Simon Gisby is a Senior Corporate Strategy and Mergers & Acquisitions Professional with more than 20 years of experience serving the life science and health care industries. Along with founding and leading the Life Science and Healthcare practice at Deloitte Corporate Finance LLC, he leads The Future of Health for Deloitte Risk and Financial Advisory and co-leads the Healthcare Strategy & Growth practice.

Gisby has advised on numerous strategies, affiliations, partnerships, and M&A engagements. He currently is focused on facilitating partnerships across the entire life science and health care ecosystem. His clients include global pharmaceutical and medical device companies, health insurance companies, health systems, health care information technology companies, and other health care providers.

He is a frequent contributor to and author of articles and publications on health care strategy and M&A, and he has been quoted in numerous national media outlets. Gisby is a member of the New York Security Analysts Society and The Association for Investment Management Research.

Paul Kempinski, M.S., FACHE, is the President and CEO of Children’s Mercy Kansas City, one of the nation’s largest, independent, academic children’s health systems. He also is the inaugural Alice Berry, DDS, and Katharine Berry, M.D., Endowed Chair in Executive Leadership at Children’s Mercy.

Kempinski has nearly four decades of leadership experience in health care. Before joining Children’s Mercy in 2018, Kempinski served as President of the Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Del., and Enterprise Vice President for Nemours Children’s Health System. Kempinski joined Nemours in 2003, serving as Chief Operating Officer before his promotion to President.

Before Nemours, Kempinski was the COO of Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby, Penn. He also held senior leadership positions at Via Health in Rochester, N.Y.; Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Pittsburgh, Penn.; and Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Ill. He is a frequent presenter and panelist at regional and national conferences on health care issues.

After receiving his bachelor’s degree in health planning and administration from Penn State University, Kempinski earned his master’s degree in health systems management from Rush University in Chicago. He is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and an alumnus of Leadership Philadelphia. Despite his busy schedule, Kempinski is committed to giving back. He serves on the Board of Trustees of the Children’s Hospital Association and currently chairs the association’s Quality and Safety Committee. Kempinski is a trustee of the Missouri Hospital Association; a Board and Executive Committee member of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce; and serves on the Boards of the Civic Council of Greater Kansas City, KC Common Good and the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Kansas City.

Kempinski lives in Leawood, Kan., with his wife Maureen. The couple has three grown children — Kristen, Brian and Jennifer.

Blake Riley, PharmD, serves as Chief Operating Officer at Carroll County Memorial Hospital, a critical access hospital located in Carrollton, Mo. He has more than 15 years of health care experience, joining the hospital as a Clinical Pharmacist in 2017 and 340B Coordinator after nine years owning and operating an independent community pharmacy. Before joining the hospital, he served on the hospital’s Board of Directors as a member and Board President.

Riley serves in numerous volunteer roles, including serving as a board member for Mercy Road Recovery Center, which is dedicated to helping those in addiction achieve recovery. In 2016, Leadership Northwest recognized him with its annual Citizenship Award. He became active at the intersection of social determinants of health and health care services as a community pharmacist, attempting to help rural patients fill care gaps through the 340B program, vaccination programs, medication compliance initiatives and disease state educational classes. He has continued in this vein, working with population health nurses and social workers to fill care gaps in the hospital setting.

Riley received a Doctor of Pharmacy in 2008 from the University of Missouri Kansas City. He currently is in the MHA program at the University of Missouri Columbia. He enjoys spending time with his wife, Amanda, and their three children. They currently reside in Bogard, Mo.

Charles Shields serves as President and CEO of University Health, formerly Truman Medical Centers. He joined the health system in 2010 as Chief Operating Officer of TMC-Lakewood and assumed his current role in 2014. Shields brings to the role more than 25 years of health care leadership and decades of public service, including 20 years in the Missouri General Assembly, culminating his service with two years as President Pro-Tem of the Missouri Senate.

