Experienced healthcare executive will take the reins as President & Chief Executive Officer
Boca Raton, Florida--(Newsfile Corp. - August 25, 2021) - Puget Technologies, Inc. (OTC Pink: PUGE) ("Puget"),a Nevada corporation subject to reporting pursuant to Sections 13 and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, announces today that Karen Fordham has been named as President and Chief Executive Officer. Hermann Burckhardt, who has held the role since 2015, will continue as a member of the Board of Directors as needed. Ms. Fordham's employment with Puget commenced on August 19, 2021.
Ms. Fordham is a highly successful and seasoned healthcare management professional with more than 20 years of diverse experience specializing in operations, service line development, strategic planning, physician recruitment, process improvement, and financial management for large healthcare organizations. Her experience includes managing the behavioral health divisions in various large hospital settings. This expertise is extremely beneficial to Puget as the company drives forward its health care acquisition strategy with the goal of creating integrated health care delivery systems that fuse the needs for behavioral and traditional primary care into one holistic enterprise.
Most recently, Ms. Fordham served as the East Market CEO for Wellvana Health, a Nashville, Tennessee-based company. Ms. Fordham also served as the Chief Executive Officer of Venice Regional Bayfront Health and Gulf Coast Medical Group, based in Venice, Florida. While in this role, Ms. Fordham increased the operating margin by focusing on surgical growth in orthopedics, neurosurgery, and gynecology, along with enhancing the organization's quality scores to the highest level achievable as defined by the Leapfrog Group. Gulf Coast Medical Group was comprised of seventy-one multidisciplinary physicians across twenty-two clinic locations.
In 2018, Ms. Fordham served as the President and CEO of St. Joseph Hospital and St. Joseph Medical Group, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. There, she increased EBITDA by 40% year over year in the first quarter under her management and increased operating margin by 28%. From 2007 to 2017, Ms. Fordham served in multiple executive roles with the Detroit Medical Center (DMC) system, most recently as the President and CEO of Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital, a 158-bed full-service community teaching hospital near downtown Detroit, and Detroit Surgery Hospital, a behavioral health and acute care hospital in the same market. Ms. Fordham was also the Service Line Leader for two of the Detroit Medical Center's largest service lines, Orthopedics and Sports Medicine and Imaging Services.
"It has been a long road to find the right person for Puget. We have interviewed many candidates, but none as impressive as Karen - a top executive and dealmaker whose network carries a lot of weight in the industry," says Hermann Burckhardt, Puget's outgoing CEO. "It was evident to the team almost immediately that her extensive background in healthcare, along with her business acumen, would align very well with Puget's goals. In essence, Karen Fordham is the perfect person to implement Puget's vision."
"I am thrilled to accept this position as the new CEO of Puget Technologies, Inc.," said Karen Fordham. "I'm excited to join Puget at this important juncture. As I begin the task of surrounding myself with a hand-picked management team over the next few months, I look forward to empowering the team to execute our shared vision and uniquely positioning Puget to capitalize on the evolving healthcare sector and other promising industries."
Ms. Fordham also sits on the board of Tidewell Hospice, Avidity Home Health Care, and the Venice Chamber of Commerce, and has received many honors and awards, including inclusion in Detroit Crain's Business Top 40 under 40 in 2014 and the 2014 Esteemed Women of Michigan. In addition, in 2019, Ms. Fordham was recognized as a Top 40 Business Professional by the Venice Gondolier and by SRQ Media as a Women in Business nominee. Fordham earned an MBA and a Bachelor of Science degree with minors in business, social work, and criminal justice, all from Western Michigan University.
For additional information, please contact Puget at 1-561-210-8535, by email at info@pugettechnologies.com or visit our website for continuing updates at https://pugettechnologies.com.
About Puget Technologies, Inc.
Puget Technologies, Inc. (pugettechnologies.com) aspires to evolve into an innovation-focused holding company operating through a group of subsidiaries and business units that work together to empower ground-breaking companies to reach their next stage of growth. With a strategy that combines acquisitions, strategic investment strategies, and operational support, Puget intends to provide a one-stop shop for growing companies who need access to both capital and growth resources, while enabling Puget and its stockholders to generate synergies and derive profit through pooled resources and shared goals. Puget's proposed investment focus ranges from traditional industries like health care that are ripe for business model innovation to new markets that strive to solve big societal problems such as climate change. Puget is publicly traded on the Pink Open Market under the ticker symbol "PUGE" and is headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida.
Forward-Looking Statements
Any statements made in this press release that are not statements of historical fact, including statements about Puget's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, and should be evaluated as such. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the terms "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "goal," "intend," "may," "objective," "plan," "potential," "predict," "projection," "should," "will" or, in each case, their negative, or other variations or comparable terminology. Puget bases these forward-looking statements or projections on its current expectations, plans and assumptions that it has made in light of its experience in the industry, as well as its perceptions of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors it believes are appropriate under the circumstances and at such time. As you read and consider this press release, you should understand that these statements are not guarantees of future performance or results. The forward-looking statements and projections are subject to and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions and you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements or projections. Although Puget believes that these forward-looking statements and projections are based on reasonable assumptions at the time they are made, you should be aware that many factors could affect Puget's actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements and projections. Puget undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. If Puget does update one or more forward-looking statements, there should be no inference that it will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements.
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