Meet the Team

John Sganga launched Innovatix in 1993 to offer group purchasing services to non-acute healthcare providers, and followed by launching Essensa in 2009 to service additional classes of trade. As President and CEO, he led both organizations through explosive growth, surpassing $8.2 billion in combined contract volume in 2016.

After Innovatix and Essensa became wholly-owned subsidiaries of Premier, Inc. in 2016, Sganga assumed his current role of Senior Vice President, Alternate Site Programs. In this role, he provides overall leadership for Premier’s non-acute, alternate site, and sponsor programs.

Sganga has close to 30 years of healthcare experience, more than half of which has focused on alternate site purchasing. Before joining Premier, Sganga served as Executive Vice President of GNYHA Ventures, the business arm of the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA), of which Essensa was a subsidiary. He joined GNYHA as Vice President of Financial Operations in 1992. Prior to that, Sganga was the Senior Director of Financial Operations at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center and worked for Ernst & Young’s Management Consulting Service. Furthermore, Sganga has been instrumental in bringing GPO services to the non-healthcare sector, including signing exclusive agreements with Minor League Baseball (MiLB) and professional hockey leagues (NHL, AHL, and ECHL), as well as creating a groundbreaking relationship with the City of New York to serve its community-based organizations.

Sganga served on the Executive Board of the Metropolitan Health Administrators’ Association (MHAA) for 17 years and was President from 1995 to 1996. He is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE).

In 1999, Sganga was recognized as one of Crain’s New York Business “40 Under Forty,” and was also awarded the New York University Alumni Torch Award for outstanding contribution in the field of public service. The Metropolitan Health Administrators’ Association (MHAA) awarded him the 2004 Award of Distinction for his commitment to healthcare on a regional and national level. In 2008, Sganga was selected as a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, New York Metro Area Healthcare Division.

Sganga continues to be a strong advocate of INCLUDEnyc, where he served on the Board of Directors. He served on the Edgemont Community Council Board of Directors for five years, where he held the office of Treasurer. In 2015, Sganga was appointed to a four-year term to the Board of Ethics of the Town of Greenburgh, NY. In 2017, Sganga joined the White Plains Hospital Board of Directors, where he serves on the Finance Committee.

John Sganga holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University, with a concentration in Health Services Management.

Dave J. Mancione is Senior Vice President of Field Services for Essensa. In his role, he is responsible for the development, implementation and management of the Essensa field team. He also oversees various strategic initiatives including directing the growth of the Essensa membership base.

Mancione brings over 20 years of progressive leadership and business accomplishments in the health care industry to Essensa. Previously, he served as Chief Executive Officer of SpecialtyMed Alliance, a group purchasing organization serving the vision care industry. He was also President of Allied Healthcare Association Services, where he managed the development of a new joint venture of 25 national, state, and metropolitan hospital associations.

Mancione received his Bachelor’s of Science. in Clinical Nutrition and Life Sciences from the State University of New York at Oneonta and holds a Master’s in Business Administration from the Long Island University in Brooklyn.

Cynthia Radford is Senior Vice President of Customer Care for Essensa. In her role, Ms. Radford provides leadership to the customer care division, in addition to her responsibilities of managing the Essensa contract portfolio and member-focused initiatives.

Radford has over 21 years of experience in the specialty distribution and pharmaceutical industry. Prior to her role at Essensa, she was part of the original Business Development team of US Oncology, a Physician Management Company, with over 900 medical oncologists. There, Radford was responsible for building relationships among hospital outpatient centers and physicians to build free standing cancer clinics. While in this role, she managed the payer arrangements with each cancer center, as well as all practice management programs.

In addition, Radford launched the first Generic equivalent to Taxol for Ivax Pharmaceuticals, managing the marketing program and forecasting production of the product’s release in Europe, South America, Canada and the United States.

Radford earned her B.A. from Boston College.

As the third employee hired to work for Innovatix, Lisa Walsh has more than 20 years of experience with the company.

A former customer service professional in the airline industry, she was hired as the first client service professional at Innovatix. In this role, she developed, built, structured and directed what would become the client service department. During this time, Walsh played a critical role in the development and documentation of standard processes.

Walsh has contributed greatly to the smooth operation and growth of the company. She has made contributions to various departments, including sales, communications, and contracting. Walsh was also part of the team that developed the first Innovatix website and ran the e-commerce program.

Currently, she is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of Administration Service as well as heading the Training Department.

Walsh holds an undergraduate degree in Merchandising & Marketing from SUNY FIT.

Gregory Montano has nearly 20 years of experience in many aspects of technology, compliance, and operations, including industry regulatory compliance, process re-engineering, change management, development, infrastructure and support primarily in healthcare, financial, and legal industries. As Senior Vice President at Innovatix, Montano manages all development initiatives, technology vendor negotiations, audit processes, and HIPAA technical regulatory compliance.

By challenging the status quo and embracing new technology, Montano’s leadership has affected pivotal technology change at Innovatix and Essensa such as electronic document generation and signature processes to a historically paper-driven industry, expansive automation projects, and reengineered contract management and customer relationship systems.

Montano earned his BA and MS from New York University and his JD from Rutgers School of Law-Newark.