Founder and Chairman, Mass Ingenuity
John is the author of BUSINESS AT THE SPEED OF NOW, published by Wiley in December of 2011. He's a top-rated speaker for the Conference Board, discussion leader on the Harvard Business Review blog, and his monthly newspaper column is syndicated to 41 Business Journals across the U.S. For 30 years John has been building and reengineering organizations to enable them to aggressively grow the top and bottom line. As the principal architect of the NOW Management System, his passion focuses on leveraging best-practice management with social media INSIDE the organization to engage employees, sharpen focus and accelerate execution. John's deep and varied career ranges from serving as an executive team member at multi-billion dollar StanCorp Financial Group to being the founding CEO of a technology start-up, which he led through its sale.
He also served in senior positions at Omark Industries, Floating Point Systems and ESI. John has led operations, manufacturing, customer service, product development, human resources, quality, information technology, strategic planning, engineering, shared services, marketing and communications. He has consulted with senior executives at all levels in high technology, health care, insurance, banking, forest products, distribution, manufacturing, and a wide range of service companies, along with many large government agencies. John has a BA from the University of Portland in Mass Communications and Journalism. John loves writing and spending time with his family; he has toddler boy/girl twins in addition to three grown and accomplished daughters.
Joseph Lesser, Senior Consultant in Association with Impact Washington
Joseph Lesser has been involved with group leadership and training for over 25 years, conducting classes and workshops in a variety of technical disciplines. He also provides technical and training consultation to both the private and public sector. Joseph has a Masters in Applied Behavioral Science.
Linda Hebish, Senior Director, VMPS Implementation, Kaizen Promotion Office, Virginia Mason Medical Center
As the leader of the Kaizen Promotion Office at Virginia Mason Medical Center, Linda oversees the operations and the implementation of the Virginia Mason Production System (adopted from the Toyota Production System) throughout the organization. During her tenure at Virginia Mason, Linda has also served as the senior director of the corporate kaizen promotion office, the director of finance and as the director of the free-standing ambulatory surgery centers. Linda received her undergraduate degree in Business from the University of Washington and her MBA from Seattle University. She is a 2002 Certified VMPS Rapid Process Improvement Workshop leader, a 2006 Virginia Mason Kaizen Fellow graduate, a 2012 Certified 3P leader, and she speaks frequently on the subject of VMPS to local and international leaders.
LuAnn Stokke, Director of Operational Excellence, UW Finance & Facilities (F2)
LuAnn Stokke is responsible for overall program management of both Lean, and Balanced Scorecard (metrics, reporting and strategy) for F2, working with UW's Senior Vice President and her leadership team. Ms. Stokke came to the University of Washington (UW) in 2008, to head up Metrics & Reporting for F2. Today, F2's strategy-focused organization continues to use Balanced Scorecard, while comprehensively deploying lean to improve processes, save money, and – most importantly – build an engaged, energized culture.
Prior to joining the UW, Ms. Stokke spent 26 years as a Federal employee, beginning as a legislative correspondent in two Congressional Offices in Washington, DC, followed by 15 years at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center as a Technical Writer/Editor, and later, leading the customer service/building management function for the Center's facilities organization.
She relocated to Seattle (her hometown) in 1999, where she served at the U.S. General Services Administration's Public Buildings Service (Northwest/Arctic Region), as Director of Account Management, Chief of Staff, Customer Service Center Director for Western Washington, and Director of Business and Financial Management. Ms. Stokke holds a B.S. in Business Management. She is married, with 5 grown children and one (adorable) grandchild.
Marcie Frost, Deputy Director, Washington Department of Retirement Systems
As Deputy Director of DRS, Marcie Frost is responsible for strategic leadership and planning, as well as operations management. Her background includes senior leadership responsibilities in human resources, information technology and public pension administration. Marcie has more than 20 years of public and private sector experience with an emphasis in successfully navigating the challenges and opportunities of today's financial organizations.
Michele Adams, Director of Lean Systems, Starbucks Coffee
As director of Lean Systems for Starbucks Coffee, Adams is responsible for building people's skills and knowledge so lean thinking becomes the way everyone leads and works. To accomplish this, she and her team work cross-functionally and cross organizationally to integrate lean principles into employee training, operational programs, store design, and work processes. In her 10 years with Starbucks, Adams has worked as a district manager and as a regional director for both company and licensed business units. Prior to her current position, she was director of Customer Service in U.S. Operations. She has a bachelor's degree in English from Arizona State University.
Pat Edmonds , Point B
Pat is a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt and a Lean Master. He has over 20 years of business and consulting experience, both nationally and internationally, in leading complex initiatives related to process redesign and re-engineering, operations improvement, and organizational transformation. He is a co-founder of Point B's Process Optimization practice.
