Featured Speakers*

Dan Bartlett
Former Counselor to the President of the United States

Decision 2008: The Politics of Health Care

Sponsored by Assurant Health
Thursday, June 19
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

As the former counselor to President George W. Bush, Dan Bartlett was responsible for all aspects of strategic communications planning, the formulation of policy, and the implementation of the administration’s agenda. Bartlett speaks from firsthand experience about the current political environment, life in the West Wing, and America’s international relationships.

During his six and half years at the White House, Bartlett oversaw the White House Press Office and the Offices of Communications, Media Affairs, and Speechwriting. He played a key role in developing and executing the President’s domestic and foreign policy agenda. In addition, Bartlett played a lead role in launching a global communications strategy as the United States responded to the attacks on September 11, 2001. Specifically, he worked with the Department of Defense to give journalists unprecedented access to the men and women fighting the war and provided the American people with a unique perspective on the conduct of major military operations.

Since 1993—when he was twenty-two—Bartlett has been a valuable aide to Bush, beginning with his work on both successful gubernatorial campaigns. From 1994 to 1998, he worked in the governor’s office as deputy to the policy director, and during the 1998 re-election campaign, he served as issues director. Following this, Bartlett served as a senior spokesman and the director of rapid response for the Bush for President campaign in Austin, Texas, work that would eventually lead to the White House.

John Breaux
Former United States Senator, Co-Chairman of President’s Tax Reform Commission, and Expert on Social Security, Health Care, and Energy

Health, Humanity, and Politics: Prospects for Reform

Sponsored by Connecture
Thursday, June 19
9:00 am – 10:15 am

Senator John Breaux is a vital voice and force in the American political arena. He led a long and distinguished career in Congress before joining Patton Boggs as senior counsel after retiring from the United States Senate in 2005. He provided strategic advice to Patton Boggs’ attorneys and clients on a wide range of public policy matters, with special concentration in the areas of health care and energy law. His latest venture is co-founding the Breaux-Lott Leadership Group, an all-in-the-family lobbying firm for bipartisan solutions, with former Senator Trent Lott.

Breaux was elected to the House of Representatives in 1972 at the age of 28—at the time of his election he was the youngest member of the United States Congress. He was a widely recognized bipartisan leader in the Senate, and in 1993 was elected by his Democratic colleagues to the post of Deputy Minority Whip, a position he held until his retirement. He also held a number of key Senate committee positions. A senior member of the Finance Committee, Breaux served as the chairman of the Subcommittee on Social Security and Family Policy. He also held positions on two other Finance subcommittees: the Subcommittee on Health Care and the Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight. From his position on the Finance Committee, he played instrumental roles in forging the compromises that led to passage of the welfare reform and health insurance reform bills in 1996. He was also a leader in the efforts to reduce the capital gains tax and to provide tax relief for college education expenses.

While in the Senate, Breaux was a beacon of insight on energy issues. He served as co-chair of the Oil and Gas Caucus and was a conferee on energy legislation that was eventually written into the 2005 Energy Bill. He was active in advancing legislation to promote domestic oil and gas production, and was a co-sponsor of the Marginal Well Preservation Act, a tax incentive program that encouraged oil production from marginal oil wells. He was also a principal author of the Outer Continental Shelf Land Act.

Breaux was a founder of the Centrist Coalition of Senate Democrats and Republicans and served as chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council. In 2005 President George W. Bush appointed Breaux as the co-chair of the President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, while in 2006, he was chosen to be a member of the Advisory Committee on Transformational Diplomacy at the U.S. Department of State. Breaux continues to serve as an effective and aggressive advocate for the state of Louisiana. His mainstream approach to government has earned him praise from conservatives, liberals, and moderates across the nation. As The Shreveport Times observed in a March 1997 editorial: "Breaux has sought to build bridges between Democrats and Republicans and is widely respected on both sides of the aisle."

