With more than 20 years dedicated exclusively to healthcare, organizations nationwide rely on Strategy Advantage. We bring what Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Chief Strategy Officers (CSOs) need today – strategic thinking and the people and tools for execution. Strategy Advantage has the insight and experience to ensure your strategies and ideas move your organization forward. And we apply this foundation to create a tangible trajectory for your goals — and motivate everyone in your organization along the same actionable path to success.

• We are a healthcare strategy company … committed to helping clients turn strategies and ideas into action.

• We are a production studio for strategy … with a team of people who understand the dynamics re-shaping the healthcare world, and who believe in the many possibilities and potentials for healthcare leaders to embrace a bold and exciting vision for the future.

• We are a healthcare ideas source … that starts every planning engagement with an infusion of out-of-the-box and out-of-the-industry ideas. Also, we are the company behind the ZigZag Healthcare Ideas mart, an online hub for new ideas and disruptive innovations in healthcare.

• We are a boutique healthcare consultancy for healthcare executives … working with Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), Chief Strategy Officers (CSOs), physicians, providers, and other leaders in health system organizations. We especially like working with leaders who are interested in, curious about, and committed to making change happen in healthcare.

We are healthcare business strategy specialists.

The team at Strategy Advantage thrives at the intersection of what is possible and what is plausible. With decades of healthcare industry experience — both within health systems and as strategy consultants to healthcare executives — we are healthcare business strategy specialists. We understand how to balance between ideas and execution, and we apply our expertise to help future-focused organizations drive growth in healthcare. Commitment to guiding clients through every step of the journey – from strategy conception to completion – is at the heart of Strategy Advantage’s action-driven work. We are healthcare visionaries who see and believe in the potential for tomorrow’s opportunities — and we have the technical experience and cross-over charisma to work side-by-side with C-Suite leaders, physicians, and others to accelerate strategy, bring fresh and savvy ideas to life, and drive execution toward results.

Kim Athmann King, MBA, FACHE, Founder and President

Kim Athmann King, MBA, FACHE is Founder and President of Strategy Advantage. A strategy expert who is finishing a professional certification in innovation at Stanford University, Ms. King was a strategy and business development executive at Saint Agnes Medical Center and Cedars-Sinai Health System (both in California) for 12 years before starting her company in 2002. She joined Kaufman Hall as a Senior Vice President / Strategy Services in 2007. In 2010, she re-started Strategy Advantage and has grown it to include a team of 12 partners and directors, and spanning 3 complimentary product lines including ZIGZAG Healthcare and X-CO Healthcare Leadership. Ms. King is active in ACHE; she is currently serving as a member of ACHE’s national Nominating Committee and chair of ACHE’s national Chapters Committee. She was also the 2011 and 2012 President of ACHE’s Southern California chapter, has been a Chapter board member for more than five years, and was the Regent-Southern California of ACHE from 2013 to 2014. In addition, Ms. King is an active member of the Forum for Healthcare Strategists, the AHA’s Society for Healthcare Strategy & Market Development (SHSMD), the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA), Women in Healthcare Administration (WHA), and she presents nationally and locally for these organizations as well as for MHA / MPH programs at UCLA, USC, and other universities.

Thomas D. Gordon, Senior Expert Partner

Tom Gordon is one of the nation’s most highly regarded experts physician/provider medical networks. More than 25 years ago, in 1988, Tom Gordon began his medical management career as a consultant to the Medical Group of Beverly Hills. Within a year, he became the group’s Chief Executive Officer. Five years later, in 1993, Tom oversaw the medical group’s merger into the Cedars-Sinai Health System. Directly following this merger, from 1993-2015, Tom began his multiple decades-long career simultaneously serving as Senior Vice President of Cedars-Sinai Health System and Chief Executive Officer of Cedars-Sinai Medical Network Services. In this role, he oversaw the organization’s Medical Network of primary care and specialist physicians, a management services organization that handles the administrative functions of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Care Foundation, Cedars-Sinai Medical Group, Cedars-Sinai Health Associates (IPA), Cedars-Sinai Inpatient Specialty Practices, California Heart Center, Tower Hematology Oncology, Los Angeles Cardiology Associates, The Angeles Clinic and Research Institute, Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Center, Santa Monica Orthopedic Group, and Valley Internal Medicine. Under Tom’s leadership, the Medical Network achieved great success, growing to more than 800 physicians, providers and specialists, serving more than 150,000 fee-for-service and managed care patients, adding dozens of important strategic affiliations, employing approximately 1,000 staff members and covering a wide geographic region. In Fall 2015, Mr. Gordon announced his retirement from Cedars-Sinai and joined the Strategy Advantage team. Mr. Gordon received his bachelor’s degree in economics from UCLA, later pursing graduate studies in business administration. Before entering the healthcare arena, Mr. Gordon founded a graphics company and a management and marketing consulting firm. He serves on a variety of boards including those of the California Association of Physician Groups, the Wilshire Foundation, the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce and LivHome, Inc. Mr. Gordon is a preceptor and guest lecturer at UCLA’s Anderson School of Business and Fielding School of Public Health while also being a keynote speaker locally and nationally for a variety of leadership conferences and retreats.

