LEADERSHIP
The Atlas Leadership and Board of Directors team has worked with some of the largest and most successful nonprofit health systems throughout the U.S. to acquire, develop, and operate ASC partnerships in their markets. Our leadership team is hands-on, working closely with our health system partners to research, analyze, and develop strategies to help make the right ASC decisions at the right time.
ATLAS HEALTHCARE PARTNERS LEADERSHIP
Aric Burke
Robert (Bob) Cohen, JD
Dan Jones
Heather Richards
James Maguire, JD
Jon Hallgrimsson
Derek Mitzel, D.O.
Aric Burke
Aric has more than eighteen years of ASC consulting, development, and operations experience. He is responsible for the overall vision and company operations, driving profitability, and the organizational structure and strategy of Atlas.
Prior to founding Atlas, Aric served as the West Market President for United Surgical Partners International (USPI), the largest ASC management company in the industry. As Market President, Aric was responsible for the development and operations of USPI markets throughout the Western US. During his five years at USPI, Aric grew the West Market to over 30 ASCs and three surgical hospitals performing over 150,000 cases annually generating over $450M in net revenue and $90M in EBITDA with more than 2,500 employees. He also worked closely with large not-for-profit health system partners to develop their ASC networks including Dignity Health in Phoenix and Las Vegas, Centura Health in Denver, and Carondelet Health in Tucson.
Prior to joining USPI, Aric served as Vice President of Consulting and Development at Health Inventures, a physician and health system consulting firm that specialized in developing and managing ASCs. While at Health Inventures, Aric worked with some of the largest and most successful health systems throughout the US to acquire and form ASC partnerships in their markets as well as projects to develop ASC and ambulatory facilities in the UK and Middle East.
Aric began his career as a Certified Public Accountant with Deloitte after earning an MS in Business Administration with a focus on accounting, and a BS in Business Administration with a focus on Finance, both from the University of Colorado.
Robert (Bob) Cohen, JD
Bob joined Atlas in May of 2021 after serving as national chair of the health care practice of a large law firm for close to 40 years. He was heavily involved in the founding of Atlas and served as Atlas’ lead outside counsel prior to assuming the role as its General Counsel. As General Counsel, he oversees all legal aspects for both Atlas and the ASCs which Atlas manages. He also handles all ASC acquisitions and syndications.
In private practice, Bob was outside counsel for decades to some of the largest nonprofit health systems in the US. His work on behalf of these systems included handling major acquisitions and affiliations as well as overseeing clinical joint venture arrangements and other physician strategies in multiple areas. For several of his clients, Bob was integrally involved in the planning and execution of physician joint ventures strategies to develop market-wide networks of ASC and other ambulatory services similar to what Atlas now does. Under Bob’s leadership, Atlas approaches its health system partnerships and work on behalf of its nonprofit partners from the perspective of what is best for the health system and what he would negotiate for as health system counsel. This approach begins with partnership documents that assure the controls and protections (e.g., tax exempt status) critical to health systems are a given (and not something to be negotiated for as is typically the case with other ASC companies). Bob works closely on a continuous basis with the General Counsel and in-house counsel staff of our health system partners to assure that the underlying ASC joint ventures are structured in compliance with terms and conditions agreed to with the health system and that the ASCs are managed in a legally compliant manner.
Bob’s decades of transaction experience also allows Atlas to handle ASC acquisitions and syndications on behalf of its health system partnerships in a highly efficient and cost effective manner particularly as to outside counsel expense. Bob is a graduate of The University of Chicago law school.
Dan Jones
Dan has more than 25 years’ experience and substantial success in directing operations in large-scale hospital networks, community hospitals and development of service lines, physician partnership models, and the transformation of underperforming business units. Dan is skilled in M&A, P&L management, and Board Governance, as well as the development of service lines, physician partnership models, and the transformation of underperforming business units.
As Chief Operating Officer, Dan accelerates value within healthcare for both the patient and the physician by executing market performance to Atlas operating model and orchestrating Atlas Service Center support and integration with regional and center needs. Before joining Atlas, Dan was the Chief Executive Officer at St. Francis Medical Center, an urban trauma center in Los Angeles County, where he orchestrated the turnaround of a bankrupt hospital, taking the facility from negative EBITDA to over 15% positive margin in 12 months through medical staff alignment, improved operations and staffing, and cost containment. Additionally, he engaged trauma physicians, and orthopedic surgeons to reduce implant costs and improve clinical documentation achieving improved clinical outcomes and margin.
Dan holds a Master of Health Service Administration from Medical College of Virginia / Virginia Commonwealth University and a bachelor’s degree in economics and business from Randolph Macon College. Dan is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives.
