Committed to providing excellent patient dental care and delivering the latest clinical advancements.
CHAIRMAN & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Daniel D. Crowley began leading Western Dental in July 2015. He has been providing dynamic leadership to healthcare services companies, including dental payer and provider organizations, for more than 30 years.
Daniel D. Crowley served as Chairman of the Board of Foundation Health Systems, Inc., now known as Health Net. Before that, he served as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of one of its predecessor companies, Foundation Health Corporation. Mr. Crowley came to Foundation Health Corporation from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Ohio, where he led operations as the Executive Vice President.
Mr. Crowley built Foundation Health into a Fortune 500 enterprise, with 23 HMOs and more than 17,000 employees in 225 locations, serving the group, individual, Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE health benefit markets with an array of integrated health benefit products.
In 1997, Mr. Crowley founded Dynamic Healthcare Solutions to invest and consult in the healthcare industry. Through Dynamic, he has served as a Senior Advisor to a number of major investment firms, served on boards of certain portfolio companies, performed due diligence on investment opportunities across the U.S., and served as a healthcare restructuring officer, senior management advisor, and chief executive.
Mr. Crowley is the founder of the Crowley Children’s Fund, a charity that supports programs for at-risk children. Mr. Crowley earned an MBA and is a U.S. Army Vietnam War combat veteran.
President - Integrated Care & Chief Legal Officer
Jeffrey Miller oversees all legal matters, including corporate governance, acquisitions, regulatory compliance, litigation, human resources, and public policy.
Jeff’s professional career has focused on supporting quality care at health care organizations including hospitals, dialysis facilities, and radiology practices. Prior to joining Western Dental, Jeff spent several years as Vice President – Deputy General Counsel and was named Acting General Counsel at DaVita, a Fortune 500 provider of kidney care with more than 2,900 dialysis centers in the United States and internationally. At DaVita, he oversaw legal affairs and managed the company’s 75+ member legal team, including oversight of M&A activity which included a merger that doubled the size of the company and approximately 30-40 practice acquisitions per year. He also had legal oversight of the company’s first international expansion sites. More recently, Jeff served as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for Imaging Advantage, a radiology practice management company.
Before taking in-house legal roles, Jeff was an Associate with Latham & Watkins, where he represented large health insurance companies, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. He also worked at RAND Health where he advised state governments in connection with health care financing initiatives aimed at increasing access to care.
Jeff earned a J.D. from Georgetown University, a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins, and a Bachelor of Arts from Duke University.
President – Sonrava Insurance Group
Bill Dembereckyj, CPA, who has ably served as CFO almost continuously since he joined Western Dental in 2015, has stepped into the role of President of Sonrava Insurance Group. The Sonrava insurance Group includes dental plans and provider networks owned by or affiliated with Sonrava Health which include FCL Dental, Western Dental Services, Brident PPO, Premier Dental Plan, as well as various state dental discount plans.
Bill has nearly 30 years of financial and operational experience in the healthcare and insurance industries. Before joining Sonrava Health, Bill served as COO and CFO at HealthSmart, leading the firm through a vigorous business development program that completed 16 acquisitions over a 30-month period and made HealthSmart the largest independent administrator of self-funded health plans in the nation, according to Business Insurance Magazine. Before joining HealthSmart, Bill also had expanding responsibilities as CFO, COO and President at New Life Treatment Centers, a national, venture-capital backed, behavioral healthcare firm. Bill began his career in the Chicago office of KPMG’s audit practice.
Bill holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Biola University and a Master of Science in Organizational Behavior and Strategy from the University of Texas at Dallas. He is a licensed CPA through the California State Board of Accountancy and a member of the AICPA.
Chief of Staff & Chief Operating Officer
Greg Marotta serves as Chief of Staff and Chief Operating Officerfor Sonrava Health, Western Dental and affiliates, overseeing operations organization-wide.
Greg is a highly experienced executive who has more than 20 years of successfully leading multi-state, multi-site, multi-specialty physician practice management organizations and operating proprietary provider networks throughout the U.S. His strategic initiatives aim to drive organic and acquired growth that is focused on efficient and integrated operations.
Most recently, Greg was President and Chief Executive Officer of Clean Slate Addiction Centers, where he led the organization’s growth. Prior to his time with Clean Slate, Greg was Sr. Vice President of National Operations for U.S. HealthWorks, Inc., a provider of occupational and urgent healthcare. Prior to U.S. HealthWorks, Greg held operational leadership and business development roles with two organizations in the physical rehabilitation field, Therapro and Kessler Rehabilitation Corporation.
Greg obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from Kean University, is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School and is a Nashville HealthCare Council Fellow.
President - Sonrava Health Dental Group & Chief Dental Officer
Dr. Zhi Meng has overall responsibility for clinical operations support for general dentistry, orthodontics and all dental specialties, including pediatric dentistry.
