Mohan Giridharadas
Founder & CEO, LeanTaaS
Mohan Giridharadas is the Founder and CEO of LeanTaaS, a healthcare technology company that helps health systems unlock capacity, improve patient access, and reduce costs through AI-powered capacity optimization. LeanTaaS’ iQueue products are used by more than 190 health systems and deployed across over 1,200 hospitals and centers nationwide, improving operational performance in operating rooms, surgical clinics, infusion centers, and inpatient care.
Before founding LeanTaaS, Mohan spent 18 years at McKinsey & Company and served as a Senior Partner, leading the Lean Manufacturing and Lean Service Operations Practices in North America and the Asia-Pacific region. He has worked with many of the largest and most innovative US health systems and co-authored the book “Better Healthcare Through Math“.
Mohan holds a B.Tech. from IIT Bombay, an MS in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Mohan was named to Becker’s Hospital Review’s “Great leaders in healthcare” list in 2025.
Brennan Spiegel, MD, MSHS,
Director of Health Services Research, Cedars-Sinai
Brennan Spiegel, MD, MSHS, is Director of Health Services Research at Cedars-Sinai and holds the George and Dorothy Gourrich Chair in Digital Health Ethics. He leads the Center for Virtual Medicine and Health System Transformation and directs the Master’s Program in Health Systems Science.
Dr. Spiegel’s work focuses on the application of artificial intelligence, digital health technologies, and immersive therapeutics to improve clinical outcomes and transform care delivery. His multidisciplinary team develops and evaluates tools including generative AI, biosensors, and medical extended reality. He has published more than 315 peer-reviewed papers and is the author of VRx: How Immersive Therapeutics Will Revolutionize Medicine.
His research has been funded by the NIH, VA, PCORI, and other national agencies. Dr. Spiegel continues to practice clinical medicine and teaches digital health, AI, and health analytics at Cedars-Sinai and UCLA.
Brian Heath
SVP and Head of Global Commercial, Kite, a Gilead company
Brian Heath joined Kite in 2025 as Senior Vice President and Head of Global Commercial.
Brian is a highly accomplished leader with over 25 years of experience building and leading commercial teams across diverse geographies and therapeutic areas, with a strong focus in hematology and oncology. Prior to joining Kite, he served as Vice President and General Manager of Amgen’s US Oncology Business Unit, responsible for the commercialization of fifteen innovative and biosimilar medicines. His global experience includes leadership roles across Latin America, Turkey, the Middle East, Africa, and Canada, where he served as Vice-Chair of the Board of Innovative Medicines Canada.
He holds a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. Brian is committed to community service, serving on the Board of Directors for Food Share of Ventura County.
Lisa Lacasse
President, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network
Lisa Lacasse is president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), the nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy affiliate of the American Cancer Society (ACS). She leads ACS CAN’s nationwide public policy advocacy agenda and oversees a team in Washington, D.C., that empowers volunteers across the country to influence evidence-based policy change to reduce the cancer burden nationwide.
Ms. Lacasse is responsible for leveraging the organization’s unique power as the largest cancer patient advocacy organization to achieve widespread impact for every person touched by cancer in every community. She also serves on the board for the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.
Before joining ACS CAN, Ms. Lacasse was the chief financial officer at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Research Center. Ms. Lacasse spent several years in senior management at the University of Maryland Medical System. She received an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Daniel Croley
Chief Dental Officer, Delta Dental
Joe W. Ramos, PhD is President and CEO of The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation, a leading nonprofit biomedical research organization that translates scientific discoveries into innovations that enhance human health, benefiting our community and the world. He assumed the role in early 2025.
Dr. Ramos brings more than 30 years of experience as a cancer researcher and research-enterprise leader. Prior to joining TLI, he served as Director and CEO of the Louisiana Cancer Research Center and concurrently as Director of the LSU LCMC Health Cancer Center in New Orleans. Earlier, he spent more than a decade at the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center, including service as Interim Director, helping lead the center through two successful renewals of National Cancer Institute designation.
An internationally recognized expert in cancer signaling and metastasis, Dr. Ramos’s research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms that drive tumor growth and spread and translating those insights into new therapeutic strategies. His work has concentrated on brain, kidney, and skin cancers, with multiple drug leads developed to block tumor growth and invasion. He holds two patents in this area and has published extensively in high-impact scientific journals.
Raised in a small town in Virginia, Dr. Ramos earned his undergraduate degree and PhD from the University of Virginia School of Medicine and completed postdoctoral training at The Scripps Research Institute. Early in his career, he received his first independent funding from the American Cancer Society, an experience that deepened his commitment to cancer research.
As President and CEO, Dr. Ramos is driven by a passion for team-based science that bridges discovery, clinical excellence, and translation. He is dedicated to building strong, collaborative teams that advance innovative research, educate the next generation of scientists, and engage meaningfully with communities to address local and global health challenges.