Heather Richards
Heather has more than 20 years of experience as a transformational and results-oriented leader. She leads Atlas’s payor strategy and operations as well as centralized Revenue Cycle Management services with a focus on developing value-based arrangements, optimizing revenue with managed care contracts, and delivering best-in-class revenue cycle results. Recognized as a leader in the industry and a champion of health care innovation, Heather has played an integral role in leading performance improvement of physician practices, ancillaries, and facilities. She also has deep experience and expertise in strategy, business operations, mergers and acquisitions across healthcare organizations.
Previously, Heather served in executive leadership roles working with Tenet Healthcare, United Surgical Partners International, Baylor, Scott & White, Source One Management, and MPOWERHealth. Her experience includes the development and execution of strategies to establish a comprehensive Value-Based Healthcare business unit to include a multi-state musculoskeletal specialty Clinically Integrated Network (CIN); Episodic care delivery and management services; Physician practice optimization solutions and GPO offerings; Data-driven solutions for improved client engagement and revenue cycle results for over 250+ facilities.
Heather has a master’s degree in business administration, magna cum laude, and a Bachelor of Science in accounting, magna cum laude from Husson University, Bangor, ME.
James Maguire, JD
James has a deep knowledge of the healthcare industry and healthcare law. As Chief Compliance and Privacy Officer at Atlas, he is responsible for creating an ethical culture focused on integrity and teamwork. In his role, he leads corporate ethics, compliance and privacy programs and fosters a culture and climate of sensitivity to ethical behavior within Atlas. Through his work, James has the opportunity to directly impact the cost of healthcare while increasing accessibility, quality, and satisfaction.
Prior to joining Atlas, James was the Director of Compliance at Aetna where he promoted and enforced compliance with state/federal laws and regulations and related-company policies affecting Aetna businesses and encouraged high business standards in order to achieve company objectives.
James received a law degree from Arizona State University.
Jon Hallgrimsson
Jon joined Atlas in 2018 with 20+ years of experience in enterprise architecture and design for Fortune 500 environments, including cloud services and virtual infrastructure. At Atlas, he leads the continual development and management of the Atlas IT and Information Security strategy, infrastructure, and services. He and his team create technology solutions that enable Atlas’s business to deliver high-quality care to our physicians, patients, and team members, while supporting the highest levels of financial responsibility. These solutions include the full spectrum of healthcare IT needs, including clinical applications, IT infrastructure, digital identity, Information technology security, and desktop/mobile solutions. He ensures that systems are effective, scalable, and secure as Atlas adds and integrates new ASCs and develops future Joint Venture partnerships. He also leads efforts to ensure Atlas optimizes systems and data from all sources, including clinical integration of data between Atlas and our joint venture healthcare system partners.
Before Atlas, Jon was the IS Manager of Engineering Services at Cancer Treatment Centers of America, where he was in charge of all network, cloud computing, enterprise storage, voice, and security infrastructure engineering for the national specialty care hospital system. Leading a team of 10 engineers, Jon developed enterprise architectures, and deployed large-scale projects, achieving a 15% reduction in annual infrastructure costs.
Jon holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Texas and a bachelor’s degree in technology management from Northern Arizona University.
Derek Mitzel, D.O.
Dr. Mitzel is a board-certified anesthesiologist with more than 20 years in the medical field. He oversees the daily operations of Banner’s ambulatory surgery centers, including the hiring and training of all healthcare physicians and keeping the facility safe and comfortable for all patients and visitors. Prior to his current role, he was president of Arizona Anesthesia Consultants, where he saw the operations of the 36-member group practice.
Dr. Mitzel received his medical degree from Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine of Midwestern University. He did an internship and residency at Ohio State University Hospital. He also has a Master of Health/Health Care Administration/Management from the University of Phoenix.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Matthew E. Cox, MBA, CPA
Staci Dickerson
D. Scott Nordlund
Amy Perry
Aric Burke
Robert (Bob) Cohen, JD
Matthew E. Cox, MBA, CPA
As chief financial officer, Matt leads the system finance team with a focus on making care and coverage more affordable, while ensuring the financial integrity of the system and its divisions. He is passionate about achieving affordable, equitable care and coverage while focusing on quality and making health accessible for each person, regardless of their income or socioeconomic status.
Matt champions internal efforts to reduce the total cost of care, improve the patient and health plan member experience, enhance sustainability and optimize processes. To date, these efforts have included streamlining complex processes, leveraging technology to provide more cost-efficient and effective services, increasing transparency and reducing waste. While chief financial officer of Spectrum Health, Matt was instrumental in establishing industry-leading best practices such as shoppable services and simplified billing.