Dr. Meng joined Western Dental in 1994 as an Associate Dentist. She was a practicing dentist for 12 years before taking a leadership role in operations as a Clinical Director. She later led the development of the organization’s extensive orthodontic program – now the largest in the United States – and then, as Senior Vice President, Specialty Services, developed and operationally supported the extensive network that serves the specialty needs of patients in 325 Western Dental, Brident and Vital Smiles offices in California, Texas, Arizona, Alabama and Nevada.
Earlier in her career, Dr. Meng taught at UCLA Dental School, where she also conducted oral cancer research, and at UCLA Medical School as an Oral Pathology Specialist. Dr. Meng has been a licensed dentist in the state of California since 1994.
Chief Financial Officer
Krishna K. Maridi serves Sonrava Health, Western Dental and affiliates as the Chief Financial Officer.
Mr. Maridi comes to Sonrava Health with more than 25 years of US and International financial leadership experience. Most recently he was CFO of Dallas-based Galderma U.S., a unit of the global dermatological treatments and skin care firm Galderma S.A. Prior to that he was a Vice President at PPD, Inc., a global contract research organization for the pharmaceutical industry and now part of Thermo Fisher Scientific. At PPD, he led Financial Planning & Analysis and Capital Markets where he supported an initial public offering and other capital raises, successfully navigated through the COVID pandemic, managed preparation of well-received quarterly earnings calls, and led the highly successful sale to Thermo Fisher Scientific. Before that Mr. Maridi was with Pfizer Inc. for 22 years, rising through the ranks from a Management Trainee in Mumbai to CFO of the Global Vaccines Business Unit in New York.
Mr. Maridi earned a Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Birla Institute of Science and Technology, Pilani, India; a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation from the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India, Mumbai; and a Master of Business Administration from Icfain Business School, Mumbai.
CHIEF HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICER
Bob Eisen has more than 25 years of human resources leadership experience, including 20 years in healthcare-related organizations. He has held HR positions at Quest Diagnostics and several hospital groups, including Hospital Corporation of America and, most recently, spent five years with St. Joseph Health in Irvine, Calif., where he was Vice President, Talent.
During his career, Bob has successfully built and led strong HR departments that helped organizations succeed. He has created career ladders with training and development that helped team members build rewarding, long-term careers, and he has created programs to compensate and reward fairly for performance, while fostering cultures that attracted talented individuals and fueled organizational energy and chemistry.
Bob received a Bachelor of Science from Arizona State University and a Master of Health Administration from the University of Southern California. Bob is also certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR).
Chief Growth Officer
Jimmy Palacios serves Sonrava Health, Western Dental and affiliates as the Chief Growth Officer.
Mr. Palacios comes to Sonrava Health from Deloitte Consulting's Customer & Marketing practice, where, as a Digital Program Leader, he assisted public healthcare and insurance companies in identifying and executing digital strategies to drive sustainable growth. Before that he served as the Product Director – Digital Energy Enablement Platform (DEEP) at Ernst & Young. There he led transformation programs primarily within the upstream oil and gas sector, helping them with digital strategy, business process discovery, system design and implementation. DEEP was awarded Microsoft’s Industry Solution of the Year for Energy in 2020. Earlier in his career, he held positions as a MS Dynamics Practice Leader with IBM and Vice President – US Operations (via acquisition), for NTT Data.
During his service in the United States Navy, he was a certified Reactor Technician, while serving as a Reactor Operator/Reactor Plant Supervisor onboard the USS Nimitz. He received the Navy Achievement Medal for his work as the technical lead during the end-of-life testing program. The program assisted the engineers at Bettis Atomic Power Laboratories with future state designs and subsequent development of nuclear power plants for the U.S. Navy.
Mr. Palacios earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Webster University, St. Louis, and a Master of Business Administration from University of Notre Dame. He also attended Naval Nuclear Power School, a rigorous academic program required for U.S. Navy shipboard nuclear power plant operation and maintenance.
Chief Marketing Officer
Julieun Kawasaki has overall responsibility for marketing, brand development, communications, analysis and M&A.
Chief Credit Officer
Mr. Kumar comes to Western Dental with nearly 18 years of consumer credit and corporate risk management experience in financial services. He was recently Vice President, Credit Risk Management at Goldman Sachs in Dallas for Marcus business, where he was instrumental in designing and implementing credit and collection policies and programs during the COVID-19 pandemic and launching a new partnership business to provide point-of-sale personal loans. He was also part of the launch team for Apple Card at Goldman Sachs. Prior to that he was Director, Pricing Strategy & Analytics for Santander Consumer USA, where he developed credit risk and pricing strategies for Chrysler Capital and its core auto loan portfolios. He previously held positions in credit and risk management at Think Finance/Elevate Credit Service LLC, US Bank/Retail Payment Solutions, HSBC Bank/Card and Retail Services Group, and CitiFinancial, a unit of Citigroup.
Mr. Kumar attended the Executive Education Program at McCombs Business School, University of Austin, Tex., and holds a Bachelor of Technology in Materials and Metallurgical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India.
Chief Information Officer
Jon Bennett serves as Chief Information Officer for Sonrava Health, Western Dental and affiliates.
Chief Compliance Officer
Eric Royal heads the compliance, privacy, and regulatory support efforts.
