HIUG Members,

It is with a great deal of excitement, mixed with more than a little nervousness, that I begin my new responsibilities as the HIUG President. I feel extremely honored to have been selected by the HIUG Board for this position and look forward to serving you all in the coming year.

I would like to begin my first communication as President with a heartfelt "Thank You!" to Chris Ryzewski who has represented us as our President, since stepping in to take on the role in November, 2010. Chris – your dedication to the Healthcare Industry User Group and leadership over the past 2 years has been greatly appreciated by us all. Chris's knowledge and experience will continue to serve us well as he begins his new role on the HIUG Board as Current Past-President and Membership Chair.

The HIUG Board met in Orlando, Florida following Interact 2012, to review our past year's accomplishments and to discuss our goals and strategies for the coming year. Board elections also occurred during this time and I am very pleased to announce our new Slate of Officers, our returning Pillar Chairs and to welcome two new members to the HIUG Board of Directors!

New Slate of Officers includes:

• Current Past-President – Chris Ryzewski, Northwestern Memorial Healthcare Corp.
• Vice-President – Deb Hetrick, Ohio Health (Past Supply Chain Pillar Chair)
• Treasurer/Secretary – Bernadette Dorris, Erlanger Health System
• Event Chair – Trudy Melzer, UPMC
• Membership Chair - Chris Ryzewski, Northwestern Memorial Healthcare Corp.
• Communication Chair – TBD

Returning Liaison Board Members include:

• Executive Liaison – Chuck Watson, UPMC
• Oracle Liaison – Mary Kilmer, Oracle

Returning Pillar Chairs include:

• HCM – Kevin Barnes, Main Line Health Inc.
• Tools & Technology – Ravi Inaganti, Main Line Health Inc.
• Financials – Karen Wells, Ohio Health
• CRM – Markus Gidlund, Health Care Services Corp.

The new SCM Co-Pillar Chairs replacing Deb Hetrick who was recently elected as the HIUG Vice-President include:

• SCM - Kimberly Madden, UPMC – Kim has been involved in project management, supply chain process improvement and systems implementation in the healthcare, software and consulting services sectors for the last 13 years. She is currently a Senior Process Consultant at UPMC. In this role, she manages complex, cross-organizational projects, such as implementing PeopleSoft and UPMC business processes for new hospitals and business units, deploying customized software applications and leading other large scale, process-related change management initiatives.
• SCM – Wendy Plante, NYU Langone Medical Center - Wendy is the Director of Finance Enterprise Solutions at NYU Langone Medical Center. In this role, she is responsible for three different areas within Finance - the Finance Service Center, Finance Training & Development and Enterprise Business Processes. Given the cross-functional nature of the areas she oversees, Wendy is involved in all aspects of ERP-related implementations, enhancements and business process development and refinement. She provides guidance and direction to key decision-makers in the organization, insight into best practice, enables the utilization of lean six sigma principles, identifies dependencies and forecasts potential outcomes based on design decisions.

As your Board, we are here to serve you, our members, and to help ensure that the HIUG as an organization continues its excellent history in the areas of membership networking, positive Oracle and 3rd part vendor partnerships, and delivery of the best annual Healthcare Industry conference available. To achieve this year over year requires more than an active and dedicated Board of Directors – it requires the engagement of all of our membership. HIUG Online provides us all with a unique framework in which to interact with our fellow members, to raise awareness of product specific issues, to share positive experiences, and to seek assistance from those that may be able to help. Make the most of your HIUG membership by taking advantage of the opportunities available through HIUG Online and Interact, and be sure to continue sharing your comments and suggestions on how HIUG can continue to improve with the HIUG Board. Stay tuned for future communications on upcoming events, HIUG Board initiatives, feedback from Interact 2012 and plans for Interact 2013.

We're excited about the future of the HIUG and the Healthcare Industry as a whole, and I look forward to working with you all during the coming year.

Joy McIntosh
HIUG President