Pamplona Capital Management (Pamplona) has named J Joel Hackney, Jr (pictured) as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the new company to be formed by the combination of MedAssets’ Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) with Precyse, a Pamplona-owned health information management (HIM) services, technology, and education company.
Hackney will assume his role following the completion of Pamplona’s acquisition of MedAssets, expected in late January. Hackney’s executive leadership team, also being announced, includes current key leaders from MedAssets and Precyse, providing continuity and legacy expertise as the businesses merge and expand offerings.
The acquisition of MedAssets (NASDAQ: MDAS), a leading healthcare performance improvement company, by Pamplona was announced on November 2, 2015. Pamplona has also entered into a separate agreement with Vizient, Inc. (formerly VHA-UHC Alliance NewCo, Inc.), the nation’s largest member-owned healthcare company, to divest MedAssets’ Spend and Clinical Resource Management (SCM) segment to Vizient following the completion of Pamplona’s acquisition of MedAssets. Both transactions are expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2016.
“Joel has extensive experience in transforming companies into leaders within their industries,” says Jeremy Gelber, MD, partner at Pamplona Capital Management. “He is a dynamic leader whose diverse background and experience delivering technology enabled solutions make him the perfect person to bring together these companies and to build an enterprise that will raise the bar for healthcare revenue cycle and information management at such a critical time in the industry.”
Hackney has held significant executive leadership positions over the past two decades with some of the world’s most influential businesses, including General Electric, Nortel Networks Corporation and Avaya, and has extensive experience selling into the health system market with both infection control and technology solutions. He was most recently the president and CEO of AVINTIV, Hackney joined AVINTIV in June 2013 and put the company on an accelerated path of organic and acquisitive growth and global market expansion.
Prior to AVINTIV, Hackney was senior vice president and general manager at Avaya. Prior to Avaya, Hackney spent four years in various executive positions at Nortel, and 14 years at GE, where he led various businesses and functions in both the U.S. and Europe. Hackney holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Attracting top talent to oversee the new business has been a top priority for Pamplona.
“We are drawing upon the strong talent within Precyse and MedAssets, with the experience of additional outside executives to create a team that will ensure a smooth transition and continuity in key areas while positioning the MedAssets-Precyse enterprise to operate as a national leader in the end-to-end revenue cycle technology, outsourced services and education market,” says Gelber. “The existing Precyse and Medassets RCM commercial, technology and service delivery teams will be transitioning to the new business intact and will continue their great results for customers. We are confident in this team’s ability to build a great customer-focused and value-driven company that’s positioned to win over the long term.”