Rhea Wallace, Director, Client Services, Impact Washington
Rhea has over ten years with the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NIST MEP) working with small and mid-sized U.S. manufacturers to help them create and retain jobs, increase profits, and save time and money. He does this offering a variety of services, from innovation strategies to process improvements to green manufacturing. As Director of Growth Services, he is responsible for placing innovations developed through research at federal laboratories, educational institutions and corporations directly in the hands of U.S. manufacturers.
He assists manufacturers to achieve new sales, leading to higher tax receipts and new sustainable jobs in the high paying advanced manufacturing sector. As a participant in the NIST MEP Innovation Engineering Black Belt program, he coaches companies to develop complete innovative solutions. This means simultaneously optimizing the competing needs and issues with customer/consumer insights, technology & manufacturing capability and the all-important bottom line costs of capital, investment requirements, market pricing and profit margin.
Rogers Weed, Director, Washington State Department of Commerce
Rogers Weed was appointed by Gov. Chris Gregoire as Director of the Department of Commerce in March 2009. As director, Rogers is charged with fulfilling the Governor's clear mission to grow and improve jobs in Washington State.
Rogers earned a degree in Computer Science from Duke University and an MBA in Marketing from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
He started his career as a management consultant focused on strategy and planning for companies in the pharmaceutical, manufacturing and high tech industries. Rogers joined Microsoft in 1990, managing teams in the Windows, Mobile Devices, On-line Content and Consumer Software Divisions and rising to Vice President over his 15 years with the company.
Rogers has also been a board member and volunteer for several Seattle-based non-profit organizations. He lives in Seattle with his wife and three sons.
Samuel Obara, Managing Partner, Honsha Associates
Sammy learned and implemented the Toyota Production System (TPS) at Toyota facilities in Japan, Brazil, Venezuela and in the United States. He has taught Lean to a multitude of consulting firms, educational organizations such as Harvard and Stanford, and even in humanitarian missions thru Asia and Africa.
With close to 30 years of Lean experience, he has helped more than 350 companies. These include TPS projects in environments ranging from schools, to hospitals, to military and many others and in a variety of countries, including China, Mexico, Canada, Indonesia, Brazil, Japan, Austria, the U.K., and the U.S.
Mastered in Technology Management, he also is a faculty member with the Lean Institute and an instructor of Global Strategy Management for the California Community College system. He is a guest lecturer on lean for post-graduate classes at Stanford University and San Diego State University, and has been a speaker at conferences sponsored by the American Production and Inventory Control Society, the Association for Productivity and Quality (APQ), and the American Society for Quality (ASQ). He is fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, and English and has a basic knowledge of Japanese. He currently aids companies implementing lean through Honsha.ORG.
Sarah Stuart, Process Specialist, Impact Washington
Ms. Stuart has over 20 years of experience in process improvement with a proven track record of increasing product speed and reducing costs. Ms. Stuart is an instructor for the SME/AME/Shingo Prize Lean Enterprise Certification Program (LECP), Six Sigma instructor using the American Society for Quality (ASQ) curriculum, and a certified instructor for the Training Within Industry J Programs.
Her responsibilities include delivering services such as transformation planning, quality management systems (ISO 9000/AS 9100), six sigma initiatives as well as improvement tools such as 5S, Process Mapping, 3P (Production Preparation Process), Lean Manufacturing, PDCA and Six Sigma. She holds a degree in Material Science and Engineering from Iowa State University. She has over 20 years experience applying process improvement and speaks regularly at public conferences on Lean subjects.
Starbucks Team
At Starbucks, the Lean team is responsible for developing leaders to empower continuous improvement as the way to lead and work. Lean at Starbucks is defined as: delivering the most value to the customers using the fewest possible resources, leveraging the talents and ideas of the partners (employees). To accomplish this, the team works globally and cross- functionally throughout the organization to integrate Lean into employee training, operational programs, store design and work processes. The Lean team at Starbucks is comprised of 13 employees who do a variety of different things. Some work in an improvement lab, working hard every day to eliminate waste and make things better. Some develop curriculum and coach to build leader capability, and others are focused on stability and standard work. Their work has a positive impact and has led to organizational transformation and improved ability to apply Lean to daily work. Their shared vision is to support kaizen, elevate the truth and cultivate respect for others. Members of the team are well versed in traditional Lean principles and use that foundation along with strong operational experience to elevate the customer's experience.
