Washington Dental Service is pleased to introduce our Senior Management team and Board of Directors:
Jim Dwyer , President and CEO of Washington Dental Service
John Bursett, Senior Vice President, Underwriting & Actuarial
Thomas Gates, Vice President, Planning and Corporate Development
Dr. Ron Inge, Vice President, Dental Director
Larry Leopold, Vice President, Human Resources
Kristin Merlo, Vice President, Sales and Marketing and Chief Marketing Officer
John Poli, Vice President and Chief Information Officer
Laura Smith, President and CEO, Washington Dental Service Foundation
Tracy Warner, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating and Financial Officer
View our Board of Directors
Jim Dwyer
President and Chief Executive Officer
James D. Dwyer is president and chief executive officer of Washington Dental Service, a not-for-profit dental services company with revenues in excess of $900 million.
Mr. Dwyer serves on the board of the Delta Dental Plans Association, a national association of member plans from all 50 states and Puerto Rico. DDPA members provide more than $14 billion in dental care services per year to more than 51 million people. Mr. Dwyer also serves on the board and is Vice Chair of DeltaUSA, which oversees policy and marketing issues for DDPA’s national products and plans.
Mr. Dwyer is chairman of Healthentic, Inc, a consortium of Delta plans that is developing a disease management analytics product.
Prior to joining WDS, Mr. Dwyer served as chief executive of the Port of Seattle, which operates waterfront and airport facilities. In that position, he was responsible for domestic and international lines of business, more than 1,000 employees, assets of more than $1 billion, and annual budgets of $250 million. He has a strong background in operations, risk and investment, sales and marketing, strategic planning and public affairs.
Past experience also includes serving as president and CEO of a $30 million wholesale distribution company operating in six states. Prior to that Mr. Dwyer was a partner and director of international commercial law for a leading Pacific Northwest law firm.
Mr. Dwyer graduated from Seattle University, with a bachelor of arts degree in marketing. He graduated from the University of San Diego School of Law in 1972 and attended the Harvard Graduate School of Business Program for Management Development in 1979.
Mr. Dwyer served on the board of trustees at Seattle University and chaired the university’s board of regents. He is on the board of the Center for Leadership Formation at Seattle University and served on the board of trustees of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. Mr. Dwyer has been recognized with numerous civic awards, including International Business Person of the Year by the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce and the Distinguished Public Service Award by Seattle University. He was also a member of the board of directors of the 1990 Goodwill Games Organizing Committee.
John Bursett
Senior Vice President, Underwriting & Actuarial
John Bursett is senior vice president of Underwriting & Actuarial for Washington Dental Service. He directs the actuarial and underwriting functions, which include the pricing of Washington Dental Service dental products and the projection of revenues and claims. Mr. Bursett is a member of the Delta Dental Plans Association’s Actuarial Committee and has twice served as chairperson. He also serves on DDPA’s national scientific research committee. Mr. Bursett has been with Washington Dental Service for more than 40 years. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Washington.
Thomas Gates
Vice President, Planning and Corporate Development
Tom Gates is responsible for leading annual and on-going strategic planning efforts, as well as supporting growth strategies through developing new business ventures and external business alliances. He joined Washington Dental Service in 2001, following a 10-year career in management consulting, during which time he led a wide variety of strategy, finance and operations consulting projects for more than a dozen major health systems and payers across the country. Mr. Gates earned an MBA from the University of Washington, as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Pomona College.
Dr. Ron Inge
Vice President, Dental Director
Dr. Ron Inge, dental director and vice president of provider relations for Washington Dental Service, brings a broad base of knowledge and experience in the dental industry. His multifunctional capabilities include network development, and contracting and provider relations, as well as overseeing and setting clinical policy. His brings to WDS a comprehensive dental business background, having directly led or collaborated in business decisions ranging from clinical to sales and underwriting. Dr. Inge is a nationally known and respected speaker.
Before joining Washington Dental Service, Dr. Inge was the associate executive director, Division of Dental Practice, at the American Dental Association. At the ADA, he provided strategic leadership in policy development and implementation for the division of dental practice that included practice management, dental benefit programs, access-to-care issues and disease prevention.
Prior to joining the ADA, Dr. Inge was Aetna Dental’s chief dental officer, where he oversaw Aetna’s dental clinical quality and utilization management programs. He was instrumental in conveying the value of medical/dental integration and driving initial validation studies related to the integration concept.
Dr. Inge previously worked at PMI (the managed dental care division of Delta Dental of California) where he was the vice president of professional services and PMI’s chief dental officer. He was formerly with DentiCare of California, serving as its senior vice president of provider relations.
Dr. Inge has 15 years of private practice experience. He received his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from University of California at Los Angeles and a bachelor’s degree in human biology from Stanford University.
