Senior Management Professional Biographies

Amir Neshat, D.D.S.

Founder/Chairman/CEO
Dr. Neshat's experience in managed healthcare and dental benefits results from leadership roles at multiple organizations including Preferred Dental Care, Family Dental, Dental Café Mobile Dental Services, and Columbus Dental Group. He has been a professional involved in many different aspects of dental care for approximately 15 years. He comes from a family of health care professionals and successful business professionals and has demonstrated his capabilities in dentistry, general business management, and turn-around management through various different ventures. Dr. Neshat's education includes a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and a Doctor of Dental Surgery Degree from the University of Southern California (USC). He has been an expert consultant/provider in the dental field for a number of health/dental insurance companies, legal firms, and government agencies.

John Carvelli

Executive Vice President
John is a Director and EVP of the LIBERTY Dental Plan group of companies. John has extensive experience in healthcare financial matters and has provided business and public affairs services for healthcare companies including the Children's Hospital, Adventist Healthcare and the Tenet and Sharp Healthcare Systems.

Stu Gray

Chief Operating Officer
Stu brings over 20 years of experience in the healthcare benefits industry including 13 years specific to State dental programs. He is responsible for LIBERTY's operational activities. As you know, he previously served as VP of Operations with Universal Care, Inc. for 13 years; a 500,000 member HMO. This experience gave him unique perspective in understanding the medical dental relationship. Through these activities, Stu was able to increase preventative service to dental beneficiaries by 50%.

Randy Brecher

Vice President & President of LIBERTY Dental Plan of Nevada
Randy is a senior operations and finance executive with many years of experience running dental insurance companies. He served as the President of Pacific Dental Benefits, Inc., a 750,000 member dental insurance company operating in 15 states. Randy was initially recruited as the CFO of this start-up venture and he is credited with developing a final membership base of 750,000 before it was sold to UnitedHealth Group in 2005. Prior to Pacific Dental, he served as the CFO and COO of Delta PMI Dental Health Plan which had grown to 1,000,000 members at the time of his departure.

Bill Henderson

Vice President of Business Development, Government Programs
Bill comes to LIBERTY from Houston, Texas where he most recently served as Executive Vice President, Medicare / Medicaid, for First Continental Life and Health/Dental Economics. He has over 15 years of professional management experience in the health insurance/ Medicaid /Medicare Managed Care industry. Bill's other positions include serving as CEO of OptiCare Health System division in Texas from 1994 until 2003 and SR.VP of Business Development for OptiCare Health Systems parent company from 1994 until 2003.

Richard Hague, DMD, MPA

Dental Director
Dr. Hague has been the Dental Director of LIBERTY Dental Plan since inception. His obtained his dental degree at the Oregon Health Science Center; he did his Endodontic Fellowship training in Norfolk, VA and obtained his Masters in Public Administration from Troy State University. Dr. Hague is primarily responsible for dental policy and decision making for LIBERTY. He directs and supervises LIBERTY'S Quality Management and Improvement Department including, but not limited to, grievance, peer review, quality assurance, quality audits, monitoring, training, credentialing and utilization management reporting.

Maja Kapic

Chief Financial Officer
Ms. Kapic has primary responsibility for the financial statements, reports, auditing and accounting systems for LIBERTY. As the controller of the company, the accounting department, payroll, purchasing and collections departments report to her. Ms. Kapic joined LIBERTY Dental Plan in March of 2004 as Lead Account and was named Chief Financial Officer on January 1, 2005. Ms. Kapic holds a Masters Degree of Science in Business and Economic Administration from the Norwegian School of Business and Economic Administration in Bergen, Norway. Prior to joining LIBERTY Dental Plan she was the Assistant Manager for NORICOM Language Service Agency in Bergen, Norway. In this position Ms. Kapic implemented a new IT system, maintained and updated and internal data base and was in charge of quality control.

Hugh Hazlewood

Vice President, Commercial Business Development
Hugh Hazlewood has been the Vice President, New Business Development for LIBERTY Dental Plan for the past five years. Hazlewood has over 29 years of success in the health benefits industry including medical, dental, and vision insurance along with Knox-Keene licensed prepaid plans. He began his health benefits career with the Blues plans in New Mexico, Colorado, Northern California and Southern California. He then was a Senior Account Executive with Delta Dental Plan of California for 10 years. Hazlewood joined Maxicare in 1995 as Vice President of National Accounts before accepting the position of Vice President, Western Region for Pacific Union Dental in 2000. Hazlewood's primary business focus in the California health benefits market has been Taft-Harley Trust Funds. He is accepted by the labor community as a trustworthy sales and service individual who can deliver the products and the outstanding service he sells. He also has many contacts in the commercial brokerage community.