Clayton M. Christensen
Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School

Diagnosing the Disease: A Disruptive Remedy for Health Care

Friday, June 20
9:00 am – 10:00 am

Clayton M. Christensen is the Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, with a joint appointment in the Technology & Operations Management and General Management faculty groups. His research and teaching interests center on managing innovation and creating new growth markets.

A seasoned entrepreneur, Christensen has founded three successful companies. The first, CPS Corporation, is an advanced materials manufacturing company that he founded in 1984 with several MIT professors. The second, Innosight, is a consulting and training company focused on problems of strategy, innovation, and growth that Christensen founded with several of his former students in 2000. Innosight Capital, the third firm, was launched in 2005. From 1979 to 1984 he worked with the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In 1982 Christensen was named a White House Fellow and served as assistant to U.S. Transportation Secretaries Drew Lewis and Elizabeth Dole.

Christensen became a faculty member at the Harvard Business School in 1992. He is author or co-author of five books: The Innovator’s Dilemma (1997), which received the Global Business Book Award for the best business book published in 1997; The Innovator's Solution (2003), also a New York Times bestseller; and Seeing What’s Next (2004). In addition, he has edited two case books on innovation: Innovation and the General Manager (1999) and Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation, 4th edition (2004). He presently is completing two books that examine the problems of our health care and public education systems through the lenses of his theories. These also will show how the problems in these industries can be resolved.

Christensen's writings have won a number of additional awards, including the Best Dissertation Award from The Institute of Management Sciences; the Production and Operations Management Society's William Abernathy Award for the best paper in the management of technology; the Newcomen Society’s award for the best paper in business history; and the 1995 and 2001 McKinsey Awards for articles published in the Harvard Business Review.

The Honorable William H. Frist, MD
18th Majority Leader, U.S. Senate (2003-2007); U.S. Senator from Tennessee (1995-2007); Heart-Lung Transplant Surgeon; “Citizen Legislator”

Health, Humanity, and Politics: Prospects for Reform

Sponsored by Connecture
Thursday, June 19
9:00 am – 10:15 am

Bill Frist was raised with a passion for helping people. His earliest memories are of his father leaving the dinner table—with his black doctor's bag in hand—to make his nightly rounds at the hospital. This sense of service has been the driving force in Frist's life.

After graduating from Princeton in 1974, he pursued a medical degree at Harvard Medical School. He graduated from Harvard with honors in 1978 and spent the next six years in surgical training at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and Southampton General Hospital in England. In 1985, Frist accepted the position of senior fellow and chief resident at the Stanford University School of Medicine. There he learned about heart transplantation from the field's leading pioneer, Norman Shumway.

After completing his surgical residency, Frist decided to take his expertise back to his hometown of Nashville. In 1986, he became director of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center's heart and lung transplantation program. He also joined Vanderbilt's faculty and the Nashville Veterans Administration Hospital as a staff surgeon.

During his twenty years in medicine, Frist performed over 150 heart and lung transplant procedures—including the first lung transplant, the first pediatric heart transplant, and the first combined heart-lung transplant in the Southeast. He also wrote over 100 articles, chapters, and abstracts on medical research and co-wrote Grand Rounds in Transplantation with a fellow physician—J. Harold Helderman.

Frist had risen to the top of the medical profession at a remarkably young age. But Frist believed he could do even more for medicine, for patients and, eventually, for the people of Tennessee and the United States of America.

In 1989, Frist wrote and published Transplant: A Heart Surgeon's Account of the Life-and-Death Dramas of the New Medicine. His goal was to dispel myths about transplantation and encourage people to become organ donors. He lectured nationally on the subject and led a successful campaign to return the organ donor card to the back of the Tennessee driver's license.

After defeating five opponents in a hard-fought primary, Frist faced a popular three-term senator who was also in line to become the next Democratic majority leader. The campaign unfolded as a battle between a career politician and a populist outsider. Frist won by a resounding thirteen points and became the first practicing physician elected to the Senate since 1928.

