Meet the Panelists
Rishi Sikka, MD (Moderator)
Venture Partner, Lifeforce Capital / Professor, Brown University School of Public Health
Dr. Rishi Sikka is currently a venture partner at Lifeforce Capital and a Professor of the Practice of Health Services, Policy and Practice at Brown University School of Public Health. Since 2016 he has served on the Board of Directors for Presbyterian Healthcare Services in New Mexico.
From 2017-2021, Rishi was President of System Enterprises at Sutter Health. He had oversight of Sutter’s operations in asset light, non-clinical and health plan lines of business. This included executive leadership over Ambulatory Surgery Centers, Home Health-Hospice-Infusion-DME, Walk-in-Care, Mental Health & Addiction Care, Health Plan Products, Shared Services, Population Health, Pharmacy, Lab, and Facility & Property Services.
Prior, Rishi was at Advocate Health Care (Advocate Aurora Health) for almost 10 years where he served in several senior roles including senior vice president of clinical operations and President of the Advocate Insurance Segregated Portfolio company. He previously held clinical and management positions in emergency medicine at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Illinois, and at Boston University Medical Center, as well as faculty positions at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Medicine and Boston University School of Medicine.
He earned his bachelor’s degree in economics at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and his medical degree from the Mayo Clinic Medical School.
His life outside of work reflects his professional commitment to continuously improve the patient experience. He is co-author of the book, “Leading Healthcare Transformation: A Primer for Clinical Leaders,” and has written for the Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review. He was also recognized in 2021 as a Top 50 Clinical Executive by Modern Healthcare.
James Grana, PhD
VP, Value Based Care Programs, Network Development, and Contracting / BlueCross BlueShield
James Grana has over 30 years of practical health industry experience in value-based care. Given his contracting, innovation, and analytical experience from both the payer and provider sides of health system, he is sought after to provide practical advice regarding effective solutions to improve the quality and costs to deliver desired health outcomes. James has served at Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Walgreens, and Rush Health (a large clinically integrated network in Chicago). His Ph.D. is in Health Policy and Administration from Penn State University.
Ben Ersing is a Principal at Cobalt Ventures where he invests in early-stage founders who are transforming healthcare. Prior to joining Cobalt, he worked on CVS Health’s Enterprise Strategy & Corporate Development team and was part of the team that founded CVS Health Ventures.
Ben began his career at Palladium International, where he worked on strategy, operations and transaction advisory projects across healthcare and technology in the United States and abroad. While there, he also had the privilege of helping to start Palladium’s global Impact Investment fund.