Lynda Bull

Vice President, Professional Services
Ms. Bull provides LIBERTY with over 27 years of healthcare industry experience. She is currently the Vice President of Professional Services and is integrally involved in the executive management of LIBERTY. Bull most recently worked for UnitedHealth Group's division, UnitedHealthcare (UHC), as the Western Regional Vice President for Professional Network Relations, Dental and Vision. During her 7 year tenure at UHC and its acquired company, PacificDental Benefits (PDBI), Lynda was responsible for regional operations, all professional relations activities, including provider network development and retention, quality management and served as an integration team leader and special project manager.

Bull's background includes serving as Vice President, Professional Relations for Delta Dental Plan of California, Vice President for Oral Health Services, Inc. of California and directing the start up of Dental Net for Blue Cross of California. Bull's expertise includes plan benefit design, regulatory compliance, education program development for providers, employers and members, and all interrelated quality assurance processes.

Kevin Ennis

Vice President of Northeast Operations & National Accounts
Kevin has 23 years of experience in the Health Care industry. He started his career with one of the largest Managed Care Organizations in the Northeast, US HealthCare where he worked in direct sales and National Accounts managing clients such as Continental Airlines and Hilton Hotels. Prior to joining LIBERTY DENTAL Kevin spent the previous 12 years with Delta Dental of New York where he was responsible for managing relationships with some of Delta Dental's largest customers including American Express and Citigroup and other well recognized companys' such as COACH, Leviton Manufacturing, JetBlue, SAK's, Random House, Sony BMG, Philips Electronics, Carl Icahn and Associates and Hess Corporation.
Kevin received his BA from Ramapo College of NJ with a concentration in Healthcare Administration. Kevin currently holds his NY State Life/Health insurance brokers licence.

Marsha Hazlewood

Vice President, Client Services
Marsha Hazlewood, Vice President of Client Services for LIBERTY Dental Plan, has been a member of the management team for over five years. She entered the dental benefits industry in 1989 after a 20 year career as an expanded-functions chair-side dental assistant. Marsha was a Sales Representative and Provider Relations Representative for Delta Dental Plan of Kansas prior to transferring to the Sales Department of Delta Dental Plan of California in 1991. In 1995, she joined Ameritas as a Sales Representative in Southern California. Marsha moved to the medical benefits arena in 1998, working as a Senior Account Manager for Maxicare. She left Maxicare to join the Sales Department of Pacific Union Dental in 2000.

Brian Benjamin, D.D.S.

Dental Director, Utilization Management
Dr. Benjamin achieved his Dental Degree from the Loma Linda University School of Dentistry. He opened and operated a family dental practice in California for sixteen years before joining Delta Dental of California as a full time dental consultant. He has been a member of the American Dental Association for over 35 years and has been a Certified Dental Consultant with the American Association of Dental Consultants since 1997. He became a part of Liberty's team in the Spring of 2009. Under the direction of Liberty's COO and the Quality Management Committee, he manages day-to-day operations of the Utilization Management program and oversees the staff assigned to carry out related UM activities.

Rob Linfield

Director, Administrative Services
Rob brings a wealth of knowledge related to the dental and vision industry. He has over 15 years of experience and has held various managerial positions such as; sales, account management, accounts receivable, e-commerce and project management. With his diversified background Rob has the flexibility and understanding to focus efforts on providing world class service to our customers and promote operational efficiencies and process improvement. Rob received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix and is certified in process improvement techniques.

Gina Ybarra

Director, Human Resources
Gina has over seven years of Human Resources experience. Gina started as a Human Resources generalist at SafeGuard Dental and Vision as was subsequently promoted to the Recruiting and Training manager. In 2006 Gina served as the Human Resources Specialist at HemoCue, Inc., A Quest Diagnostics, Inc., Company. Gina graduated from California State University, Fullerton and has her Human Resources Certification from the University of California, Irvine.

Terry Allen

General Manager of Nevada Operations
Mr. Allen, Vice-President and Co-Owner of Network Insurance Services, Inc. for seven years, recently sold this Insurance brokerage firm specializing in individual, small & medium sized group insurance benefits, providing health, dental, life, vision and disability products. Prior to that, Mr. Allen spent 21 years in hospital management and administration in the Las Vegas market.

Machelle Madden-Crum

Director, Claims Administration
Machelle Madden-Crum is Director of Claims Administration, previously held position of Director of Provider Relations for LIBERTY Dental Plan. Over 23 years of experience in the dental field including dental assistant, insurance billing, coordination of dental treatment/benefits and office management. With-in the company, Machelle was advanced to her present position. Her extensive background offers the Claims Department the unique quality to address questions that arise from Liberty Dental Providers, effectively and efficiently. She has a strong commitment to work with doctors and office managers to obtain the best patient care outcome which benefits the Providers as well as the Members in understanding the process of managed care.