Opala leverages deep healthcare experience to foster collaborative relationships among health plans and health care providers.
With headquarters in Seattle, Opala was created by health plan and provider stakeholders to turn data into efficiencies and insights.

Opala's mission is to collect, standardize, and consolidate healthcare data to build a complete picture of patient health.

Opala's vision is to be the most trusted source of patient insights, radically improving healthcare.
Click here to learn more about Opala.
By the numbers:
7.8M+
patients on our platform
111,136
providers & pharmacies in our directories
7 years
of healthcare data
Ken Chandler

Ken Chandler

Chief Executive Officer

Ken Chandler is a strategic healthcare leader with over 20 years of experience in health care operations. Prior to Opala, Ken was with Premera Blue Cross, most recently serving as senior vice president of National Accounts. In that role, he was responsible for an $8.9 billion business portfolio representing Premera’s largest, high profile, complex, and sophisticated employer clients. During this time, Chandler also served as Chairman of the Consortium of Health Plans Board of Directors and drove product solutions aimed at improving access to care and health innovations. He also served in a secondary role as CEO of Vivacity, a Premera-owned wellness company. Earlier in his career at Premera, Chandler served as vice president of National Account Operations and vice president of Operations for LifeWise Health Plan of Oregon, a Premera-owned company.

Shahryar Qadri

Shahryar Qadri

Chief Technology Officer

Shahryar Qadri is an entrepreneurial leader who brings more than 18 years of experience in healthcare information technology. Prior to Opala, Shahryar was the Chief Technology Officer at RxSavings Solutions, where he led the engineering organization to create technology that helps over 8 million members save money on their prescriptions. Shahryar also spent more than a decade at Cerner Corporation, where he held a variety of leadership roles in data warehousing, business intelligence and population health. Shahryar was the technology leader responsible for the creation of Cerner’s Third-Party Administrator (TPA) business and developed innovations in real-time claim adjudication, real-time eligibility check, on-site health clinics and wellness programs. Shahryar has a BS from Creighton University in Computer Science.

Stacey Trees

Stacey Kinkead

Chief Product Officer

Stacey Kinkead is an accomplished tech product executive with a successful track record spanning over 25 years in diverse environments, ranging from early-stage startups to rapid growth organizations. With expertise in both consumer and healthcare tech sectors, Stacey has consistently excelled in building products that resonate with customers while establishing robust data platforms to drive innovation.Stacey's journey in the tech industry traces back to her early involvement with Amazon, where she made contributions to pioneering initiatives such as AWS and personalization products during the formative years of the company. She has experience taking companies public, leading, and founding startups, navigating acquisitions and mergers, and achieving successful exits through the sale of multiple ventures. Before joining Opala, Stacey served as the Executive Vice President of Product at Olive AI. Her tenure has included leadership roles in various healthcare tech startups, where she brought a strong focus on product discipline and operational excellence to drive product-market fit, growth, and scalability. Throughout her career, Stacey has been instrumental in building dynamic, customer-centric teams that deliver exceptional results and foster a culture of continuous improvement. Her strategic approach has consistently driven high-profit growth and propelled the success of the organizations she has been a part of. Stacey holds a degree in Russian Language and Literature from Augsburg College and theGornyii Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia. Her multifaceted background, coupled with her extensive experience in the tech industry, positions her as a formidable leader in driving innovation and shaping the future of healthcare technology.

Meghan Quint

Meghan Quint, PhD

VP of Solutions and Customer Success

Dr. Meghan Quint is a multi-functional leader with a diverse background in strategy, data and analytics, and innovation. She led several strategic partnerships with Silicon Valley startups to accelerate digital transformation and healthcare innovation at Premera Blue Cross and has held research and instructor positions at various universities with expertise in organizational effectiveness, leadership decision making, corporate culture, and change management. She is a master at translating and solving business needs through efficient and automated technical solutions, especially in the healthcare industry. She has a PhD and MA in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Seattle Pacific University and a BA in Business Administration and BS in Psychology from the University of Washington (Seattle). She is a champion for women at work and is passionate about leveraging data and technology to improve the US healthcare system.

