We are passionate about improving healthcare for everyone.
We believe that accessing healthcare should be safe, simple and low cost without compromising quality. Our team is committed to helping people have delightful healthcare experiences.
Who We Are
Patrick Spain
CO-FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN
Patrick started First Stop Health because of his own unsatisfactory experience with the healthcare system and his desire to improve that experience for others. He is a serial entrepreneur who has founded or co-founded four Internet-based companies.
After graduating from law school, Patrick worked for Extel Corporation, a manufacturer of telecommunications and computer equipment, first as a lawyer then as a business executive. Extel was sequentially owned by Dow Jones, Rolls Royce and JWP from 1979-1990.
Co-founder and long-time chairman and CEO of Hoover’s, Patrick led the company from a small book publisher in 1992 to a profitable, publicly traded online business information services company with $31 million in revenue in 2001 with a sale to D&B in 2003 for $119 million.
Patrick was also the founder, CEO and Chairman of HighBeam Research, which he started in 2002 and sold to Cengage Learning in December 2008. He also co-founded and serves as executive chairman of Newser, a news filtering and summarization service with an audience of over three million readers each month.
Patrick serves as a board member of Owler, a Silicon Valley-based company information service that uses crowdsourcing and AI to revolutionize data collection, quality and delivery. He also serves on the board of Occasion, a Chicago-based calendaring and payment platform for small merchants.
Patrick is a member of the Library Council at the University of Chicago and is a member of the Board of Governors of Opportunity International, the largest and best capitalized micro-lender in the world. He has worked in the technology industry since 1979 and has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago in Ancient Roman History and a law degree from Boston University.
Mark L. Friedman, MD FACEP FACP
Co-Founder, Board Director
& Medical Officer
Mark is a nationally recognized expert in emergency medicine, quality assurance and medical cost containment. He has served as an adviser to medical insurers and government agencies on medical billing, fraud and abuse. He is a member of the Telemedicine Committee of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
Mark co-founded First Stop Health out of a desire to help solve the problems of healthcare. He oversees the doctor network and is responsible for quality assurance, doctor and member education, and clinical content.
Mark has been associate professor of emergency medicine at the Frank Netter School of Medicine, chief of emergency medicine at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital of Boston, assistant professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine, assistant clinical professor of emergency medicine at the University of Illinois and adjunct professor of public health at Benedictine University. He has also served as president of The Brighton Group, a medical billing and consulting company, and as CEO of National Medical Claims Analysts.
Mark is a graduate of the Pritzker School of Medicine of the University of Chicago and the Kron Scholar Program of the University of North Carolina’s Kenan Flagler School of Business. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and a life fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
In his spare time, Mark rows, skis and races sailboats.
Blaine Barnett
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Blaine is a senior management executive, trusted advisor and personal mentor with over 20 years of global experience in achieving revenue, profit and business growth objectives. He has been a key leader at companies including Life Fitness, Restaurant Depot, CS Recruiting, AFN and Arrive Logistics. Most recently, Blaine joined First Stop Health as president with the primary goal of enabling sustainable, scalable growth.
Blaine builds relationships, resolves issues and delivers on commitments no matter the obstacles. He has grown, led and motivated dispersed and diverse teams and businesses ranging up to more than 1,000 people. Team members and clients know him as a results-oriented, energetic and a highly-respected professional.
Blaine has a strong academic grounding in math methods, economics, finance, and leadership development from Northwestern University, University of Chicago Booth School of Business and The Stagen Leadership Institute.
Blaine played four years of Division 1 college soccer, remains active physically and is very competitive. He loves chasing, coaching and watching his two daughters and son alongside his wife at their many activities and events. He lives in Deerfield, Illinois.
Teira Gunlock
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
Teira is a collaborative leader, communications expert and experienced healthcare professional. She spent her early career with a national leader in healthcare market research and consulted with leading health systems across the country to help them better use patient experience and physician experience data to improve care. She is well-versed in the fact that “good” is simply not good enough and commits herself daily to improve First Stop Health’s service, so that First Stop Health may improve the state of healthcare.