Shields has shared his experience as the immediate past Board Chair and current Board Member of the Missouri Hospital Association. He is often quoted saying, “Education is the number one determinant of economic status, and economic status is the number one determinant of health status,” bringing together the importance of education in living a long and healthy life. With this as a foundational belief, he serves as President of the Missouri State Board of Education. He also is deeply involved in the Kansas City community, serving in leadership positions with the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, the Kansas City Civic Council and the Urban Neighborhood Initiative — a few of the numerous committees and boards on which he is proud to serve.

Finally, Sheilds is a founding board member of the UMKC Health Sciences District, a collaborative effort between University Health; UMKC Schools of Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing and Dentistry; Children’s Mercy Hospital; the Kansas City Health Department; and other entities creating a true Academic Health Center investing in research, advancing intellectual collaboration and developing a space for health innovation unlike any other in the region.

Laurel Braitman, Ph.D., is a New York Times bestselling author, historian and anthropologist of science. She is the first Writer-in-Residence and the Director of Writing and Storytelling for the Medicine & the Muse Program at Stanford University School of Medicine. Here, she helps medical students and physicians communicate more meaningfully — for themselves and their patients.

Braitman earned a Ph.D. in science, technology and society from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and she is a Senior TED Fellow and a 2019 National Geographic Explorer. Her last book, “Animal Madness,” was a New York Times bestseller and has been translated into eight languages. Her next book, “House of the Heart,” is about growing up, mortality and how we might live with the perspective of a terminal disease without the dire prognosis. Her work has been featured on the BBC, NPR, Good Morning America and Al Jazeera. Her stories have appeared in The Guardian, Radiolab, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, National Geographic and other publications. She is a contributing writer and frequently performs live for Pop Up Magazine. Braitman also has taught interdisciplinary courses at Harvard, MIT, Stanford School of Medicine and Smith College, and she loves collaborating with musicians, physicians, scientists engineers and artists — helping them learn to communicate better with the audiences that matter most.

Braitman splits her time between the remote Alaskan wilderness and Berkeley, Calif., with her partner and a few million wild salmon.

Steve Berkowitz, M.D., has more than 25 years of experience in health care management and consulting. He is the Founder and President of SMB Health Consulting, specializing in clinical and operational performance improvement for health care systems, as well as leadership development for administrators, physicians and trustees. He has developed a successful chief medical officer one-on-one advisory program for new and experienced CMOs.

Previously, Dr. Berkowitz served as Chief Physician Executive and president of the medical group for Northern Light Health, a nine-hospital system in Maine. He also previously served as CMO of St. David’s Healthcare in Austin, Texas, and CMO for the Central and West Texas Division of HCA. He was Chairman of the Board of Capital Area Providers, a 5.01(a) Texas medical foundation with more than 800 participating physicians. In 2008, St. David’s won the Texas Award for Performance Excellence, and in 2014 was the national Malcolm Baldridge award recipient. In 2014, Dr. Berkowitz was appointed by Texas Governor Rick Perry to serve as Chairman of the Board of the Texas Institute for Health Care Equity and Efficiency.

Bob Kendrick was named President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in March 2011. The NLBM is the world’s only museum dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich history of African American baseball and its profound impact on the social advancement of America. Kendrick became the museum’s first Director of Marketing in 1998 and was named Vice President of Marketing in 2009 before accepting the post as Executive Director of the National Sports Center for the Disabled-Kansas City. Kendrick now is responsible for the museum’s day-to-day operations and for the development and implementation of strategies to advance the mission and financial stability of the organization.

Kendrick began his association with the NLBM as a volunteer during his 10-year newspaper career with The Kansas City Star. He developed the advertising concept and campaign that helped attract more 10,000 people (in less than 30 days) to see the debut of the museum’s first traveling exhibit in the summer of 1993. The success of that promotion led to an appointment to the museum’s Board of Directors in the fall of 1993. Kendrick has been responsible for the creation of several signature museum educational programs and events, including the Legacy Awards, a national baseball awards ceremony that annually recognizes the best Major League baseball players, managers and executives.

