Board of Directors

The Pharos Board of Directors  <  Corporate Profile  <  About Us  <  Home

Randall E. Williams, MD, FACC, Founder and CEO

Dr. Williams is a practicing cardiologist and the founder and chief executive officer of Pharos Innovations. He has 13 years of executive experience developing chronic care monitoring programs. More >

Dr. Williams is a 1987 graduate of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where he graduated with honors. He completed his training in internal medicine at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and subsequently served as chief resident. Dr. Williams took his subspecialty training in cardiology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, specializing in the care of congestive heart failure and cardiac transplantation. In 1994, he was appointed instructor in medicine at Johns Hopkins University and served as a Howard Hughes research fellow under Nobel Laureate Dr. Daniel Nathans. In 1995, Dr. Williams was recruited to Northwestern University in Chicago as assistant professor of medicine to develop a congestive heart failure program at Evanston Northwestern Hospital. He subsequently developed one of the nation’s first and most successful provider programs for disease management and oversaw this program until 2003. During his tenure, he was actively involved in numerous clinical trials and served as principle investigator on several clinical outcomes evaluations of various disease management interventions.

In 1997, Dr. Williams was appointed to the Evanston Northwestern Medical Group Executive Committee, and oversaw the group’s IPA as Chairman of Care Management. In this role, he developed and oversaw the group’s care management department, providing quality and cost control programs for over 80,000 full risk and 40,000 partial risk lives. He is a member of the American College of Cardiology Medical Directors Institute and currently serves on the Disease Management Task Force, which advocates for quality standards and reimbursement methods for chronic coordinated care. He holds an appointment as assistant professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, and has performed research and published extensively on topics related to chronic disease and congestive heart failure outcomes. He is currently practicing cardiology with Midwest Heart Specialists, the largest single specialty cardiology group in Northern Illinois. Additionally, he is the president of The Williams Heart Foundation, an endowed medical research foundation.

Edward McC. Blair, Jr.

Edward McC. Blair, Jr., AB, Stanford University and MBA, Harvard. Mr. Blair joined William Blair & Company, L.L.C., in 1974 as a trader in the Over-the-Counter Trading Department and is currently a senior healthcare banker. More >

Mr. Blair was a director of Research Medical, Inc., until it was sold to Baxter International, Inc., and was a director of Interleukin Genetics until a private company purchased control. He is a General Partner of Crabtree Ventures, LLC, a venture capital company focusing on the application of mathematics to business issues. Mr. Blair is currently on the Board of Trustees for The George M. Pullman Educational Foundation and The University of Chicago Hospitals, where he is head of the Audit Committee. He is also a chairman emeritus of the Chicago Zoological Society (Brookfield Zoo).

Richard C. Bleil

Over the last 17 years, Rick Bleil has held several intra- and entrepreneurial leadership roles in healthcare-related services and technology companies. His internal roles include, General Manager and founder of the WellPoint Pharmacy Management and General Manager of the Cardiac Surgery Systems division of Edwards Lifesciences. He has served as interim President & CEO in two early stage companies, PhysicianNet and QuickHealth. He also served as an executive officer of Medical Manager/WebMD. More >

Prior to his roles in general management in healthcare, Rick Bleil served as a Senior Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company, Inc. with a primary focus on Mergers & Acquisitions in the Aerospace sector. He holds a Masters in Business Administration with Distinction from the Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics and Mathematics from Boston College.

Dennis Drislane

In a career that spanned 24 years, Mr. Drislane held a number of executive positions at Electronic Data Systems, including president of the healthcare strategic business unit. More >

He left EDS in 1997 to join Healtheon as an officer during the start-up phase and went through a successful initial public offering in 1999 following a merger with WebMD. Since leaving WebMD in 2001 to start Cypress Point Communications, his own consulting company, Mr. Drislane has focused on healthcare and technology engagements, primarily with the companies that he is associated with through various board relationships. Mr. Drislane currently serves on seven private company boards, and is an advisor to the board of two other private companies, all in the healthcare and technology fields. Mr. Drislane earned a Master of Science degree in Management Information Systems and a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from California State University, Sacramento. Mr. Drislane lives in Newport Beach with his wife and two daughters.

Edward F.X. Hughes, MD, MPH

Edward F.X. Hughes, MD, MPH, is professor of Health Industry Management and Management and Strategy in the Kellogg School of Management and Professor of Preventive Medicine in The Medical School, Northwestern University. More >

Dr. Hughes is a graduate of Amherst College, Harvard Medical School and Columbia University School of Public Health. He trained originally in general surgery at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in the City of New York. Dr. Hughes is also the originator of Northwestern's joint MD/Masters of Management Degree Program, one of the first programs of its kind in the United States. Dr. Hughes is one of the five co-founders of the Association for Health Services Research, a charter member of its board of directors, and served as its first vice president. He has also served as a member of the board of directors of The Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine. He was the founding Editor of "HMO/PPO Trends," is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of "Medical Interface;" "Health Business Digest;" and Group Health News. He is the Editor of the book, Perspectives on Quality in American Healthcare, published by McGraw-Hill. He was chosen by Faulkner and Gray's Health Information Center as a charter member of "The Healthcare 500," now "The Healthcare 1500," a directory of the most influential Americans in the field of health policy. He was also chosen as a charter member of the "Managed Care 1500."

Dennis Sweeney

Dennis Sweeney was a generalist senior partner at McKinsey & Company, Inc., with recent work focusing in the high tech and electronic commerce sectors. Virtually all his work is at the CEO level and working directly with Boards of Directors. More >

His expertise is in corporate and business unit strategy, shareholder value maximization, CEO and top management team counseling and agenda development, as well as multiple operations and sales functional areas. Mr. Sweeney has done substantial work in the high tech, healthcare and energy industries. He received the Meritorious Service Medal for superior contribution and impact while serving in the United States Army. Some of his accomplishments in the military include Field Artillery Officer Basic School; Airborne School; Ranger School; 1st Battalion, 94th Field Artillery; 1st Armored Division, Furth, Germany – Firing Battery Executive Officer; Nuclear Weapons Officer. Mr. Sweeney received his AB in Economics at Princeton University and his MBA, with distinction, at Harvard Business School.

Dickerson Wright, PE

Dickerson Wright, PE, is founder and CEO of US Laboratories and has served as chairman of the board of directors and president since its incorporation in 1993. Mr. Wright took US Laboratories public through an IPO in 1999. More >

The company traded on the NASDAQ National Exchange under the symbol USLB. The company was sold to Bureau Veritas in September of 2002 and taken private. Mr. Wright is a registered professional engineer with a history of building and managing engineering service companies and has more than 25 years of experience in the independent testing and inspection industry. Prior to founding US Laboratories, Mr. Wright was the co-owner and executive vice president of American Engineering Laboratories and a senior executive with Professional Service Industries. He has also served as president and CEO of Western State Testing, as national group vice president of United States Testing Company, and as executive vice president of Professional Service Industries. Mr. Wright has an undergraduate degree in civil engineering and is a board-certified Professional Engineer licensed in California and Wisconsin.