Key People

After completing his Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Otago, New Zealand, Hamish MacDonald spent most of two decades in Japan, where he twice built multimillion-dollar businesses in consumer marketing. On both occasions he helped adapt US products to the Japanese market. Mr. MacDonald also founded a Japan market-entry and media consultancy, prior to serving as CEO for an e-payments venture in Japan.

In February 2010, Mr. MacDonald returned to New Zealand to set up Lifetime Health Diary™ as a company. He was inspired by a vision for enabling patients and health professionals to view and analyze health data more holistically and collaboratively. Over many years the vision was refined, the core ideas built out and iterated, ultimately turning Lifetime Health Diary into a global system for better and more efficient healthcare delivery.

Mr. Saunders is a successful businessman, investor, and entrepreneur with over 30 years’ experience starting, managing, and growing a variety of businesses. Most recently, Mr. Saunders served as Chairman of the Board of Directors and as an active advisor-investor in Medical Referral Source, Inc., a Tucson, Arizona-based medical software startup company which was sold to the Advisory Board, Inc.; becoming a publicly traded company in July 2013.

Saunders is a Member of the Board of Ridgetop Group, Inc., a Tucson-based predictive analytics, aviation equipment design/engineering, and semiconductor design/engineering company. Mr. Saunders has been a Volunteer Board Member for the El Rio Community Health Center for over 18 years, and advised many other community service organizations in Tucson. Saunders is passionate about improving public health, and empowering consumers to get and stay well.

Jay is Managing Director of Professional Health Technologies (USA) LLC, a strategic consulting firm that provides strategic development, business planning and operational facilitation services for companies who seek to bring new products, services or technologies to the U.S. healthcare marketplace He has over 30 years experience as an entrepreneur, business consultant and investor, has founded or co-founded four companies, and served as partner or executive officer of multiple other entrepreneurial ventures, two of which were acquired by Fortune 500 companies.

Jay has been an investor in and Director of numerous private companies in markets including drug anti-counterfeiting, mobile health, pharmacy & health IT, medical devices, tissue engineering, wound healing and protein translation engineering, as well as software companies in the bioengineering, financial, legal and Internet industries. He was a founding Board member of the Life Sciences I.T. Global Institute, which was merged into HIMSS.

Jay is a long-time member of Tech Coast Angels, and served as VP of the TCA BioMed Track for 6 years. He has been a consultant on angel investing to the government of New Zealand and Incubators New Zealand, and a Visiting Fellow with the Australian Institute for Commercialisation.

Jay holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from MIT, where he contributed to the first Electronic Health Record system, developed by Massachusetts General Hospital.

Russell Tevis has extensive experience in leadership and operations in the Healthcare industry. Mr. Tevis specializes in working with companies to bridge business, regulatory, security, and technical requirements; and has been pivotal in bringing products from inception to market. Prior to joining The Diary he was responsible for scaling innovative IT solutions for the clinical teams at The Advisory Board Company, a large publicly listed healthcare company based in Washington, DC. He is skilled at working directly with clients to determine needs, translating these to business strategies and implementation plans to ensure product delivery and compliance.

After obtaining his B.S/B.A in Computer Science and Business Management, Mr. Tevis began his professional career as a computer programmer for General Motors, Electronic Data Systems, and Hughes Missile Systems. Nearly twenty-five years ago he migrated to Healthcare working for many years with Sunquest Information Systems as Associate Vice President of software development where he specialized in new product initiatives and acquisitions. Mr. Tevis was also CIO/COO with Medical Referral Source, a start-up company that was successfully sold to The Advisory Board in 2013.

When not sailing, Russell enjoys the collaborative process of working with stakeholders, customers, and vendors on creative solutions and directing operations to ensure success.

Dr. Michael brings 30 years of behavioral health and public health experience to the Diary Corporation. He has been a staunch supporter of patient rights and patient engagement.  He has provided executive program direction in both public and private sector organizations serving populations including adolescents, seniors and individuals diagnosed with chronic mental illnesses.  He is licensed substance abuse counselor and behavior change specialist.  He recently served as the Director of the Arizona Smokers’ Helpline, sculpting a tobacco cessation quitline that achieved international recognition for improved clinical outcomes and programming, including the largest healthcare provider referral network in the United States.  He was able to improve clinical outcomes while reducing the cost of services, leading to an increase of funding by 400% over the first three years.  He currently advises nationally on outcome benchmarking in behavioral health settings and is one of the authors of the national standards for partial hospitalization programs in the United States.  Dr. Michael brings a core set of skills that use data-driven outcomes for making informed business decisions.  His implementation processes optimize behavior change strategies to increase adoption and proactively address the challenges of behavior change to increase effectiveness in multiple environments.