Kendrick has become one of the leading authorities on the topic of Negro Leagues baseball history and its connection to issues relating to sports, race and diversity. He has been awarded the Mary Lona Diversity Award, named Citizen of the Year in 2006, named one of the 100 Most Influential African Americans in Greater Kansas City in 2009, inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, named Person of the Year in 2020, named Business Person of the Year in 2021, and was bestowed honorary doctorate degrees from Judson University and William Jewel College in 2021.

Kendrick’s volunteer roots in the Kansas City community are deep and passionate. He has served on the boards of various Kansas City-area nonprofit organizations and has worked with Kansas City youth for more than 20 years. A native of Crawfordville, Ga., Kendrick received a basketball scholarship to attend Park College in Parkville, Mo., in 1980 where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in communications arts in 1985.

Chad Carden, Founder of The Carden Group, has been studying and working with companies to improve their number one asset — their people — for more than 20 years. His life mission is to improve the way employers and employees interact to create greater engagement and better results. By challenging them to reach outside their comfort zones, Carden’s clients achieve heights they’ve never imagined.

Named a Top Coach Making a Difference by USA Today and featured as a Top Entrepreneur Changing the World by Entrepreneur Magazine, Carden has traveled the globe working with all levels of organizations of all different sizes. Fortune 100 companies have sought out his assistance to discover where they want to be, to help create a plan to get there and to issue a challenge to achieve real results.

Carden is an accomplished author of two books, Winning The Money Game and P.E.P.P. He also has consulted and sold products and services in more than 40 countries, and his work has been translated in more than 15 languages.

He continues his vision of providing people and organizations a personalized formula for better employee engagement and positive progress.

Raghu Adiga, M.D., is President and CEO of Liberty Hospital, a 204-bed hospital located in the Kansas City metropolitan area. He joined the hospital in 2004 as an infectious disease specialist and began serving in hospital administration in 2016 as Medical Director of Care Management and Quality. Two years later, he was named Chief Medical Officer and also served as the hospital’s President of Medical Staff.

Dr. Adiga serves the community in a variety of roles, including as a board member for the Center for Practical Bioethics and the Northland Regional Chamber of Commerce. Dr. Adiga received his Internal Medicine training from the University of Illinois at Chicago and Infectious Disease training from both UIC and the University of Missouri. He is an honored Fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America and has served as President of the Kansas City Infectious Disease Society. He is an active member of the Kansas City Medical Society.

Dr. Adiga was named one of the Top Doctors in Kansas City in 2012 and Healthcare Heroes in 2021 by Ingram’s Magazine. He also was spotlighted as one of Kansas City’s Twenty to Know in Healthcare by the Kansas City Business Journal in 2022. In 2021, he was honored by William Jewell College with the William F. Yates Medallion for Distinguished Service for his dedication to the health and safety of the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kristen T. DeHart, MBA, P.T., serves as the CEO at Excelsior Springs Hospital, a 20-bed critical access hospital located northeast of Kansas City. DeHart joined the hospital in 2017 and brings extensive experience, including hospital management, rehabilitation leadership, marketing, sales and operations.

DeHart recognized that critical gaps in health care and equitable access to health resources existed in Excelsior Springs and the surrounding communities. She took on the mission to close those gaps and recruited and hired specialists, expanded existing primary care programs, including home health, hospice and rehabilitation services, and started many new specialty care outpatient clinics.  The hospital has since moved from survival status to a thriving health care facility with an energized culture and community. During the last 12 months, Excelsior Springs Hospital has experienced double-digit growth rates, added pediatric and outpatient psychiatric services, and opened pharmacy services to the entire community. The hospital now serves four counties and continues to expand.

Beginning her career as a Physical Therapist, Kristen has always led with her heart, believing that her opportunities to serve individuals and communities, next to family, are her highest callings. She is active in the Northland Community, serving on various boards, including the Excelsior Springs Area Chamber of Commerce, Excelsior Springs Health Care Foundation, Excelsior Springs SAFE (Substance Abuse Free Environment Coalition), Excelsior Springs Rotary, Excelsior Springs Thrive (Communities of Excellence), Northland Health Care Access and the Northland Health Alliance.