Before joining Spectrum Health in 2017, Matt served in a variety of leadership roles at Banner Health, Dignity Health, Central Maine Health Care and Catholic Health Initiatives Health System. Matt began his professional career with Deloitte.
Matt holds a Bachelor of Arts in accounting and Master of Business Administration from Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Matt is a national board member and active participant in the Healthcare Financial Management Association, where he holds several certifications. He also currently serves as chair for the HFMA Large System CFO Council and is a member of the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce Finance Committee. Matt has previously served on various boards, including the President Gerald R. Ford Field Service Council of the Boy Scouts of America and Covenant House Michigan.
Staci Dickerson
Staci Dickerson was appointed Banner’s Health’s Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer in July 2023. With more than 25 years of experience in health care, Staci joins Banner from Sharp HealthCare in San Diego, CA, a fully integrated, AA-rated regional health care delivery system. In her time there, she served in a variety of system roles including director of managed care finance and vice president of finance–and most recently as senior vice president of finance and chief financial officer.
Staci is actively involved in the health care industry including participating in the California Hospital Association, Healthcare Financial Management Association and Health Management Academy. She not only served as a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Healthcare Expert Panel but is also a former member of the Healthcare Financial Management Association’s National Principles and Practices Board and the San Diego/Imperial Chapter Board.
D. Scott Nordlund
Scott Nordlund serves as Banner’s Executive Vice President Chief Strategy and Growth Officer and a member of the Banner Health senior executive leadership team. In this role Nordlund has responsibility for setting the strategic direction for the $13B organization across its six states. This includes directing all system wide strategic planning and growth activity as well as leading merger, acquisition and partnership development, innovation and digital business strategy, joint venture development, marketing, external communications and consumer engagement. He is also directly responsible for system-wide service line growth activities for key lines of business (orthopedics, neurosciences, oncology, women, infants, pediatrics, cardiovascular and general surgery). Nordlund was named one of Modern Healthcare’s top 25 Innovators in 2020 and again in 2021. Nordlund was recently selected as one of the “Top 50 Great Health System Chief Strategy Officers in 2022” by Becker’s Hospital Review. He currently serves on the Banner – University of Arizona Academic Medical Council board, Banner/Aetna JV board, Banner MA board, Atlas Health Partner board and the Banner/Select system joint venture board.
Prior to joining Banner, Mr. Nordlund served as EVP Partnership Growth and Innovation at Select Medical (NYSE: SEM) and was responsible for leading strategic growth initiatives across the organization’s national network of specialty hospitals, outpatient rehabilitation clinics and occupational health centers. He was instrumental in the acquisition of US Healthworks (now under the Select Concentra division) which created the largest occupational health offering in the United States. Nordlund joined Select after serving as Chief Growth, Strategy and Innovation Officer for Trinity Health where he was responsible for systemwide growth, strategy, innovation, marketing, communications and consumer engagement across Trinity Health’s 20 state national market. Nordlund was also responsible for building and leading Trinity’s merger and acquisition function, growing the company from $8B to $18B and helping to build Trinity into one of the largest health care systems in the country. He served on the investment committee for the Heritage Fund and Abundant Health Ventures, in addition to serving on the boards at St. Agnes Medical Center in Fresno, St. Francis Health System in Delaware and St. Mary’s Health System in Langhorne.
Prior to joining Trinity Health, Nordlund spent 11 years at Dignity Health in a variety of executive roles including Senior Vice President for Strategic Growth, Network and New Venture development where he led merger and acquisition activity, and all joint venture development including building and managing the organization’s partnership based ambulatory service portfolio. He served on the board of Mercy Care, one of the nation’s largest Medicaid plans with 400,000+ members and $3B in revenue and chaired the Dignity/USPI and Dignity/SimonMed system ventures. He also held senior leadership positions at BJC Health System in corporate strategic planning and at Baxter Healthcare in Chicago (NYSE: BAX), where he was responsible for selling and managing all engagements in the Western third of the United States for Baxter Corporate Consulting. Nordlund holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from the University of Illinois and two master degrees (MBA and MHSA) from the University of Michigan.
Amy Perry
Inspired by Banner’s mission to “make health care easier so life can be better,” Amy Perry joined Banner Health on Nov. 1, 2021. A champion for quality-based care, Perry is driving premium reimbursement and health plan expansion, physician practice alignment, chronic disease management, expanded points of access and technology advancements to improve health outcomes. Throughout her more than 30-year health care career, Perry has elevated academic priorities in both education and research. Dedicated to helping the State of Arizona care for its growing population, Perry worked to expand Banner’s outstanding graduate medical education programs to more than 1,300 residents and fellows. Perry is working with Banner’s partners at the University of Arizona and other colleges to grow vital clinical talent and treatment pipelines.