As a United States Senator, Frist emerged as one of the leading voices on health issues in America today. He fought hard to strengthen Medicare, provide seniors with better access to prescription drugs, and make health care more affordable and available to every American. Frist's expertise in infectious diseases also enabled him to take on one of the greatest threats to the health and security of our nation—bioterrorism. During the October 2001 anthrax attacks, the national spotlight shined on Frist as the calming voice to a frightened country. He quickly worked to pass landmark legislation to bolster America's defenses against bioterrorism. He then wrote his fourth book—When Every Moment Counts—to help families prepare for future attacks.

As a member of the Senate Foreign Relations committee and former ranking member of the African Affairs subcommittee, Frist championed increasing funding for global HIV/AIDS. He has also proposed legislation that would create the first federal framework for the care, treatment, and prevention of HIV/AIDS around the world. As he did with bioterrorism, Frist has taken the fight against global HIV/AIDS beyond the Senate chamber. At least once a year, he travels to sub-Saharan Africa to see the devastation caused by HIV/AIDS, and to operate on and care for those afflicted with the deadly disease and other illnesses.

The Senator's colleagues also chose him to serve in several leadership positions. In 1999, he had the honor of serving as deputy whip. One year later he took the reins of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), which is charged with helping elect Republican candidates to the United States Senate. Under Senator Frist's leadership at the NRSC, the Republican Party regained control of the Senate majority. Weeks after regaining control of the Senate, Senator Frist was chosen by his colleagues to fill the position of Senate majority Leader, which he did for four years until his retirement.

Atul Gawande, MD, MPH
Surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital; a New Yorker staff writer; and Author of Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance

Modernizing the Delivery System to Achieve 21st Century Value

Friday, June 20
10:45 am – 11:30 am

Atul Gawande is a staff member at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He is also an assistant professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health. From 1992 to 1993, he served as a senior health policy advisor in the Clinton Administration. He has also been, since 1998, a staff writer on science and medicine for The New Yorker magazine.

Gawande’s book, Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance, uses the high stakes challenges that he faces as a surgeon to explore the universal struggle to perform well. Through gripping stories of diligence, ingenuity, and what it means to do right, he gives us an inside look at the life of a practicing surgeon and offers unique insights into what it takes to succeed in any area of human endeavor. Gawande’s previous book, Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science, was chosen as a finalist for the National Book Award in 2002, and has been published in sixteen languages and more than eighty countries. Gawande is a Rhodes Scholar.

Marshall Goldsmith, PhD
Bestselling Author and World-Renowned Thought Leader in Leadership Development, Coaching, and Human Resources

Executive Roundtable
What Got You Here Won't Get You There: Helping Successful Leaders Get Even Better

Wednesday, June 18
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Marshall Goldsmith is a world authority in helping successful leaders get even better—by achieving positive, lasting change in behavior: for themselves, their people, and their teams.

The American Management Association has named Goldsmith as one of 50 great thinkers and business leaders who have influenced the field of management over the past 80 years, and BusinessWeek has recently listed him as one of the most influential thinkers in the history of leadership development. His work has been highlighted in a New Yorker profile, Forbes feature story, Harvard Business Review interview and a Business Strategy Review cover story (from the London Business School).

Goldsmith is one of the few consultants who have been asked to work with over 80 major CEOs and their management teams. He conducts workshops for executives, high-potential leaders, and human resource professionals. He is on the faculty of the executive education program at Dartmouth University's Tuck School of Business—and has been asked to speak at many top business schools. He is co-founder of Marshall Goldsmith Partners—a network of top executive coaches that was recently ranked in Leadership Excellence as one of America's premier leadership development firms.

Goldsmith’s 22 books include: The Leader of the Future (a BusinessWeek bestseller which has been translated into 28 languages) and Coaching for Leadership. The Organization of the Future is a Library Journal "Best Business Book" award winner and The Leadership Investment won a Choice award as an "Outstanding Academic Business Book." His newest book is What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful. Amazon.com has ranked seven of his books as "most popular" in their field. Harvard Business School has chosen six of his books to be on their list of Working Knowledge recommended books.