ScottRoss

Scott Ross

VP of Engineering

Scott Ross is a dynamic leader in the health space, with over 17 years of experience in engineering, product, and platform architecture. Prior to Opala, he was the Director of Product at Teledoc Health, where he owned the roadmap of the Hospital and Health System division's next generation virtual health platform and its alignment to key company business objectives. His background is rounded out with contributions to front-end experience and dev-ops within Citrix's (now GoTo) GotoMeeting, GoToTraining and GoToWebinar products and as a founding member at startup Keltronix, where he applied a healthcare approach to ag-tech by enabling beekeepers to monitor hive health using patented edge-network video analytics. He holds numerous patents in healthcare and telecomm along with a BS from UC Santa Barbara in Computer Engineering.

J Erickson Headshot

Jay Erickson

VP of Sales

Jay Erickson is a seasoned growth executive with over 20 years of experience in sales, business development, marketing, and go-to-market strategy. Specializing in the healthcare technology sector, Jay has successfully led high-performing sales teams and driven strategic initiatives across value-based care, physician groups, ACOs, FQHCs, hospitals, and health systems. His expertise is scaling start-up sales organizations, driving sustained revenue growth, and penetrating new markets. Throughout his career, Jay has held executive positions at various leading healthcare technology startups, including his latest role at Inbox Health, showcasing his extensive industry experience. Jay is known for his strategic approach, exceptional team leadership, and passion for helping healthcare organizations solve challenges through innovative technology solutions. His dedication to fostering forward-thinking outcomes and building lasting relationships has made him a standout leader in the industry.

Jessica Owens

Jessica Owens

Director of Talent Acquisition

Jessica Owens has over 20 years of Talent Acquisition experience building high performance teams and products. Jessica launched her career in the IT consulting industry where she supported clients, such as IBM, Mayo Clinic, and Wells Fargo for 10 years. Next, she transitioned to internal roles growing Fortune 500 and startups alike, including Starbucks and Bungie. At Bungie, Jessica grew the studio from 128 to 600+ employees and launched two major products during her tenure. Most recently, she spent 5 years scaling Facebook’s Oculus AR/VR team both domestically and internationally with responsibilities across Recruiting, Research, Development and Product. As an advocate for diversity, Jessica is passionate about building a culture of equity and inclusion.

Kent Marquardt

Kent Marquardt

Chairman

Kent Marquardt has over 30 years of healthcare experience with a track record of helping entrepreneurs create significant and successful enterprises. Kent joined Cardinal Partners as an advisor in 2017 and since October 2018 has served as a General Partner of the firm. Utilizing his over 30 years of healthcare and investment expertise, Kent’s investment focus at Cardinal is in AI and machine learning companies and technology-enabled services to drive next generation of member experience and engagement. Kent currently serves on the Board of Directors of Prealize, a Cardinal portfolio company and Brook. He is also a strategic advisor to VIM and Tuzag.

Prior to joining Cardinal Partners, Kent was EVP and CFO of Premera Blue Cross for 19 years, where he led Innovation and Strategic Investments. He drove early development and Premera investments in the several companies, including Landmark, Mobe, Prealize, and VIM. While at Premera, he led the development of the Blue CFO group and developed key relationships with a number of Blue plans, including Florida Blue, North Carolina, South Carolina, Highmark, IBC, Nebraska, Arizona, Tennessee, and Michigan.

Most recently, Kent has been CEO of Maverick Advisors, LLC, since July 2017. Maverick Advisors specializes in innovation and strategy with early stage companies and focuses on companies using advanced analytics and customer engagement to reduce healthcare inefficiencies. Kent has worked with a number of early stage companies to develop and refine their strategy and transition to a viable product offering. One example of this is his work with VIM to shift their focus to be an innovative referral management and curator of specialists, along with the connector of the last mile of healthcare services to the member, health plans, and providers.

Kent is also the managing partner of Balboa Winery and Stoney Vine Vineyard. Kent received his BBA degree in accounting from University of Wisconsin (Whitewater) and MBA from University of Wisconsin (Madison).