Steve Reinmuth, Chief of Staff, Washington State Department of Transportation
Steve Reinmuth currently serves on the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) executive team as Chief of Staff. He has also served as WSDOT's Director of Government Relations and Chief Counsel to WSDOT during his appointment as Senior Assistant Attorney General. Prior to representing WSDOT, Steve represented a variety of public clients including the Department of Labor and Industries and the Public Disclosure Commission, and private clients with a large northwest law firm.
Steve received a B.A in Political Science and a J.D. from the University of Puget Sound.
Ted Sturdevant, Director, Washington State Department of Ecology
Ted Sturdevant was appointed director for the Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) in November 2009. The Department of Ecology is the state's primary environmental agency, with programs addressing water quality and quantity, air quality, solid, hazardous and nuclear waste, oil spill prevention and response, and shoreline and wetland protection. Ecology has approximately 1,500 employees and an operating budget of $446 million.
Prior to becoming Ecology director, Sturdevant spent seven years as the agency's director of Governmental Relations and leading Ecology's initiative to reduce toxic threats. Before joining Ecology's senior management team in 2003, Sturdevant worked under Gov. Gary Locke, leading Locke's external affairs team. He also served in a variety of staff positions in the Oregon legislature and worked on several state and national political campaigns in Oregon and Washington State.
Ted is married and lives in Olympia. He enjoys kayaking, mountain biking, and other outdoor activities.
Tim Hirsch, Premera Blue Cross
Trains and coaches others in Lean principles and methodologies. Tim joined the Kaizen Promotion office in July 2011 with an area of interest in Value Stream mapping and Visual Management.
V'Ella Warren, Senior Vice President, University of Washington
V'Ella Warren is the Senior Vice President and Treasurer, Board of Regents at the University of Washington (UW), a research university with annual revenues of $3 billion. She is responsible for an endowment of $2 billion and total investments of $3 billion. Ms. Warren also leads the University's financial management, capital projects, facilities and strategy management organizations with nearly 1,600 employees. Ms. Warren has been at the UW since 1987.
Prior to moving into higher education, she worked in commercial banking and manufacturing. Ms. Warren was the Vice President of the Asset Liability Planning for Seafirst Bank (1980–1985) and People's Bank (1985–1987). She worked in Indonesia for Union Carbide (Manager, Management Development) and Springs Mills (Vice President, Personnel) in the mid-70's, before moving into the finance arena.
A fifth-generation native of the Pacific Northwest, Ms. Warren has advanced degrees from the UW; an M.A. in Asian Studies and an MBA in Finance with honors. Her undergraduate degree is from Willamette University in Oregon, where she graduated cum laude in Political Science and Chinese.
Ms. Warren is a frequent national speaker and panelist on investment and leadership topics. She and Louis T. Wells, Jr. co-authored "Developing Country Investors in Indonesia," which was published in the Bulletin of Indonesian Studies.
Wendy Korthuis-Smith, Ed.D., Director, Accountability & Performance, Office of the Governor, Washington State
As Director of Accountability & Performance for Governor Chris Gregoire, Wendy provides oversight of the Governor's award-winning Government Management Accountability and Performance (GMAP) program, Lean deployment across Washington State government, and assistance to state agencies on performance improvement and accountability.
Wendy has extensive experience in change management, leadership development and performance improvement in the private and public sector including government operations, healthcare, and higher education. Prior to joining Gregoire's staff, Korthuis-Smith was the Organizational Change & Readiness Manager for the development and implementation of Washington State's ProviderOne, a $5 billion per year Medicaid management information and payment system. During her past 25+ years, she has also held positions such as assistant professor at Chapman University's graduate program and a management consultant for Sterling Associates.
Wendy has a doctorate degree in Educational Leadership with an emphasis in organizational development from Seattle University, as well as a M.S. and B.S from University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse.
Yusuf Rashid, RPh., Pharmacy Manager, Group Health Cooperative
In 2011, Yusuf Rashid was singled out among Group Health managers, awarded for his ability to engage his team in achieving extraordinary business outcomes. Although the big achievement was a dramatic improvement in the patient care experience, it was a member of his own team who nominated him for the leadership award. In addition to his role as Pharmacy Manager, Yusuf contributes as a thought leader in the Pharmacy Division's Business Strategy Workgroup. Yusuf is committed to achieving affordable excellence through compassion, competence, inspiration, innovation, and collaboration.
Prior to joining Group Health in April of 2010, Yusuf was a Regional Pharmacy Manager for Safeway and oversaw pharmacy operations at 26 retail pharmacies across Washington State. In this role, Yusuf took over some of the most challenging locations in the company, and significantly improved their performance while strategically setting them up for long-term success.
Yusuf's focus and dedication to patient care and service are frequently recognized by patients, his team and his colleagues. He is joining us to share the improvement journey of his team, and to coach us as we think through applying these concepts in the workplace.