Rachael oversees US and International Partnerships and Business Development for The Diary Corporation (TDC). She previously was responsible for launching several technology acquisitions as an Associate Director within the Performance Technologies division of The Advisory Board Company (ABC), a large publicly listed healthcare company based in Washington DC. During her time with The Advisory Board, Ms. Jacobson worked with numerous  large and progressive healthcare systems. She partnered with executives at ABC as a strategic adviser to many senior executives at Academic, Public and Private hospitals and health systems on issues encompassing profitable growth, physician alignment, Clinical Integration, strategic planning, rapid margin recovery and workforce efficiency.

Ms. Jacobson also served as a Manager within their National Accounts division, and as a Senior Associate for the Advisory Board’s Research and Insights and Performance Technologies Divisions, driving innovation for several members through the firm’s 50+ offerings.

Ms. Jacobson received her bachelor’s degree from New York University and now resides in Colorado.

Althea joined The Diary Corp. in 2015 to lead The Diary’s marketing strategy during the transition to an enterprise-focused offering. Althea brings over 15 years of experience in healthcare marketing, with significant experience leading marketing teams in a startup environment.
Mrs. Thigpen received a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish with a Minor in Business. She then went on to earn a Certificate in Marketing from UC Berkeley.

Omid Moghadam is an Entrepreneur, Investor, and Life Sciences and Tech CEO. He has spent the last 18 years bringing new products and businesses to the market – in fields ranging from photography, medical imaging, and microprocessors to graphics, healthcare information technology, and genomics.

Mr. Moghadam is an experienced executive, entrepreneur, and inventor; and is an expert in intellectual property strategy development. He specializes in finding markets for new technologies, or finding new markets for old technologies. His passion lies in developing new business models and new corporate structures.

Dr. Nevin was an undergraduate at Dartmouth College prior to graduating from Northwestern University Medical school in 1965. Following graduation he was in intern at Cook County Hospital and medical resident in the Northwestern University programs in Chicago, Illinois. From 1969 until 1971 he served as a Major in the United States Air Force.

Afterwards, he moved to Tucson, Arizona where he joined the University of Arizona as a fellow and clinical faculty member in the Division of Pulmonology and Critical Care. While he was a faculty member, he worked with the thoracic surgeons and the pulmonologists at the University Hospital and other local hospitals in Tucson. He establish the fiberoptic bronchoscopy programs at the Tucson VA Hospital, University of Arizona Hospital, Tucson Medical Center, and St. Joseph’s Hospital. He also taught airway anatomy and fiberoptic bronchoscopy to the pulmonary fellows and attending staff physicians at the University of Arizona, and to practicing physicians throughout Arizona. His research activities at the University of Arizona involved newer applications of airway endoscopy and included the rapid diagnosis of pulmonary infections and the early detection of lung cancer.

Over the years, Dr. Nevin has served on numerous community boards, including the El Rio Community Health Center where he was a member of the Quality Assurance Committee; Pima County Air Quality Advisory Committee; Kino Community Hospital Advisory Board where he was President and Medical Director; The Arizona Thoracic Society, and the Arizona Lung Association. He was also actively involved in efforts to eliminate the use of tobacco products in public places. He played major roles in the elimination of tobacco use in the work place, shopping centers, schools, hospitals, and restaurants in Tucson, Pima County, and across Arizona.

In 1974, along with two associates, he founded Pima Care, the first major Health Maintenance Organization in Tucson; and also Group Health Medical Associates (GHMA), a private multi-specialty medical group delivering care to members of Pima Care and other patients in Tucson. While practicing at GHMA he continued an active practice of internal medicine, pulmonology, and critical care at the major hospitals in Tucson. In his role as director of quality at GHMA it was proven that when caring for patients, there is no substitute for good judgement. Education of physicians, care givers, and patients is more effective at improving care and decreasing waste in healthcare than laws and legislation.

Dr. Lianov is the founder of HealthType™, where she acts as Lifestyle Medicine Leader and Health Behavior Interventions Consultant, as well as a public speaker and an innovator.

HealthType™ offers digital programs and interactive workshops for health professionals and lay audiences. Lianov’s passion lies in how to use brain function strengths to achieve and maintain healthy habits and gain emotional energy and happiness.

Her medical specialties include Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Internal Medicine, and a fellowship in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. She has experience in government, non-profit and for-profit sectors in progressive leadership roles; and is a leader in national professional and physician organizations. Dr. Lianov has experience in teaching and mentorship at academic institutions.

Her passion is developing low cost and sustainable ways for individuals and populations to develop and maintain habits for physical and mental health – including healthy lifestyles, managing stress, adhering to health screenings and medications, and gaining emotional energy and happiness. These goals can be accomplished by leveraging supportive environments and health systems, digital tools, and positive psychology.

Recently Dr. Lianov’s experience has focused on Lifestyle Medicine, which aims to promote healthy lifestyles for both the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases, and significantly lower the cost of health care. The Lifestyle Medicine community is defining the skills and knowledge needed for physicians to offer high quality lifestyle medicine services within the current healthcare environment.