Thomas G McKinley

Thomas McKinley

Tom McKinley has over 35 years of venture capital investment experience with a successful track record of helping entrepreneurs create significant and successful enterprises. Tom joined Cardinal Partners as an advisor in 2008, and since January 2009 has served as General Partner. Utilizing his over 35 years of technology investment expertise, Tom’s investment focus at Cardinal is in healthcare information technology, technology-enabled services, AI, ML, and blockchain in healthcare. Most recently, Tom has been the founding CEO and chairman of Prealize Health, a project in conjunction with Professors Arnold Milstein and Nigam Shah at Stanford University. Tom led the firm’s investment in 2009 in virtual care company, Teladoc Health (NYSE: TDOC), a telehealth services provider of doctor consults to consumers. At Opala, a data automation partner that makes payer-provider collaboration easier and more reliable, Tom was the founding CEO and helped form a founding team in partnership with Premera Blue Cross.

As an alumnus, Tom maintains close ties with Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, as well as Harvard University, where he serves as class secretary and started the Harvard College i3 Innovation Challenge, an undergraduate startup competition. Tom received his AB degree in Economics from Harvard University, MS in Accounting from the Stern School of Business at New York University, and MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Julia Adler-Milstein

Julia Adler-Milstein, PhD

Dr. Julia Adler-Milstein is a Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for Clinical Informatics and Improvement Research. She is a leading researcher in health IT policy with a specific focus on electronic health records and interoperability. She has examined policies and organizational strategies that enable effective use of electronic health records and promote interoperability. She is also an expert in EHR audit log data and its application to studying clinician behavior. Her research identifies obstacles to progress and ways to overcome them and is used by researchers, health systems, and policymakers.

Julia has published over 100 influential papers, has testified before the US Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, has been named one of the top 10 influential women in health IT, and has won numerous awards, including the New Investigator Award from the American Medical Informatics Association and the Alice S. Hersh New Investigator Award from AcademyHealth. She has served on an array of influential committees and boards, including the NHS National Advisory Group on Health Information Technology, the Health Care Advisory Board for Politico, and the Interoperability Committee of the National Quality Forum. Her private sector experience includes advising numerous health IT companies and time as a consultant at Accenture.

Julia holds a PhD in Health Policy from Harvard and spent six years on the faculty at University of Michigan prior to joining the University of California San Francisco as a Professor in the Department of Medicine and the inaugural director of the Center for Clinical Informatics and Improvement Research.

John Wray

John Wray

John Wray is a global healthcare executive and corporate officer with over 25 years of leadership experience in the healthcare industry. John served as the Senior Vice President of Delivery System Collaboration at CIGNA for 9 years, where he was responsible for network contracting and establishing collaborative relationships with health care providers in domestic and international markets, including joint ventures. John also spent 14 years as Senior Vice President of Managed Care at CommonSpirit Health, a healthcare delivery system with 43 hospitals across the US. John has a J.D. and BA in Political Science and Sociology from Indiana University.

Advisors

Molly Coye, MD

Executive in Residence at AVIA and Board Member at Amedisys, Ginger, and ConsejoSano

Douglas Fridsma, MD, PhD

Board Member at IHTSDO, past President and CEO at American Medical Informatics Association and past Chief Science Officer at U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Doug Ghertner

CEO at IVX Health, Board Member at ClarisHealth and XSOLIS, former President at Change Healthcare, and former SVP of Client Solutions at CVS Health

Joe Mello

CEO at First Light Advisors, Board Member at Radiology Partners, and former COO at DaVita Medical Group

Lee Sacks, MD

Past EVP and Chief Medical Officer at Advocate Health Care

Nigam Shah, MBBS, PhD

Professor of Medicine (Biomedical Informatics) at Stanford University, Associate CIO for Data Science at Stanford Health Care

Mark Smith, MD

Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCSF; Board Member at Teladoc Health, Phreesia, and Jazz Pharmaceuticals, former CEO of the California HealthCare Foundation

John Clarke

Co-founder and Managing Partner at Cardinal Partners, Board Director for Abide Therapeutics, aTyr Pharma, Ivenix, Vividion Therapeutics, and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals.

Colt Courtright

Chief Data & Analytics Officer at Premera Blue Cross

Richard Cooper

Past CEO and Market President of the Everett Clinic