Perry deeply values the importance of serving Banner Health communities as the Trusted Health Partner and is focused on developing Banner’s people-centered culture to care for our team, physicians, caregivers, patients, members, and the communities we serve. Supporting a transformational technology plan, Perry is supporting clinical leaders in prioritizing automation for caregivers to facilitate more time to care.
Prior to this, she served as Atlantic Health System’s executive vice president and CEO of the Hospital Division. During her tenure, Atlantic Health experienced record setting quality and financial results achieving the highest US News rankings in the state. She championed the development and implementation of a five-year strategic plan, prioritizing integrated, value-based care. Perry drove the development of an enterprise data platform supporting clinical excellence and operational performance, as well as consumer-facing digital solutions.
Perry has been named to Modern Healthcare’s lists of the Top 25 Women Leaders and Top 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare. She was recognized as NJBiz Innovator of the Year in 2019 and the Daily Record Maryland Innovator of the Year in 2016.
Prior to joining Atlantic Health System, Perry was the executive vice president at LifeBridge Health in Baltimore, Maryland. Prior to LifeBridge, she had a twenty-year career at Mount Sinai Health System in Miami, Florida.
Perry earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota, and her Master of Science in Health Services Administration from Barry University. She served on the Regional Policy Board of the American Hospital Association and the boards of the New Jersey and Maryland Hospital Associations.
Aric Burke
Aric has more than eighteen years of ASC consulting, development, and operations experience. He is responsible for the overall vision and company operations, driving profitability, and the organizational structure and strategy of Atlas.
Prior to founding Atlas, Aric served as the West Market President for United Surgical Partners International (USPI), the largest ASC management company in the industry. As Market President, Aric was responsible for the development and operations of USPI markets throughout the Western US. During his five years at USPI, Aric grew the West Market to over 30 ASCs and three surgical hospitals performing over 150,000 cases annually generating over $450M in net revenue and $90M in EBITDA with more than 2,500 employees. He also worked closely with large not-for-profit health system partners to develop their ASC networks including Dignity Health in Phoenix and Las Vegas, Centura Health in Denver, and Carondelet Health in Tucson.
Prior to joining USPI, Aric served as Vice President of Consulting and Development at Health Inventures, a physician and health system consulting firm that specialized in developing and managing ASCs. While at Health Inventures, Aric worked with some of the largest and most successful health systems throughout the US to acquire and form ASC partnerships in their markets as well as projects to develop ASC and ambulatory facilities in the UK and Middle East.
Aric began his career as a Certified Public Accountant with Deloitte after earning an MS in Business Administration with a focus on accounting, and a BS in Business Administration with a focus on Finance, both from the University of Colorado.
Robert (Bob) Cohen, JD
Bob joined Atlas in May of 2021 after serving as national chair of the health care practice of a large law firm for close to 40 years. He was heavily involved in the founding of Atlas and served as Atlas’ lead outside counsel prior to assuming the role as its General Counsel. As General Counsel, he oversees all legal aspects for both Atlas and the ASCs which Atlas manages. He also handles all ASC acquisitions and syndications.
In private practice, Bob was outside counsel for decades to some of the largest nonprofit health systems in the US. His work on behalf of these systems included handling major acquisitions and affiliations as well as overseeing clinical joint venture arrangements and other physician strategies in multiple areas. For several of his clients, Bob was integrally involved in the planning and execution of physician joint ventures strategies to develop market-wide networks of ASC and other ambulatory services similar to what Atlas now does. Under Bob’s leadership, Atlas approaches its health system partnerships and work on behalf of its nonprofit partners from the perspective of what is best for the health system and what he would negotiate for as health system counsel. This approach begins with partnership documents that assure the controls and protections (e.g., tax exempt status) critical to health systems are a given (and not something to be negotiated for as is typically the case with other ASC companies). Bob works closely on a continuous basis with the General Counsel and in-house counsel staff of our health system partners to assure that the underlying ASC joint ventures are structured in compliance with terms and conditions agreed to with the health system and that the ASCs are managed in a legally compliant manner.
Bob’s decades of transaction experience also allows Atlas to handle ASC acquisitions and syndications on behalf of its health system partnerships in a highly efficient and cost effective manner particularly as to outside counsel expense. Bob is a graduate of The University of Chicago law school.
