HEURO - Key Persons


Arthur W. Ryan

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Heuro Health Team
  • Chief Financial Officer & Management Information Systems
Arthur Ryan spent the first 16 years of his career with JPMorgan Securities, gaining experience in the Investment Bank, before switching to the Capital Markets group. Upon his departure in 2006, Arthur led the Transportation Group within the Structured Finance Department and earned numerous transactional awards from IFR. From 2006 to 2013, Arthur held the position of COO at Loomstate LLC, a sustainable apparel company. Arthur led the transition of Loomstate from a B2C targeted fashion company to a B2B targeted, sustainable apparel company. Following Loomstate, Arthur focused on strategic investments made by the Ryan Family Office, notably in Real Estate, and acted as a Strategic Advisor to the Private Equity Firm, TurtleBay Capital. Arthur shifted his focus to healthcare in 2014 and was an original investor and partner in Heuro. Today, he serves as CFO focused on Treasury, Corporate Finance, Risk Management, and Management Information Systems for the Company. Mr. Ryan holds a BA in Mathematics from Providence College and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Gary Tsimba

Job Titles:
  • Security & Compliance Manager
Dr. Gary Tsimba brings a wealth of information technology skills and transformative technology leadership experience, having led, and executed complex multi-disciplinary projects for healthcare, financial services, non-profit organizations, and federal contracting agencies. Dr. Tsimba has more than 20 years of experience managing and supporting diverse information systems, corporate IT strategies, information security governance, cybersecurity risk management, enterprise migrations to the cloud, overseeing technical systems implementation, software development, and developing information technology and cybersecurity policies in multiple user environments. He also serves as virtual Chief Information Security Officer advising several organizations during information security planning, risk assessment audits, and cybersecurity roadmap. In addition, Dr. Tsimba has industry expertise in cybersecurity risk frameworks and compliance governance, including CMMI, HIPAA, HITRUST, NIST, SOC, PCI, FFIEC, FDCPA, TCPA, and more. Dr. Tsimba led successful cybersecurity information awareness events at the height of the Covid19 pandemic and continues to contribute as a speaker during the National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. In addition, he published profound research exploring the strategic management principles to improve information security governance in small and medium-sized businesses. Dr. Tsimba holds a Doctor of Management in Technology Management, an MBA in Technology Management, a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology and Security from Colorado Technical University, and a Masters Certificate in Information Security Management & Government from Villanova University. Dr. Tsimba enjoys travel, time with family, soccer, tennis, golf, and he is a certified US Soccer National coach and USSF National Soccer Referee.

Dr. Michael J. Manyak

Job Titles:
  • Director of Physician Networks
  • National Fellow of the Explorer 's Club
Dr. Michael J. Manyak is an explorer, author, urologist, and corporate medical executive. He is Global Medical Affairs Director for the GlaxoSmithKline urology franchise. He is the Chief Medical Advisor for Crisis Response for Accenture, a Fortune 100 company. He is an Adjunct Professor of Urology and Engineering at The George Washington University (GWU) and a member of the Baylor College of Medicine National School of Tropical Medicine. He is the former Chief Medical Officer for Triple Canopy, Inc., a large international high risk security firm. Dr. Manyak spent 16 years at GWU after his fellowship in biotechnology at the National Cancer Institute. He was selected as the GW Urology Distinguished Alumnus in 2017. Dr. Manyak is a National Fellow of The Explorer's Club (TEC), served on the TEC Board of Directors from 1996-2006, and received its prestigious Sweeney Medal. He is an Associate Editor of The Explorers Journal with a column on Expedition Medicine. Dr. Manyak has led or been medical director for scientific expeditions to: the RMS Titanic wreck site for artifact salvage; the Ndoki rain forest in the Congo Basin; the Spanish treasure galleon Nuestra Senora de Atocha; an Antarctic ice breaker expedition; the deepest canyon in the world in Peru; the first scientific dive in Mongolia in Asia's second largest lake; the remote Amazon Yasuni Reserve; and the Gobi Desert observing the newly discovered and highly endangered wild camel.

Dr. Shri Noel

Job Titles:
  • Medical Director
  • Certified Internal Medicine Physician
Dr. Shri Noel is a board-certified Internal Medicine physician. She completed her Medical Degree at SUNY Upstate Medical University and completed her Internal Medicine residency at the University of Rochester Medical Center. After completing her training, Dr. Noel remained at the University of Rochester to start her clinical practice, providing general medical care to adults, with a special interest in preventative care. She is extremely passionate about preventative care and using dietary, lifestyle, and behavioral adjustments to address many of the chronic issues that Americans face today. Dr. Noel lives in the DC-area with her family.

Jesse Kessler - CEO, Founder

Job Titles:
  • Chief Executive Officer
  • Founder
  • Member of the Heuro Health Team
Jesse Kessler has been a successful entrepreneur for the past 20 years. His vision for Heuro Health is to grow the company's technologies, processes, networks and solutions to enable the utmost in efficient, affordable, and accessible healthcare. In 2003 Jesse founded Global Pharmaceutical Sourcing, a specialty pharmaceutical distribution business selling to hospitals, home infusion centers, surgery centers, blood banks and other providers. He served as CEO and grew revenue from $0.0 to $65MM in 2007, eventually selling the business in 2008. Mr. Kessler was an investor in the iCan Group and CEO of InteractiveMD (a division of the iCan Group), a leading national insurance broker and placement agency for health, P&C, Auto and Telemedicine. Jesse was also Chairman of the Board of Associated Third Party Administrators, one of the largest Taft-Hartley TPA's in the country. Jesse holds a B.S. from the University of Maryland and currently resides in New York City with his wife and dog.