Sheilah Kast
Reporter and Anchor of public television, ABC News, and CNN

Moderator

Sheilah Kast is well known as a reporter and anchor to viewers of public television, ABC News, and CNN. A skilled interviewer, she hosts Inside E Street, produced by AARP, as well as her own daily public-affairs show on the public-radio affiliate in Maryland. On Inside E Street, which airs on the Retirement Living cable TV channel, Kast interviews Washington newsmakers about issues important to those over 50.

Kast’s reporting for ABC News ranged from the White House to Congress to the historic 1991 coup attempt in Moscow, which signaled the end of the Soviet Empire. She covered the Washington aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks for CNN. Her stories included the investigation of anthrax in the mail and struggles of bereaved Pentagon families to secure benefits.

Through most of her reporting career, she focused on the economy and workplace, and how they affect people’s everyday lives. At The Washington Star, her first reporting job, Kast covered financial regulation, taxes and energy. She carried that expertise in financial reporting to ABC News.

Even in covering the White House during the Reagan administration, her approach was to trace the impact of big decisions on everyday life. The White House assignment also included covering Mr. Reagan’s domestic and overseas travels, including his historic summit meetings with Soviet Leader Gorbachev. In August 1991, Kast was the first ABC News correspondent on the air from Moscow with news of the attempted coup. At National Public Radio, Kast regularly hosted NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday, a two-hour magazine show aired nationally.

 

Steven D. Levitt
Author, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything; and the Alvin H. Baum Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago

The Freakonomics of Health Care

Sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Friday, June 20
12:30 pm – 2:00 pm
Moscone West, 2nd Floor, Room 2001

Steven D. Levitt is the author of the 2005 nonfiction hit, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. In the book,Levitt challenges the paradigm by reviewing data in an unusual way to reveal facets of issues that would otherwise remain obscure. Levitt believes that economics is, at its root, the study of incentives—how people can get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. If the right questions are asked—the world is even more intriguing than we think. Hailed by critics and readers alike, it has gone on to spend more than three years and counting on The New York Times bestseller list, having sold more than 3 million copies around the world, in more than 30 languages. He is currently working on another book, tentatively titled Superfreakonomics.

The Wall Street Journal has said “If Indiana Jones were an economist, he'd be Steven Levitt,” he has shown other economists just how well their tools can make sense of the real world.

Levitt is the Alvin H. Baum Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, where he is also director of The Becker Center on Chicago Price Theory. In 2004, he was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal, which recognizes the most influential economist in America under the age of 40. More recently, he was named one of Time magazine's "100 People Who Shape Our World." Levitt received his BA from Harvard University in 1989, his PhD from M.I.T. in 1994, and has taught at Chicago since 1997.

 

Terry McAuliffe
Former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Chairman of Hillary Clinton for President

Decision 2008: The Politics of Health Care

Sponsored by Assurant Health
Thursday, June 19
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Terry McAuliffe served as Chairman of the Democratic National committee (DNC) from February 2001-February 2005. He is widely credited with rebuilding, reenergizing, and revitalizing the Party, using new state-of-the-art technology to connect grassroots activists with the Party’s new information infrastructure.

McAuliffe has been active in national politics for 25 years. He began his career with the Carter-Mondale re-election committee. He then served as finance director of the DNC and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, national finance chairman of the Gephardt for President Committee, national finance chairman, and then national co-chairman of the Clinton-Gore re-election committee. He also served as the chairman of the 53rd Presidential Inaugural Committee and as chairman of the White House Millennium Celebration. In 2000, McAuliffe chaired the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles—the convention that helped give the Democratic ticket a 20-point bounce in the polls, on its way to a popular vote victory in the fall. He was appointed by President Clinton as ambassador and commissioner general of the Korean International Exposition. He is a board member for the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Foundation. He is currently serving as the chairman of Hillary Clinton for President.

McAuliffe’s New York Times and Washington Post bestselling first book, titled What a Party!: My Life Among Democrats: Presidents, Candidates, Donors, Activists, Alligators and Other Wild Animals was released in January 2007 to rave reviews from critics and insiders across the board.

