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 & 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.
CHIEF DENTAL OFFICER
Dr. John Luther is responsible for leading the organization’s dental policy, clinical quality, practice standards, and best practices programs.
Prior to joining Western Dental, Dr. Luther served as the Chief Dental Officer & Senior Vice President-Dental Management for DentaQuest, the third-largest oral health enterprise in the country, and served as Chief Dental Officer for UnitedHealthCare Dental, where he was responsible for the development of consumer-driven solutions that support quality of care and managed costs. Dr. Luther also spent five years with the American Dental Association, where he served as Senior Vice President overseeing the division of dental practice, and spent several years with Delta Dental of California. Previously he owned and operated a successful private dental practice in Placentia, CA.
Dr. Luther earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Southern California and a D.D.S. from Northwestern University School of Dentistry.
Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer
Preet Takkar has overall responsibility for operations, including regional field and clinical support, in the organization’s dental practices in California, Texas Arizona, Alabama and Nevada. Preet also oversees the company’s Information Technology, Revenue Cycle, Business Intelligence, and Patient Financing functions.
Preet began his career as a software developer for one of the country’s leading dental practice management software companies, and in the years following has run local dental offices, led regional and statewide operations, overseen practice and financial reporting for an orthodontic practice management firm, and headed IT for a multi-state group dental practice and dental HMO.
Prior to Western Dental, Preet served as Senior Vice President-Practice Financial and Reporting Services for OrthoSynetics, the leading provider of practice management services to orthodontic and dental clinics throughout the U.S., and Vice President of Billing, Collections, and Financial Services for Coast Dental, the fifth largest dental provider in the U.S. with 190 affiliated practices in Florida, Georgia, California, Nevada, and Texas.
Preet earned a Bachelor of Science from California State University-Long Beach.
Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy Officer & Chief Financial Officer
Bill Dembereckyj is the head of strategic thinking and knowledge integration, leading growth initiatives, including all aspects of M&A and De Novo (new location) strategies. Bill also serves Western Dental as the Chief Financial Officer, leading the firm through financial stability despite COVID health barriers.
Bill has nearly 30 years of financial and operational experience in the healthcare and insurance industries. Before joining Western Dental, 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.
Executive Vice President, Clinical Care
Dr. Zhi Meng has overall responsibility for operational support in the field and corporate office 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 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 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 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.
Chief Accounting Officer
Brian comes to Western Dental with more than 30 years of experience in senior leadership roles in accounting and finance. A licensed CPA, Brian has extensive experience leading financial accounting, consolidation, planning and reporting activities, including SEC reporting, in complex, multi-national companies with annual revenues up to $2 billion. His track record of building teams and developing processes and financial systems to support business objectives includes leadership roles at Oakley, Inc., Jacuzzi Group Worldwide, Conexant Systems, Inc. and ICN Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Earlier, Brian also served as a senior manager at Ernst & Young LLP, providing audit services to clients in the healthcare and life sciences industries.
Brian holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Accounting from Cal State Fullerton where he graduated with honors.
Senior Vice President, Orthodontics
Reporting to the Executive Vice President, Clinical Care, 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.
Senior Vice President, Specialty Services
Reporting to the Executive Vice President, Clinical Care, Patricia is expanding her role to include responsibility for operational support of all dental specialties, including oral surgery, periodontics, endodontics and pediatric dentistry.
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 Vice President of Finance
Vikash Jhunjhunwala has overall responsibility for supporting the finance and accounting functions, including reporting and analysis.
Vikash has over 20 years of experience in finance and accounting, including 12 years with publicly traded companies, including Aramark Corporation and Republic Services, Inc. Prior to Western Dental, he served as Vice President of Finance for Athens Services, a leading Southern California environmental services firm, where he built a strong team while working closely with the leadership to support effective decision-making. He has extensive experience in financial modeling, pricing, contract negotiations, strategic planning, acquisitions and annual budget preparation, and he is adept at making financial analysis easy to understand and helpful to Operations. He began his career in public accounting, in India, with M.G. Todi & Co., where he was a senior auditor.
Vikash earned a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Calcutta University, India and a Master of Business Administration from UCLA Anderson School of Management.
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