Leah J. Vriesman, PHD, MHA, MBA, Senior Expert Partner

Dr. Leah Vriesman is a breakthrough strategy thinker and an expert on healthcare innovation and transforming healthcare delivery systems. As an Associate Professor, and the Director of Executive Programs in Health Policy & Management in UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health, Dr. Vriesman teaches Strategic Management of Health Service Organizations, International Comparative Health Systems, and speaks often on health technology innovation. Additionally, she is a visiting professor at the University of Colorado Denver and is active in Corporate Education for the UCLA Anderson School Management, Duke Corporate Education programs and ExperiencePoint simulations. She specializes in leadership development for hospital, health system, and medical group organizations and, as well, for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. In Summer 2016, Dr. Vriesman joined the Strategy Advantage team. Dr. Vriesman is a 2010-2011 U.S. Fulbright grant recipient and German Scholar Exchange award winner. She travels frequently to give keynotes for international audiences (East Africa, Asia, Europe) on healthcare innovation and transformation. Dr. Vriesman received her PhD in Medical Sociology from UCLA (2001) and her MHA and MBA in Strategy and Finance from the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis (1991).

Lawrence B. Platt, Senior Expert Partner

Larry Platt is a businessman, lawyer, and healthcare leadership/governance expert. In 1999, Mr. Platt first became a member of Cedars-Sinai Health System’s Board of Directors and continues in this role today. Additionally, he has served on the Cedars-Sinai Medical Care Foundation (Physician/Provider Network) Board since 2005 and, as well, the Accountable Care Board of Managers since 2012. Also, during his time on the Cedars-Sinai Board of Directors, he served a three-year tenure as Chairman of the Board. In this role, Larry was the principal liaison between the Board of Directors and senior management, served as Co-Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee, and had an active role in the Board’s other committees including Finance, Nominating and Governance, Medical Policy, and Continuous Quality Improvement. Larry also led Cedars-Sinai’s most ambitious fundraising campaign up until that time when he took on the role of Chairman for their Discovering for Life Campaign from 2005 to 2010, which raised $357 million for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s research endowment. Mr. Platt has extensive board member experience in healthcare organizations and is an expert in complex financial planning, strategic planning and thinking, long-term business executive management, culture change, dealing with dynamic external and internal environments, and working with healthcare management teams to transform the delivery of care. In addition to his role at Cedars-Sinai, he has served on the American Jewish Congress Board of Directors and is currently a member of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health Advisory Board, the Music Center Leadership Council of Los Angeles, the World Presidents Organization, and the Young Presidents Organization in the Santa Monica Bay Chapter.

James M. McCaughey, MPH, Senior Expert Partner

Jim McCaughey is an expert in women and children’s health, strategic partnering, and academic medical center organizations. While consulting part-time, he is also the current CEO of Bay Imaging Consultants Medical Group and Bay Medical Management LLC in San Francisco. From 2007 to 2015, Mr. McCaughey served as the Chief Strategy Officer and Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford Children’s Health, developing organization-wide strategic plans, initiating and executing numerous strategic partnerships and joint ventures, and developing a brand new Stanford Children’s physician organization. Prior to Lucile Packard/Stanford, Mr. McCaughey was a Vice President of Strategy & Business Development at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. In Fall 2014, Mr. McCaughey joined the Strategy Advantage team. Mr. McCaughey received his bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, and his master’s in public health from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. He previously served on boards including the Ronald McDonald House, Stanford, the Hamilton Family Center, San Francisco, the Pacific Vision Center, San Francisco, and Hospice of Acadiana in Louisiana.

Kala B. Kascht, Vice President, Managing Director

As the Marketing and Special Projects Director at Strategy Advantage, Kala Kascht overall all marketing for the company and, as well, provides project management on selected strategic client projects. In addition, Ms. Kascht helped to design and initiate the company’s ZIGZAG Healthcare content library featuring new ideas and disruptive innovators in healthcare. She manages this product line for the company. Before transitioning into her role at Strategy Advantage, Ms. Kascht worked at the non-profit organization, Imagine LA, as their manager of communications and development. While there, she developed and activated all media and fundraising outreach initiatives. Prior to that, Ms. Kascht worked as a publicist for the communications agency, High10 Media, with offices in New York and Los Angeles, where she worked on large- scale publicity, event and marketing campaigns for multiple Fortune 500 corporate entertainment companies including Time Inc., Lifestyle Magazine, TLC, and others. Ms. Kascht earned her bachelor’s degree in media and communications from New York University and was currently accepted as a member of the Healthcare Executives of Southern California’s Pathways Program, designed for early careerist healthcare executives.

Jennifer Holmes, MPH, Data and Research Analyst

Jennifer Holmes is a Data and Research Analyst at Strategy Advantage. Ms. Holmes brings strong skills in both research and data analytics and currently works as an Implementation Coordinator for Physician Network Advantage, an EMR adoption company. Ms. Holmes earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration from CSU Fresno, and her MPH from UCLA. Her previous experience includes work with the Preferred IPA of Southern California in Glendale, CA and the Fresno Heart and Surgical Hospital.

Samantha Jones, MPH, Data and Research Analyst

Samantha Jones is a Data and Research Analyst at Strategy Advantage. Ms. Jones possesses unique research and data analytic capabilities. She earned her bachelor’s degree in public health, health policy and management from the University of California, Berkeley and her MPH from UCLA. Her previous experience includes being an Assistant Director of Quality and Managed Care and an Associate Director of Programs at the California Primary Care Association in Sacramento, CA.