She has worn several hats at First Stop Health in the last 6+ years, as she helped grow the organization, train teams and ensure that service is best-in-class. As Chief Operating Officer, she oversees the delivery of the total experience. From patients, to clients, to doctors, it’s her mission to deliver care that people LOVE (and without the claims!). She is instrumental in ensuring First Stop Health’s service is technology-enabled with a human touch.
Teira’s colleagues describe her as a learner and a teacher. She works hard to build relationships and trust with those inside and outside of the organization. She focuses on strengths and loves coaching individuals and teams to the next level.
Teira grew up in on a farm in Southwest Missouri, which is where her interest in increasing access to care was born. She graduated from the University of Missouri with her bachelor's degree in philosophy and master's degree in health administration. She loves spending time with her husband, teaching her spunky toddler how to make up silly songs, doing anything outside and practicing yoga.
Dr. Eric Bricker
Chief Medical Officer & Chief Growth Officer
Eric is an internal medicine physician, experienced Chief Medical Officer and author. He is the former co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Compass Professional Health Services, which was acquired by Alight Solutions in 2018. Eric and his colleagues grew Compass to over 2,000 employer clients, totaling over 1.8 million member lives at the time of the acquisition.
Eric graduated with honors from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine and completed his residency in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins. Eric then went on to practice medicine at the Baylor Scott & White Health System in the Dallas Area.
Prior to medical school, Eric worked as a hospital finance consultant with a company that is now part of Huron Consulting Group.
Eric’s experience treating patients and seeing first-hand the impact of healthcare cost, quality and access on people’s lives that drives Eric’s passion for improving healthcare.
Will Rumsey
Vice President of Sales
Will is a well-rounded, motivated leader who is responsible for overseeing the activity and growth of the outside and inside sales team both directly with our clients and with their benefit advisors.
With seven years of healthcare and engagement experience at Opinsta, EndoChoice and PMT Corporation, prior to joining First Stop Health, Will cultivates strategic relationships with human resource and benefit professionals to deliver best-in-class care. Additionally, Will is tasked with ensuring that there is consistent collaboration between the sales team and First Stop Health’s marketing and client success teams.
Will started at First Stop Health in 2017 as a Director of Sales, and after two successful years in the field, was promoted to VP of Sales Operations.
Will holds a BS in Sports Media/ Legal Studies from Ithaca College and an MBA from the University of Birmingham (UK). Will enjoys participating in numerous half and full marathons and working for the Chicago based charity, Bear Necessities.
Elena Gambon
Vice President of Business Development
Elena is a business development and growth leader who is passionate about delivering quality, high-engagement and equitable digital health solutions to the market. She is responsible for new channel development and product collaborations at First Stop Health, and believes in creating partnerships with strong strategic, philosophical and financial alignment.
Elena has worked in and held leadership positions in employee-focused digital healthcare since 2014, with experience in operations management, product and business development at Compass Professional Health Services (now Alight Solutions) and digital health venture as a former Rock Health Research Fellow and Flare Capital Academic Scholar. Elena has also supported growth, financing strategy and new market research for several leading digital health entities, investment firms and clinical providers as an independent consultant.
Elena has earned a BS in Spanish, Biology and Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis, an MBA and Business Analytics Certificate from University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business, and an MPH in Health Policy and Management from University of California, Berkeley.
Ben McInturff
Vice President of Technology
Ben is a technology leader with more than 14 years of experience in leading development teams to achieve amazing results with minimal resources. He’s led the development team at FSH since 2012, providing the functionality to support First Stop Health's amazing service. He is responsible for all technical aspects of the First Stop Health system and integrating and managing all third-party resources.
