Improving healthcare—the dynamic, experienced Axial team

Management Team

Joanne Rohde,

CEO, brings 30 years of relevant experience growing companies using disruptive business models. Former COO and Director of Health IT Strategy of Red Hat, Ms. Rohde supervised revenue growth from $100 to $500 million. As CIO of UBS Investment Banking IT, she managed a $1 billion annual budget and 1500 mission-critical systems.

John Casey,

VP Operations and Finance, brings 15 years of experience in Corporate Finance and in the leadership of service and implementation businesses. Mr. Casey is a former Executive Vice President of UBS Investment Banking IT and Vice President of Equity Capital Markets, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corporation. He holds an MBA from Wharton Business School, majoring in Finance with emphasis on Healthcare.

Matt Mattox,

VP Product Development and CTO, formerly led the global ISV group for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and drove partnerships with SAP, IBM, HP and other global software partners. Mr. Mattox led the creation of Red Hat's open source ecosystem initiative, Red Hat Exchange, from concept to revenue. As Director of Product Management at Red Hat, Mr. Mattox was named co-inventor on 13 patent applications related to software. Formerly with MIT, idealab!, and CitySearch, Mr. Mattox holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Robert Mulfinger,

VP Sales, most recently served as Vice President of Sales for Smiths Medical, a leading global provider of medical devices for the hospital, emergency, and specialist environments. Smiths' business comprised over $700M in annual sales in critical care, patient safety, and medical delivery solutions into domestic and international markets. Previously with Siemens Medical for over 9 years, he filled many sales and marketing leadership responsibilities culminating in the role of VP, Sales. Mr. Mulfinger holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from the University of Notre Dame.

Mark Ragusa,

VP Business Development, has over 25 years in technology and has held senior leadership roles in strategic planning, product and corporate marketing, and business development at Nortel, Fujitsu and Sumitomo. He has held key executive positions at start-ups Videoserver (IPO) & Aegis Technologies (sold to New York Life) and has over 15 years of exposure in many standards-setting bodies including the ITU, IETF, ATM forum, DAVIC, DSL Forum, and the IEEE. Mr. Ragusa holds a BS from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and an ME from Western Carolina University.

Advisory Board

Leslie Alexandre,

Dr.P.H., Health Care & Bioscience Strategic Advisor and Adjunct Professor, NCSU College of Management, has served in executive leadership positions in health care and the life sciences for nearly three decades, most recently as President and CEO of the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. Previously, she helped create the Office of Technology and Industrial Relations in the National Cancer Institute where she facilitated collaborations between institute and industry scientists to accelerate cancer treatment research, development and commercialization. After serving in senior health policy positions for two U.S. senators, Dr. Alexandre represented EDS with the White House, Congress and the entire health policy community on issues of strategic importance to the company and its customers.

Karen Evans,

Retired CIO of the Office of Management and Budget, oversaw the implementation of Information Technology throughout the Federal government, including advising the Director on the performance of the approximately $65 billion dollars spent annually on federal IT investments.

Fred Goldwater,

Former Senior Vice President of Operations and Business Development of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina has more than 30 years of executive management experience and an extensive background in information systems, business development, finance, marketing and operations.  Mr. Goldwater earned an MBA from Pace University in New York and an undergraduate degree from Babson College in Massachusetts.

José-Marie Griffiths,

Former Dean of the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was appointed by the President to the United States National Board for a term of six years and has held two previous Presidential appointments, one to the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee and the other to the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science. Dr. Griffiths is the recipient of numerous awards for her contributions to information science and technology for higher education, the development of IT industry in Michigan, and community networking in Tennessee. Dr. Griffiths received a B.Sc. in Physics and a Ph.D. in Information Science from University College in London.

Nadine Rubin,

Managing Partner and Founder of Adam-Bryce, LLC, brings over 30 years of experience growing the leadership teams of high-growth, global enterprises. She is a recognized recruiting expert and understands how technology and business marry to accomplish the end goal across a variety of industries: finance, manufacturing, professional services, and healthcare. With a focus on healthcare for the past five years, Ms. Rubin has established herself as one of a network of leaders who are driving the healthcare industry forward.

Joe Velk,

Principal, Contender Capital has significant experience in early-stage investment and company building. He was previously a partner with The North Carolina Enterprise Fund and Intersouth Partners. Mr. Velk is currently advising several information technology startups that are positioned to become market leaders.

Mark H. Webbink,

Visiting Professor of Law and Executive Director of the Center for Patent Innovations at New York Law School is the former General Counsel, Senior Vice President and Secretary of Red Hat, Inc. During Mr. Webbink's tenure with Red Hat, he developed a number of groundbreaking intellectual property practices, including Red Hat's "Patent Promise" and the legal foundations for Red Hat's subscription model. Mr. Webbink continues to serve Red Hat as special counsel for intellectual property matters.