Healthcare Leadership & Executive Conference
October 29th, 2026
Hyatt Regency
Huntington Beach Resort and Spa
Program Sessions: 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Networking reception to follow.
Agenda coming soon.
Agenda to follow.
Thank you to our sponsors:
Key Topics Include:
- Hospital CEO Roundtable: Prioritizing Today’s Toughest Challenges
- Opportunities to Reimagine Healthcare Facility Models
- Emerging Payer – Provider Partnerships
- Healthcare Legal Landscape: Today’s Realities & Tomorrow’s Outlook
- The Future Is Here: AI-Driven Solutions and Innovations
- Hospital Margin Improvement: Out-Of-The-Box Solutions
- Latest Trends and Case Studies for Hospitals
Speakers
Vasiliki Anest, PhD
Chief Innovation Officer
Keck School of Medicine of USC
Carlos Bohorquez
CFO
UC San Diego Health
Alexandra Busto
Partner
Nixon Peabody
Patrick Callaghan
Counsel
Nixon Peabody
Ezra Cohen, MD
CMO, Oncology
Tempus AI
Shawn Forrester
Payer Strategy Executive
Adventist Health
Gayathri Jith
Healthcare Executive
Strategy, Operations & Physician Enterprise
Kelly Linden
President and CEO
Casa Colina Hospital &
Centers for Healthcares
Michael Lutkus
Senior Principal, Spend Management Sales
Vizient
Harsh Parikh
Partner
Nixon Peabody
Lex Reddy
Principal
Resolved LLC
Ernie Schwefler
Chief Contracting & Managed Care Officer
Keck Medicine of USC
Laurie Sicaeros
President
City of Hope Arizona
Khawar Siddique, MD, MBA
CEO
DOCS Health
DOCS Surgical Hospital
Gregory Siebert
SVP Provider Partnerships
Blue Shield of California
Mike Strilesky
SVP Health System Partnership & Growth
Sound Physicians
Raj Takhar, MHA, MPH
SVP, Chief Strategy & Provider Integration
Huntington Health, a Cedars-Sinai Affiliate
Eric Themm
CEO
Zephyr Healthcare Advisors
Adam Thunell
President & CEO
Redlands Community Hospital
Eric Themm
CEO
Zephyr Healthcare Advisors
Adam Thunell
President & CEO
Redlands Community Hospital
- Looking Forward: Hospital of the Future
- Disrupt or be Disrupted: Taking a Closer Look at Provider Alignment Models
- Looking at Partnerships/Transactions Through a Different Lens: New and Emerging Models
- The State of Healthcare Mergers & Acquisitions
- How to Succeed in Value-Based Arrangements with Payers
- Ambulatory Market Trends, Insights, and Movements
- Population Health: Controlling Your Future with Integrated Care Delivery Practices
- How to Deal with COVID Burnout and Keep Providers Engaged
- Workforce Shortages and Solutions for Retention/Growth
- Optimizing Your Real Estate Portfolio
- The Importance of Post-Acute Care Collaboration
- Reducing Clinical Variation & Related Impacts on Cost & Quality
SPONSORS
GOLD SPONSORS
SILVER SPONSORS
BRONZE SPONSORS
CONTRIBUTING SPONSOR
AGENDA
AGENDA
Tuesday, September 12th
Handel Conference Room
Registration & Networking Breakfast (Continental)
Senior Leadership
Hospitals face unprecedented challenges, with roughly half of the country’s facilities losing money and an increase in bankruptcies and closures. This executive panel will discuss current challenges, key priorities going forward, and insights on the imperative of optimizing the healthcare delivery model for the future.
Panel
Kelly Linden
President & CEO
Casa Colina Hospital &
Centers for Healthcare
Adam Thunell
President & CEO
Redlands
Community Hospital
Laurie Sicaeros
President
City of Hope Arizona
Payer/Provider Partnerships
Historically, hospitals and health plans have tended to have an adversarial relationship. Given industry challenges related to access, effective population health management, workforce shortages, and margins, it is more imperative than ever that payers and providers figure out how to find “win-win” solutions.
Panel
Shawn Forrester
Payer Strategy Executive
Adventist Health
Gregory Siebert
SVP Provider Partnerships
Blue Shield of California
Raj Takhar, MHA, MPH
SVP, Chief Strategy and Provider Integration
Huntington Health, A Cedars-Sinai Affiliate
Break
Legal Trends Reshaping Healthcare: Disruption, Regulation, and Strategies
This session unpacks the legal trends that are defining the current healthcare market, including: the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and reimbursement consequences, Medicaid eligibility updates, expansion of state review of healthcare transactions, and False Claims Act enforcement. Hear what each of these means in practical terms for M&A strategy and provider alignment.
Panel
Patrick Callaghan
Counsel
Nixon Peabody
Harsh Parikh
Partner
Nixon Peabody
Payer/Provider Partnerships
Historically, hospitals and health plans have tended to have an adversarial relationship. Given industry challenges related to access, effective population health management, workforce shortages, and margins, it is more imperative than ever that payers and providers figure out how to find “win-win” solutions.
Panel
Shawn Forrester
Payer Strategy Executive
Adventist Health
Gregory Siebert
SVP Provider Partnerships
Blue Shield of California
Raj Takhar, MHA, MPH
SVP, Chief Strategy and Provider Integration
Huntington Health, A Cedars-Sinai Affiliate
Private Speaker & Sponsor Dinner
Thursday, September 14th
General Sessions in Beethoven 2 Conference Room
Networking Breakfast
Trends and Innovations in Cancer: Best-Practices and Models of Care from Two Industry Leading Organizations
Hear from two leading organizations in Cancer care that are constantly innovating to boost their performance and stay ahead in the competitive landscape. In addition to their regular operational improvements, they are exploring exciting avenues to capitalize on the value generated by pharmaceutical, diagnostic, and medical device companies. This pursuit involves tackling intricate challenges, but it’s a thrilling endeavor that cancer centers are increasingly spearheading, shaping the future of cancer solutions.
Annette Morgan
Chief Administrative Officer
City of Hope Orange County
Chris McKee
SVP, Strategy & Business Development
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Solving the Behavioral Health Crisis: Emerging Partnerships and Delivery Models
The nationwide behavioral health crisis has put a burden on emergency departments, health workers, and systems as one in seven cases seen in US hospital emergency departments (EDs) are becoming stuck ‘boarding’ for long hours, even days, in EDs, untreated, waiting for an elusive inpatient psychiatric bed. Hear from two behavioral health experts who have addressed these challenges and discuss helpful and impactful solutions for hospitals and health systems. One model discussed will be the EmPath unit (Emergency Psychiatric Assessment, Treatment and Healing unit which has stellar peer-reviewed outcomes and can be implemented in any size hospital, whether urban or rural.
Larry Blitz
Chairman
Santa Clara County Behavioral Health Board
Scott Zeller, M.D.
Vice President for Acute Psychiatry
Vituity
Health System Evolution - Direct to Employer Programs
As most health systems struggle financially, post COVID, many are looking for new revenue sources and ways to control their commercial patient flow. Direct to Employer programs provide many competitive advantages and are a natural next step in health system delivery and growth. In this session we will explore all the facets of these exciting new programs.
Larry Thompson
Chief Executive Officer
Benefit Systems Inc.