Ben has experience in both open source and proprietary technologies such as .NET, and has led several successful migrations of systems. With experience developing systems in the news and financial verticals, he brings mobile development, design, project leadership and security capabilities to developing and maintaining First Stop Health’s secure real-time healthcare services platform.
Ben obtained a BS in Computer Science from the Illinois Institute of Technology and his MBA from Stuart School of Business and is a member of its Beta Gamma Sigma chapter. Ben enjoys restoring his classic truck and competing in triathlons in his spare time.
Nick Severino
Vice President of Marketing
Nick is an accomplished marketing leader, who has more than 20 years of professional marketing and communications experience. He has extensive experience in the healthcare industry, working in the carrier, brokerage and TPA segments.
Nick leads the First Stop Health brand to the marketplace and helps create awareness, generate leads and engage existing contacts. The most rewarding part of his role is seeing the surprise on people’s faces when he shares the FSH value proposition with them at conferences and events.
Nick has thorough knowledge of the B2B and B2B2C channels. He has helped lead numerous organizations by aligning their marketing and sales strategies to routinely exceed goals.
Nick graduated from Dominican University with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and holds his master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University.
Nick enjoys spending his free time with his family, and watching one of his three daughters participate in their many sporting and extracurricular activities. He loves golfing, running and most of all, making homemade wine (cheers).
Rich Gallun
Board Director
Rich Gallun is an entrepreneur and business leader with extensive experience in the healthcare and employee benefits space. Gallun co-founded and served as CEO of bswift from 2000-2015; bswift was acquired by Aetna in 2014. bswift provides cloud-based technology and services for benefits enrollment and administration. He currently is serving as a Board Director for several organizations, including First Stop Health, Positive Coaching Alliance and Evanston Soccer Association.
Gallun’s prior experience includes various sales, consulting and management positions at A.T. Kearney, IBM, Sachs Group and Health Partners.
Gallun earned his MBA from Harvard University, and holds undergraduate degrees in economics and history from Williams College.
Steve Vivian
Board Director
Stephen Vivian is a Principal & Founder of Kestrel Capital Group and has spent over 20 years financing and investing in growth-oriented companies. He has deep experience as a principal investor across all stages of an enterprise’s life cycle, including start-ups. Prior to co-founding Kestrel in 2011, Vivian spent 15 years at Prism Capital, having joined as Prism’s second full-time professional in 1999. Prism invested in 40 companies across two (one start-up and one mezzanine) funds.
Vivian has been an active industry leader, having served as a past Chairman of the Small Business Investors Alliance, or SBIA (formerly known as NASBIC). He was also active in the inception of the Illinois Venture Capital Association and serves on the President’s Leadership Council of the Chicago Field Museum. Steve received both an MBA and a BS in General Engineering from the University of Illinois and has been a frequent speaker on the Urbana / Champaign campus, as well as at other colleges and universities. He also serves on the faculty of the Venture Capital Institute and has served on the board of numerous other not-for-profit entities.
Michael Alter
Board Director
Michael Alter is a clinical professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. He was the executive chairman (and former interim CEO) of Vanco, the largest provider of electronic payment solutions to the faith-based and education communities.
Previously, Alter was the chief executive officer of The Tie Bar, LLC -- the No. 1 e‐commerce destination for stylish men's accessories. Prior to The Tie Bar, he was a co-founder and CEO of SurePayroll, a SaaS technology company that is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Paychex®. Alter co-founded SurePayroll in 2000 after six years as a consultant with McKinsey and Company.
He is an active board and advisory board member for numerous leading industry and entrepreneurial organizations. A past recipient of the Illinois Technology Association CityLIGHTS CEO of the Year Award, Alter has been a nationally recognized spokesman on business issues, having served as a columnist for INC.com and appeared regularly in media outlets nationwide, including Bloomberg TV, and the Wall Street Journal.
Prior to receiving his MBA from the Harvard Business School, Alter worked in various sales positions at IBM. He holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Northwestern University.
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