James C. Robinson, PhD, MPH
Kaiser Permanente Professor of Health Economics at the University of California at Berkeley; Chair of the Medical Technology Committee of the Integrated Healthcare Association; and Contributing Editor to Health Affairs

Value-based Purchasing of New Medical Technologies

Thursday, June 19
10:15 am – 11:00 am

James Robinson is the Kaiser Permanente Professor of Health Economics at the University of California at Berkeley, chair of the Medical Technology Committee of the Integrated Healthcare Association, and contributing editor to Health Affairs journal.
 
At Berkeley, Robinson teaches health policy, economics, and finance, focusing on the hospital, insurance, biotechnology, and medical device sectors. His research centers on health care markets, insurance, and innovation. Robinson has published two books and over 85 papers in scientific and policy journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and Health Affairs.  
 
At Health Affairs, Robinson is Contributing Editor, with a focus on expanding the journal’s coverage of policy, payment, and business strategy issues related to health care technology.  Health Affairs is the nation’s leading health policy journal, with over 16 million annual articles downloads from the website and a recognized source of peer-reviewed publications covering domestic and global health issues.

At the Integrated Healthcare Association (IHA), Robinson is a member of the Board of Directors and chairs the Medical Technology Committee. He leads the IHA’s project on value-based purchasing for medical devices in orthopedics and cardiology. The IHA is a multi-stakeholder organization that brings together major health insurance plans, physician group practices, and hospital systems with a focus on improving the quality and efficiency of care in California.

Tommy G. Thompson
Secretary of Health and Human Services (2001-2005); Governor, Wisconsin (1987-2001); Senior Advisor and Founding Chairman, Deloitte Center for Health Solutions; Partner, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

Health, Humanity, and Politics: Prospects for Reform

Sponsored by Connecture
Thursday, June 19
9:00 am – 10:15 am

Tommy G. Thompson, the former Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary and four-term governor of Wisconsin, is Senior Advisor and Founding Chairman of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions and a partner at the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP.

At the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld., Secretary Thompson is building on his efforts as HHS secretary and governor to develop innovative solutions to the health care challenges facing American families, businesses, communities, states, and the nation. These efforts focus on improving the use of information technology in hospitals, clinics, and doctors' offices; promoting healthier lifestyles; strengthening and modernizing Medicare and Medicaid; and expanding the use of medical diplomacy around the world.

Secretary Thompson served as HHS secretary from 2001 to 2005 and is one of the nation's leading advocates for the health and welfare of all Americans. Secretary Thompson has dedicated his professional life to public service and served as governor of Wisconsin from 1987 to 2001. He made state history when he was re-elected to office for a third term in 1994 and a fourth term in 1998.

At HHS, Secretary Thompson led the Administration’s efforts to pass and implement a new Medicare law that is for the first time providing a drug benefit to America’s seniors. Secretary Thompson also reinvigorated the nation’s public health infrastructure by providing states and communities with the resources they need to respond to terrorist attacks or any other public health emergency. He also started a national crusade to encourage people, businesses, and communities to lead healthier lifestyles by eating healthier, exercising more, and quitting smoking. And, as chairman of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Secretary Thompson led the United States’ efforts to stem the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa, the Caribbean, and elsewhere.

During his 14 years as governor, Secretary Thompson focused on revitalizing Wisconsin's economy. He also gained national attention for his leadership on welfare reform, expanded access to health care for low-income people, and education.

Secretary Thompson began his career in public service in 1966 as a representative in Wisconsin's State Assembly. He was elected assistant Assembly minority leader in 1973 and Assembly minority leader in 1981. Secretary Thompson has received numerous awards for his public service, including the Anti-Defamation League's Distinguished Public Service Award. In 1997, Secretary Thompson received Governing Magazine's Public Official of the Year Award, and the Horatio Alger Award in 1998. He has also served as chairman of the National Governors' Association, the Education Commission of the States, and the Midwestern Governors' Conference. Secretary Thompson also served in the Wisconsin National Guard and the Army Reserve.

 

* Subject to change

General Sessions Sponsor: