Meet the Speakers.
Jennifer Aylwin
Jenn joined Vertex Pharmaceuticals in 2021 and currently serves as Director of Benefits responsible for the design and delivery of their North America benefits along with Global Wellness & Benefits Education. She has a passion and focus on bringing innovative benefits to employees and their families ensuring programs foster inclusivity and support well-being. Prior to Vertex, she was at Nuance Communications, where she most recently was the Director of Global Benefits. Earlier in her career, Jenn spent 12 years at Randstad, where she held a number of roles with increasing responsibilities within their benefits team.
Jenn is a long-time NEEBC member, content contributor, and mentor. Her contributions expanded significantly once she was appointed to the NEEBC Board of Directors, first as a member, then as the VP of Administration for the Board’s Executive Committee, and now as Board President.
Director of Benefits, Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Rob LaHayne
Rob LaHayne is the Co-Founder & Chief Commercial Officer at Leap, where he leads the company’s commercial strategy and go-to-market execution. He oversees sales, partnerships, and growth initiatives, working closely with benefits leaders and ecosystem partners to expand access to Leap’s specialty infusion solutions.
Before co-founding Leap, Rob was the CEO of TouchCare, a care navigation solution for employers. Rob has 20 years of experience in employer healthcare; working with companies of all sizes on benefits plan design, strategy, and technology solutions.
Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Leap Health
Vice President, Aetna Pharmacy Patrick Callahan
In this role, he is accountable for Aetna’s pharmacy strategy and performance across all lines of business, leading end‑to‑end management of drug spend across both pharmacy and medical benefits to drive clinical, financial, and operational outcomes that improve member experience and strengthen Aetna’s value proposition.
Pat’s scope also includes Value Management, encompassing Aetna Healthcare Affordability, Total Cost of Care excellence, and Revenue Integrity. He oversees cross‑functional initiatives to standardize performance reporting, strengthen governance, reduce medical and administrative costs, enhance compliance, and ensure accurate and transparent revenue capture.
Operating at the intersection of Aetna’s health plans and the broader CVS Health enterprise, Pat partners closely with functional leaders and P&L owners to identify and accelerate affordability opportunities. His work delivers integrated pharmacy and affordability solutions while advancing Aetna’s strategic imperatives to Excel at the Fundamentals, Be Truly Distinctive, and Build a Winning Culture driving sustainable improvements in total cost of care, provider engagement, and operational performance.
Since joining CVS Health in 2009, Pat has held several leadership positions, including CFO of Network and Operations at Aetna, as well as roles supporting CVS and Caremark’s development of value‑driven products. His background spans finance, strategic initiatives, process improvement, and risk management, following early experience as a tax consultant.
Pat holds an MS in Healthcare Leadership from Brown University, an MS in Taxation from Northeastern University, and a BS in Economics from Assumption University. He lives outside Boston, MA with his wife and four daughters.
Mark Lyons
Principal Business Development, Amazon Pharmacy
Throughout his career, Mark has held leadership positions across the pharmacy ecosystem, including clinical pharmacy practice in hospital settings, pharmacy benefit management (PBM), and pharmacy consulting at a BCBS organization. Most notably, he led pharmacy benefits strategy at Amazon, where he co-authored the foundational Amazon Pharmacy whitepaper and subsequently joined the implementation team to launch Amazon Pharmacy.
Today, Mark partners with large employers, small to medium-sized PBMs, and select benefit consultants to reimagine pharmacy benefits delivery. His work focuses on creating sustainable value for payers and patients while elevating the customer experience in an industry ripe for transformation.
Ellen Mcsoley
Senior Pharmacy Account Executive, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
Kajaal Patel
Director, Fertility Product Strategy, Freedom Fertility by Evernorth
Kajaal Patel is the Director of Product Strategy for Evernorth’s fertility pharmacies, Freedom Fertility and VFP Pharmacy Group by Evernorth. In this role, she leads the development and execution of innovative products and solutions designed to meet the evolving fertility needs of both clients and patients. Kajaal partners closely with pharmacy, clinical, and cross‑functional teams to deliver scalable, patient‑centered care solutions that support specialty and fertility care.
Kajaal earned her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from St. John’s University in New York in 1993 and brings almost 30 years of experience in fertility pharmacy. Prior to her current role, she held multiple leadership positions within the specialty and retail pharmacy divisions of a large national chain, serving as the fertility business owner. Her responsibilities included shaping fertility strategies, overseeing program development, and leading the execution of strategic go‑to‑market initiatives.
Greg Redlinger
Area Vice President, Gallagher
Greg specializes in providing pharmacy benefits consulting services for national employer accounts. He is responsible for serving as lead consultant for employer client relationships managing all aspects of ongoing and project-based engagements. Greg provides consulting in RFP project management, pricing and financial guarantee experience that drives savings while providing strategic pharmacy consulting
Greg began his pharmacy benefit management career in 2008 and joined Gallagher in 2013.
