SMI Announces New Associate Executive Director and New 2018 Board Members 

Westborough, MA (May 24, 2018): The Strategic Marketplace Initiative (SMI®), a non-profit, member-driven organization of healthcare supply chain thought-leaders recently announced the appointment of Barry Blake as their new associate executive director.  The announcement came at SMI’s Spring Forum, which took place in May with over 200 industry thought-leaders in Washington, D.C.  

Blake comes to SMI from SCM World, a Gartner Community, where he served as Vice President and Program Director. A 10-year veteran of the supply chain industry, Blake is a graduate of The College of the Holy Cross and received his master’s degree from Emerson College in Boston. He has been published in major trade journals on supply chain topics and has presented at many industry events and conferences. Blake will replace Dennis Orthman, a 13-year highly regarded executive with SMI and 25-year industry veteran who will retire in June, 2018.

Blake will be responsible for leading the planning and logistics of SMI Forums and management of SMI Initiatives. He will also be an active member of the healthcare supply chain community as an industry representative of SMI. Tom Hughes, Executive Director of SMI said, “Barry’s commitment and enthusiasm to help shape the future of the healthcare supply chain is directly in-line with SMI’s mission and goals. Barry understands the importance of developing collaborative relationships that are critical to solving complex healthcare issues facing our industry today and in the future. We are extremely excited for Barry to join our team.”

At the Spring Forum, SMI also announced 4 new board members which include Karen Conway, Vice President, Healthcare Value at Global Healthcare Exchange (GHX); Donna Drummond, SVP Northwell and Managing Director, True North Healthcare Solutions; Gary Fennessy, Chief Supply Chain Officer at Northwestern Memorial HealthCare; and Nancy Pakieser, Sr. Director, Industry Development at TECSYS. The SMI Board is balanced between provider and industry partner members and sets the strategy and future direction for SMI. Susan Schuette, Vice President for Corporate and National Accounts at Halyard Health and SMI Board Chair said, “We look forward to the breadth of knowledge and experience Karen, Donna, Gary and Nancy bring to the SMI Board. We look forward to having these very distinguished healthcare supply chain executives as part of our board.”

 

To learn more about SMI and to download our free tools and solutions, visit: www.smisupplychain.com

ABOUT SMI
The Strategic Marketplace Initiative (SMI) is a non-profit, member-driven organization dedicated to improving the supply chain through direct information exchange and collaboration between senior healthcare supply chain executives and senior IDN supply chain executives. SMI members include healthcare providers, manufacturers, medical distributors, and other supply chain businesses. SMI, created to influence, shape and advance the future of the healthcare marketplace, provides an open forum for innovative idea-exchange and the development of collaborative process improvement initiatives. The members of SMI have created over 30 tools and resources, available free of charge, designed to help industry professionals address real supply chain challenges. For more information about SMI, including a complete list of members, visit: www.smisupplychain.com.