Jori Sisk

Job Titles:
  • Vice President of Wellbeing & Member Experience
Jori Sisk has a master's degree in health education with a focus on community development and is a National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC), a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) and is trained as a Lifestyle Coach for diabetes prevention. After earning her undergraduate degree, Jori joined the Peace Corps and served in Madagascar as a health volunteer. While there, she worked primarily with women and children on health and prevention education, including nutrition, puberty education and basic sanitation. After graduate school, Jori worked for a rural county public health department as a health educator and focused on heart health, physical activity and wrote and recorded radio ads that highlighted the health department's current events. In 2007, Jori began working as a health and wellness coach in a corporate environment and has extensive experience coaching others in the areas of stress management, weight management (including preparation for bariatric surgery), sleep improvement, diabetes prevention, and nicotine cessation. She has mentored new coaches, created and edited wellness content, presented on coaching techniques to other coaches and served as a leader to her coaching team and a respected wellness advocate for her company.

Kevin McAllister

Job Titles:
  • Vice President of Intelligence
Kevin McAllister has extensive professional experience in health care systems, research and development and business development and marketing. He has spent over 30 years in the healthcare industry in various roles and worked at several of the most prestigious hospitals in New York City. Kevin's focus has been primarily in technology and technology-solutions, with innovation a key component. He has consulted with, and advised, a number of technology firms and has both started or been an early participant in new healthcare technologies. With a large breadth of experience, Kevin has deep knowledge of intellectual property and patent processes. In addition, he has helped design software systems, medical devices, as well as chemical and micro-material products. He has advised numerous companies on App and product development. Kevin has uniquely provided the required problem-solving skills as related to disparate technologies and how to leverage unique abilities to provide solutions not readily apparent.

Kurt Kendall - COO

Job Titles:
  • Chief Operating Officer
Kurt Kendall is the Chief Operating Officer at Heuro Health with responsibility for growing the membership base, deepening and expanding our client relationships, and continuing to develop and build out our innovative digital health platform. Prior to joining Heuro Health, Kurt held various senior leadership roles in strategy, analytics, and operations for leading brands including Glaxosmithkline Consumer Healthcare (now Haleon) where he was the Chief Insights & Analytics Officer, Under Armour where he was the Global VP of Consumer Engagement, and Sears Holdings where he was the VP of Consumer Strategy and Data Analytics. Kurt also worked in the consulting industry for McKinsey & Company and Kurt Salmon where he served companies in the healthcare, financial services, and retail industries on growth and transformation agendas linked to digital, data, and analytics. Kurt has a Doctorate in Inorganic Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor's of Science magna cum laude in Chemistry from the University of Maryland College Park. He has published extensively on how companies succeed in a digital and data centric world and has been quoted in leading publications including the Wall Street Journal and Forbes. He lives in Greenwich, CT with his wife and three children and in his free time likes to cook, travel, and play water polo.

Mike Barch - Chairman

Job Titles:
  • Chairman of the Board

Roxana Rafatjah

Job Titles:
  • Chief Brand, Marketing & Engagement Officer
Roxana is a purpose and mission driven marketing executive and TEDx Speaker with 15 years of experience working with major media and start-up brands. Heuro's award-winning brand falls under Roxana's management. She has led conscious leadership panels across the country including at Advertising Week, 1 Hotels, and Donna Karan's Urban Zen, and she leads all marketing, public relations, impact initiatives, content and brand partnerships for Heuro. In 2005, Roxana began her career in consumer marketing at Food Network and was instrumental in executing the first ever title sponsorship of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival. She has lead merchandising and project managed multiple corporate marketing initiatives at A+E Networks and subsidiary brands, A&E, History Channel, Lifetime Networks, Bio, FYI, Vice, etc prior to taking on more entrepreneurial consulting and advisory roles. Roxana is a meditation and conscious business enthusiast and also founded a thought leadership platform, Conscious Enterprises in 2017. She has appeared at Advertising Week New York, where she hosted the very first meditation session in 16 years of the global conference, alongside a CEO panel discussion about impact and introspection.

Sameer Ughande - CIO

Job Titles:
  • Chief Information Officer
Mr. Sameer Ughade has 15 years of experience in the field of Information Technology. He has worked in IT leadership roles at many healthcare, financial services and logistics companies in the US in the last 15 years. Mr. Ughade has working in roles of CIO, Director of IT, CISO leading the technology teams and strategy execution on large complex conversion projects. Mr. Ughade has expertise in Information Security (HIPAA/PCI/TCPA, etc.), Cloud Computing, Software Development, BI Data and Analytics, ERP and CRM Implementations. Mr. Ughade's educational background includes Master of Science degree in Computer Engineering from the George Washington University and Bachelor of Engineering degree from the Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology in India. He is a Certified Project Management Professional and CISM Information Security Manager.