Prior to joining Gallagher in 2013, Greg was with Catamaran (formerly Catalyst Rx). He also worked in a variety of financial roles for private and public companies outside of the PBM industry
Aaron Wurst
Advisor, Goodpath
Aaron previously served as President of Truepill, where he helped bring many of the early direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical programs to market and led 2.5x revenue growth ahead of the company’s $700M+ acquisition. Before that, he spent a decade at CVS Health and held strategic roles at The Carlyle Group, where he led the firm’s Healthy Benefits Initiative focused on lowering medical and pharmacy costs across nearly 80 portfolio companies. Aaron holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Employee Benefits Pharmacy Consultant, USIChris Laverty
Chris has worked to provide strategic advice and support to plan sponsors on all aspects of pharmacy benefit plans since 2012; from needs analysis to plan design, funding options, implementation, contract enhancements, and administration.
More recently he has focused on PBM risk management consulting, concentrating on net acquisition cost, clean contracts, pharmacy RFP’s, and clinical management. Across his career, Chris has managed and consulted for dozens of clients across the country.
Chris is a licensed Life, Accident, and Health producer and a graduate of LeMoyne College in Syracuse, NY. He currently lives in Cicero, NY with his wife of 12 years, Sharon, and their 3 children: Teagan, Taryn, and Logan.
Erin Lenox
Healthcare Executive
Most recently, Erin Lenox served as President of Cigna Healthcare National Accounts, overseeing both new and existing business for large employers, as well as consultant strategy and strategic markets for Cigna Healthcare. In this role, Erin set the vision and strategy to drive growth across the National Accounts segment and worked closely with members of the U.S. Employer senior leadership team, Evernorth Health Services, and enterprise partners to deliver value for Cigna clients and members. Prior to joining Cigna, Erin was the Senior Vice President of Sales and Client Management at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, and she previously served as a Senior Director in the health and benefits practice at WTW.
Erin has extensive experience consulting with large employers and designing comprehensive health care benefit strategies to achieve diverse health and wellbeing objectives. Erin earned an undergraduate degree from the College of the Holy Cross and a master’s degree in public health from Yale University. She also holds the Certified Employee Benefits Specialist designation from the Wharton School of Management, University of Pennsylvania and is an Executive Leadership Program fellow of America’s Health Insurance Plans.
Erin has received numerous professional awards and other recognition, and she frequently speaks on industry topics in the marketplace. Erin formerly served as board President of the New England Employee Benefits Council (NEEBC) and Blue Benefit Administrators (BBA) and served on the board of directors for Consortium Health Plans (CHP).
Joana Nassa
Senior Vice President, Aon
Since beginning her career in 2000, she has held multiple leadership roles in pharmacy consulting, with a consistent focus on innovation, cost management, and practical solutions that improve access to care.
Over the course of her career, Joana has led the design and launch of innovative pharmacy strategies and products aimed at helping plan sponsors address rising drug costs while maintaining competitive, sustainable benefits. She has created and managed pharmacy purchasing collectives, advised large and jumbo multinational organizations, and is known for negotiating market-leading contractual terms and aggressive pricing with pharmacy benefit partners.
As a senior pharmacy leader, Joana works closely with employers to develop multi-year strategic roadmaps that balance clinical outcomes, member experience, and financial performance. Her work centers on bringing forward-looking, data-driven ideas to clients so they can continue to offer affordable, high-quality pharmacy benefits to their employees.
Paul Jeffrey , PharmD, BSPharm, FAMCP
Principal, Jeffrey Consulting
Dr. Jeffrey is an independent consultant specializing in Medicaid pharmacy, formulary development and delivery, value-based care and outcomes-based therapeutics contracts with a focus on rare diseases, cell and gene therapy and prescription digital therapeutics. His clients include biopharmaceutical/health sciences, market research, and investment advisory companies, as well as publicly funded health programs (international, federal, state and local). He is also a board member of Manet Community Health Center.
Jeffrey is recently retired as Senior Director of Pharmacy in the Office of Clinical Affairs at the UMass Chan Medical School (UMMS) / ForHealth Consulting. In this capacity, he was Senior Director of Pharmacy for Massachusetts Medicaid and was responsible for the state’s pharmacy and medical drug benefit for approximately 1.2million of MassHealth’s 2 million members and a budget of $2.3billion; and negotiated supplemental rebate agreements of $300+ million. He also coordinated clinical and business pharmacy relations with the state’s partner Medicaid managed care plans. Jeffrey is retired Associate Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health at UMMS. He is a Past President of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP).
Tanya Riley
Director of Benefits, ZOLL Medical
Tanya joined ZOLL in 2016 and with her support, ZOLL has broadened its holistic benefits to employees in the areas of health care, financial preparedness and overall wellness. She is a champion of the many offerings available to employees and helps connect people to the right resources to better understand and fully take advantage of ZOLL’s programs.
Prior to joining ZOLL, Tanya worked at Thermo Fisher Scientific, Philips and Monster Worldwide in benefits leadership and in M&A integration roles. From her experiences, she brings deep knowledge and expertise to her work.