Larry Leopold
Vice President, Human Resources
Larry Leopold, director of human resources at Washington Dental Service, is responsible for employee staffing, compensation, benefits, training and employee/labor relations.
Prior to joining Washington Dental Service in June 2002, Mr. Leopold held human resource management positions at a real estate company; at a third-party administration company; and at a nonprofit, human resources organization. He has both Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in mathematics.
Kristin Merlo
Vice President, Sales and Marketing, and Chief Marketing Officer
Kristin Merlo is vice president, sales and marketing, and chief marketing officer of Washington Dental Service. She is responsible for Washington Dental Service’s sales, client and broker management, marketing research and communications, public relations, corporate advertising, the corporate Web site, product management and development, government relations and corporate compliance.
Prior to joining WDS, Ms. Merlo held a variety of sales and marketing management positions with Eli Lilly and Company, a major pharmaceutical company. As brand manager she led the first consumer advertising program for Lilly’s blockbuster drug, Prozac®. She also managed the global market development for Lilly’s first insulin analog.
Ms. Merlo earned an MBA from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia. She received a bachelor of arts degree in history from the University of Virginia. Ms. Merlo completed a certificate in executive leadership at Seattle University. She is active in education reform efforts and serves as vice chair of Seattle Girls’ School.
John Poli
Vice President and Chief Information Officer
John Poli is chief information officer and vice president of information technology at Washington Dental Service. He is responsible for all of the organization’s information technology and decision support and for driving the technology strategy of WDS. Mr. Poli joined Washington Dental Service from his role as a strategy and business intelligence consultant at Point B Solutions.
Prior to Point B, Mr. Poli was the global service executive for network outsourcing at Electronic Data Systems (EDS). His responsibilities included developing the global strategy for network services, inclusive of technology investments, strategic partners and managing global telecommunications carriers.
Before joining EDS, Mr. Poli was the general manager for Microsoft’s MSN Internet Access Business. In that capacity, he was responsible for the full life cycle of development and operations support for more than 8 million MSN access subscribers. His team was also responsible for managing the national supply chain and customer service.
Prior to Microsoft, Mr. Poli served multiple strategic leadership roles in the telecommunications and information technology industries. From engineering to operations, Mr. Poli has built and managed teams in high-growth, technology-driven companies. These firms include Sprint, Qwest, Net2000 and MediaCenters.
Mr. Poli started his career as an active duty officer in the US Air Force. He specialized in missile defense, intelligence and communications.
Mr. Poli has an MBA from Boston University with a concentration in finance and marketing. He earned his bachelor of science in electrical engineering at Cornell University.
Laura Smith
President and CEO
Washington Dental Service Foundation
Laura Smith is president and CEO of Washington Dental Service Foundation, where she oversees the seventh largest corporate philanthropy organization in the state of Washington (2008 Puget Sound Business Journal). WDS Foundation leads collaborative initiatives to improve oral health through high-impact policy and systems change in our state.
Ms. Smith was promoted from her past position as deputy director of WDS Foundation. She brings to this work a commitment to improving the health of children and their families and a solid background in planning, execution, evaluation and financial management.
Prior to joining WDS Foundation, Ms. Smith served as a major gift director at Children’s Hospital Foundation from 1992-2001. At Children’s, she worked with members of the Hospital and Foundation boards to lead campaigns to reach fundraising goals and with department directors, researchers and others to design successful projects.
Earlier experience includes serving as grants and contracts manager for the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation, budget analyst for the City of Seattle’s Office of Management and Budget, program analyst with the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), caseworker with DSHS and researcher with the Bureau of Applied Social Research at Columbia University. Ms. Smith has an undergraduate degree in sociology from Washington State University and a master’s degree in public affairs from the University of Washington.
Tracy Warner
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating and Financial Officer
Tracy Warner is senior vice president and chief operating and financial officer at Washington Dental Service. She is responsible for WDS’s operations, finance, information technology, corporate development, strategic planning, financial reporting, budget and forecast development, investment management, internal auditing, quality assurance, contracts and program management.
Prior to joining WDS in October 2002, Ms. Warner served as CFO/vice president of finance/secretary/treasurer for Briazz, Inc. She also served as controller for Oberto Sausage Company, assistant treasurer/controller for Philip Services Corporation and as a senior audit supervisor for Coopers and Lybrand. Her responsibilities have included management of general accounting, financial and strategic planning, budgeting/forecasting, multistate taxation, cost accounting, audit/control, risk management, management information systems and purchasing.
Ms. Warner received a bachelor of arts in business economics with an accounting concentration from the University of California in Santa Barbara and has passed the CPA examination. She received her MBA from Seattle University in 2008.