Meet our executive leadership Team

Steven Huddleston

Chief Executive Officer

Steven’s primary focus is setting Ventra Health’s vision and ensuring the company has industry-leading talent and a strong, cohesive culture centered on excellence and transparency. He is a skilled healthcare executive with deep revenue cycle domain experience and a track record of developing comprehensive business strategy including go-to-market, technology and automation, data and analytics, inorganic growth, and global services management. Steven has held multiple CEO and President roles in healthcare tech, tech-enabled service, and advisory companies, including PELITAS, nThrive (now FinThrive), Accenture, and Parallon. He also held executive positions at both Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) and Tenet.


Steven enjoys spending as much time as he can hiking, running with one of his five (yes, five) dogs, watching Crimson Tide football, and seeing Coldplay in concert.


Angie Knight

President, Anesthesia Services

Angie leads Ventra Health’s Anesthesia business with an intense focus on providing world-class service to our clients. Her operational and client management experience serves to advance the business and support additional scale and growth. Angie was previously Senior Vice President of Physician Revenue Cycle Management and Credentialling at OptumCare, where she was responsible for the direct oversight of the organization's national end-to-end revenue cycle across the risk-bearing and fee-for-service physician practices. Before OptumCare, she was with nThrive (now FinThrive) and its predecessor, MedAssets, where she was Senior Vice President of Client Management and Operations GM, overseeing $380 million in annualized revenue.


Angie enjoys fishing, hunting, spending time with her 2 yorkies, and watching Alabama football.


Darshan Patel

President, Emergency Medicine and Hospital Medicine

Darshan is responsible for the service delivery and client satisfaction for all our Emergency and Hospital Medicine clients. Darshan enjoys taking the burden of RCM off providers to allow them to focus on what truly matters, the patient. Previously, he was the Senior Vice President of Service Delivery for the Emergency and Hospital Medicine business unit and oversaw the daily operations. Before joining Ventra Health, Darshan spent over a decade at PwC specializing in Revenue Cycle transformation and operations, consulting for health systems and physician groups across the country.

 

Darshan is a huge fan of all professional sports. A lifelong Texan, he loves rooting for his Houston-based teams. He enjoys coaching his two boys in Little League and traveling with his family. He also likes to run. Like, really likes to run. He completed his first 50 miler in 2022.


Steve Avery

Chief Growth Officer

Steve is responsible for leading Ventra Health’s growth initiatives, including the sales and marketing teams. His experience in multiple roles at Ventra Health and its predecessor companies has equipped Steve with a deep understanding of Client needs. Steve’s expertise in sales, anesthesia operations, client success, finance, mergers and acquisitions, and integration have given him a unique perspective to fuel growth in the company.

 

Steve spends his free time enjoying his family and grandchildren. 


Jason Greenberg, MD

Chief Client Officer

Dr. Greenberg has extensive subject matter expertise in anesthesia operations and practice management. Prior to his role at Ventra Health, he was President and CEO of Anesthesia Care Associates Medical Group, a large independent anesthesia medical practice located in San Francisco, CA. He has also served as the President/CEO of Northern California Anesthesia Physicians, and in several clinical leadership roles in the Sutter Health System. Dr. Greenberg serves on multiple committees at the American Society of Anesthesiology, including the Committee for Practice Management, is on the Perioperative Advisory Board of GE HealthCare, and is a practicing cardiothoracic anesthesiologist.

 

For fun, Dr. Greenberg enjoys trail running and holds a special place in his heart for the coastal mountains of Marin County, CA.


David Scharfstein

Chief Financial Officer

As Chief Financial Officer, David oversees all financial aspects of the business. David came to Ventra Health with over 15 years of progressive financial leadership experience across various industries. He has a proven record of leading highly productive and diverse teams, driving complex business transformations, translating raw data into actionable insights, and establishing financial discipline in private equity-backed portfolio companies. In his most recent role, David served as Chief Financial Officer for Hotel Equities, a best-in-class owner, operator, and development firm managing a portfolio of 250+ hotels and resorts throughout the U.S. and Canada. Before Hotel Equities, David was Vice President of Financial Planning and Analysis and later Vice President of M&A Integration and Enterprise Initiatives at EmployBridge, the largest light industrial staffing company in the U.S.

 

In his free time, David enjoys spending time with his wife and three daughters, running, and supporting University of Georgia football as well as Atlanta United Soccer.


Erica Franko

Chief Transformation Officer and Chief of Staff

As Chief Transformation Officer, Erica’s focus is driving sustainable improvements to process and technology in order to optimize how we serve our physician partners. An experienced financial and operations improvement executive, Erica has over a decade of experience with industry-leading consulting and healthcare organizations. Over the course of her career, Erica has focused on transforming operational performance, revenue cycle management, and patient experience solutions that meet the needs of both patients and healthcare providers. She comes to Ventra Health from AGS Health, where she was Senior Vice President of Customer Success. Prior to AGS, she was at nThrive (now FinThrive) in the role of Senior Vice President of Technology/Service Implementations and Advisory Services. Prior to that, she was a consultant at Accenture advising healthcare companies on growth strategy and large-scale transformations.

Erica enjoys non-work related travel, reading (and/or growing her to-be-read pile), needlepoint, walking, and Taylor Swift.


David Reck

Chief Technology and Data Officer

As Chief Technology and Data Officer, David leads the Data & Analytics and IT teams within Ventra Health creating analytical dashboards, predictive models, and automation solutions. He is passionate about using data-driven technology to solve complex healthcare problems. David has over 20 years of custom solution development experience. Prior to joining Ventra Health, David served as Chief Technology Officer at PELITAS which was acquired by nThrive (now FinThrive). He served on the Navigant RCM senior leadership team responsible for developing internal and external healthcare revenue cycle products. He also worked for UnitedHealthcare where he had responsibility for defining the technology approach and architecture for their university health plan division. David has deep technical experience in building scalable products and analytics deployed to the cloud. He is a champion of Agile development methodologies allowing his teams to shorten client feedback loops, better align with client emerging priorities, and deliver incremental client value at a rapid pace.

David enjoys spending his spare time reading or watching movies with his family. His personal passion is fishing, and he looks for every opportunity to hit the lake.



Lane Cates

Chief Legal and Compliance Officer

Lane collaborates with sales, client success, and service delivery, to make contracting with Ventra as smooth as possible. As General Counsel, she ensures that the services Ventra provides to clients are compliant with all applicable laws, and that we are proactively advising clients through our provider education team. She also oversees all of Ventra’s procurement and real estate functions. Lane has nearly two decades experience in healthcare and was previously the General Counsel of Anthelio Healthcare (now Atos), which provides IT and HIM services to hospitals and health systems. Prior to that she was a Corporate/Mergers and Acquisitions attorney at Norton Rose Fulbright. 


When she’s not redlining contracts, Lane enjoys running, traveling, pilates, and spending time with her husband and two sons.