Ford Koles, Vice President, National Spokesperson, The Advisory Board Company

As one of The Advisory Board’s preeminent thought-leaders in the area of health system economics and strategy, Ford Koles heads the faculty at the annual series of chief executive officer meetings. He’s also the keynote speaker at the annual series of meetings for the firm’s flagship program, the Health Care Advisory Board. Koles is one of the best-known and most requested public speakers in the health care industry. He’s a health care economist by training with a wide range of expertise in the provider industry. He has been a participant in every major Advisory Board research initiative since 1992, leaving him conversant in the history and current status of all the significant reform initiatives: coverage expansion, vertical integration and physician partnership models, managed care and payer contracting, horizontal integration and system economics of scale, and quality-based payment.