DeHart was named as one of the Kansas City Business Journal’s Women Who Mean Business Award in 2010; awarded the Clay County Public Health Center’s Community Health Champion Award in 2020, and the Excelsior Springs Businesswomen of Missouri Community Activist Award in 2020.  She also was honored to serve as the Missouri Hospital District 1 President in 2022.

DeHart’s life mission is focused on making the community and those around her healthier, more resilient and happier. She believes it’s not only a medical obligation to her community, but a moral obligation that comes with her opportunity to serve. She is married to the love of her life, Rick, and enjoys every minute spent in her roles outside of work — Momma-Llama to her kids and the four littlest DeHarts, best friend to her Farley Dog, vacation/party planner at the hint of a suggestion, and ultimate cheerleader to anyone in need.

Alan Greimann has been working in the behavioral health field in Missouri since 1985 where he was the CEO/Executive Director for Clear Pointe, a 90-bed substance abuse center located at the Lake of the Ozarks. In 1989, he became the Administrator/CEO for Cedar Ridge Hospital in Shawnee, Kan., an 80-bed acute care psychiatric hospital while also serving as Vice President of Midwest Operations, providing oversight of 11 hospitals in seven states for The Mediplex Group, a national health care corporation. In 1992, he was the co-founder and owner of PsychCare Management, Inc., which acquired Oakwood Hospital and changed the name to Royal Oaks Hospital, a 41-bed acute, psychiatric hospital located in Windsor, Mo.

In 1995, Royal Oaks established a clinical training affiliation with the MU School of Medicine, and since that time has served as one of the primary training sites for Child/Adolescent Psychiatry. Royal Oaks is not only committed to quality patient services but also to academics and the professional growth of individuals in advanced degree programs. In 2003, Royal Oaks was the principal partner of an $8.75 million dollar federal grant and established a program called Project TERMH (Training Enhancement in Rural Mental Health) where they, along with other academic partners, created clinical training opportunities for psychiatry, psychology, advanced degrees in nursing and primary/family medicine that since has trained more than 400 professionals now practicing in rural Missouri.

In 2004, Royal Oaks Hospital integrated with Pathways Community Behavioral Healthcare, and collectively they are now part of Compass Health, which provides a vast array of behavioral health and primary care services throughout Missouri and Louisiana. Greimann continues to serve as the President/CEO of Royal Oaks Hospital and Executive Vice President of Compass Health. He also serves on several boards for academic, training and youth advocacy programs, including the Advisory Board of the MU School of Health Professions, Chair of the National Psychology Training Consortium, Central Missouri Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the For the Children Foundation.

Greimann and his wife Nancy reside at the Lake of the Ozarks where they are active in many community programs.

Known as a dynamic, engaging speaker, Joe Mull teaches leaders and business owners how to be better bosses and create destination workplaces. He is the author of three books: “Cure for the Common Leader,” “No More Team Drama,” and his latest, “Employalty: How to Ignite Commitment and Keep Top Talent in the New Age of Work.” He is the host of the popular Boss Better Now podcast and founder of the BossBetter Leadership Academy.

Mull previously served as the head of Learning & Development for Physician Services at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where he directed learning strategy and implementation for one of the largest physician groups in the U.S. — more than 9,000 employees across 500+ locations. Before his years of service in health care, Mull spent a decade working in leadership and program development roles in higher education.

Mull earned a master’s degree from Ohio University and serves on the board of directors of the National Speaker’s Association. He has appeared as an expert in multiple media outlets, including Forbes, Fortune, Newsweek and the International Business Times. When he’s not speaking at conferences and meetings, Mull resides near Pittsburgh, Pa., with his wife, three children and a needy Dalmatian named Flash.

Mull holds the coveted Certified Speaking Professional™ (CSP®) designation from the National Speakers Association. Held by fewer than 20% of professional speakers worldwide, the CSP is the speaking profession’s international measure of speaking excellence and signals a proven track record of experience and expertise, as well as a commitment to outstanding client service and ethical behavior. The CSP designation is a signal that you’re working with an experienced, professional speaker.