Eric comes to Western Dental with nearly 20 years of healthcare compliance, privacy, regulatory, accreditation and legal experience. He was recently Vice President Chief Compliance Officer and Chief Privacy Officer for KPC Healthcare, Inc. in Orange County, California, where his responsibilities included seven acute care hospitals – one with a Level II trauma center – eight long-term care facilities, an urgent care center, an ambulatory surgery center, and a physician group. Before that he was Director of Compliance and Revenue Integrity for Maricopa Integrated Health System in Phoenix, an organization with 500 hospital beds, a Level I trauma center, an academic medical center and 11 federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) in the community. He was also Corporate Compliance Manager for Parkland Health and Hospital System, a major academic and trauma center in Dallas; an Attorney Advisor for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Medical Hearings and Appeals in Miami; an Accreditation Specialist for the Council on Education for Public Health; and an Assistant Public Defender in the First Judicial Circuit of Florida.
Mr. Royal has a Juris Doctor and Masters of Public Health from Tulane University, New Orleans, and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond.
National Senior VP, Orthodontics
Eric Pellkofer is responsible for continuing to build and lead the nation’s largest orthodontics practice.
Eric’s career in dentistry started at Western Dental nearly 30 years ago. He subsequently pursued his career in operational roles at dental service organizations that included Pacific Coast Dental, SmileCare Family Dentistry, West Coast Dental and OrthoSynetics. Since rejoining Western Dental in 2015 as Vice President, Orthodontics, he significantly expanded the organization’s orthodontics program, which made more confident smiles possible for thousands of individuals with both traditional braces and the company’s ClearArc™ orthodontic aligners.
Eric holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Finance and Management from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and is an active member of the Dental Group Practice Association.
National Senior VP, Implant Services
Patricia Himpelmann serves as National Senior Vice President of Implant Services for Sonrava Health, Western Dental and affiliates.
Patricia joined Western Dental in 2015 as Vice President of Soft Tissue Management, a role in which she developed a hygiene program and recruited and deployed nearly 150 hygienists across the company. She has also developed and launched key initiatives for dental implants and a variety of other oral health care products and services. Earlier in her career, Patricia launched and led a number of dental product and service initiatives at SmileCare and SmileBrands. Before that, she started and led a sales team at Orapharma to serve dental service organizations.
Patricia has a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from California State University, Fullerton.
Senior VP, Real Estate & De Novo
Andrew Eddy serves as Senior VP of Real Estate & De Novo for Sonrava Health, Western Dental and affiliates.
Senior VP, Internal Performance & Supply Chain Management
Peter Brown serves Sonrava Health, Western Dental and affiliates as the Senior Vice President of Supply Chain Management.
An experienced global supply chain management executive, Mr. Brown comes to Sonrava Health from Johnson & Johnson where he was Director, Demand Planning, US, for the $3.4B+ Consumer Skin Health portfolio. Over more than 20 years at Johnson & Johnson, he held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility leading optimization of demand planning, supply chains, strategic sourcing, integration of acquired brands and warehousing and logistics.
During his service in the United States Air Force, he served as a Telecommunications Engineer in various global locations, planning and leading short-notice deployment of vital ground-to-air communications systems in support of drug interdiction and humanitarian missions.
Mr. Brown earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Tufts University, Medford, MA, and a Master of Business Administration from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Senior VP, Financial Planning & Analysis
Steven Collins, CPA, serves as Senior Vice President, Financial Planning and Analysis for Sonrava Health, Western Dental and affiliates.
Mr. Collins comes to Sonrava Health with 20+ years of healthcare finance leadership experience. Most recently he was Vice President, Financial Planning and Analysis and Chief Financial Officer, System Services for Beth Israel Lahey Health, an integrated system of academic medical centers, community hospitals, ambulatory centers and primary care practices based in Cambridge, Mass. Before that he was Chief Financial Officer, Support Services of Prospect Medical Holdings, a 5-state hospital system with affiliated medical groups based in Orange, Calif. He was Vice President of Financial Reporting and Chief Accounting Officer there prior to being promoted to CFO, Support Services.
Previously, he served as Chief Accounting Officer for Ontario, Calif. based Prime Healthcare, with 45 acute care hospitals in 13 states, and for Element Behavioral Health in Long Beach, Calif. He began his career with accounting firm BDO Stoy Hayward, LLP in London before transferring to BDO USA, LLP in Costa Mesa, California, where he served as Assurance Director, leading audit and due diligence teams.
A Certified Public Accountant, Mr. Collins earned a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of York in York, England.
Senior VP, Quality Management & Plan/Network Ops
Susan Lotz serves as Senior Vice President of Quality Management & Plan/Network Ops for Sonrava, Western Dental and affiliates.
Senior VP, Operations - East
Pranjal Mishra serves as Senior Vice President of Operations for the Eastern Sonrava Health, Western Dental and affiliate offices.
President - West
Dr. Peter Truong leads the 245 Western Dental offices in California - the West region.
President - Central
Dr. Yein Kim leads the Sonrava, Western Dental, and affiliate offices in Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada - the Central region.