Success Stories

Doug Biehn
Vice President, Corporate Marketing
Blue Shield of California

In 2004, Doug Biehn was Director, Brand Strategy at Landor Associates in San Francisco when he received a call from KLKingsley Executive Search. Blue Shield of California, an independent member of the Blue Shield Association and one of the largest provider networks, was recruiting for a Director, Brand and Marketing Communications. Doug’s experience leading the development and implementation of brand strategies for such clients as Adobe, Ford, Intel, and Microsoft, coupled with his leadership ability and creative energy, led to his successful placement at Blue Shield.

Under Doug’s leadership, Blue Shield developed an enterprise-wide brand strategy and established clear expectations and guidelines for message development, communications and marketing efforts. As a result, Blue Shield’s new corporate identity and advertising campaign, launched in October 2006, reflect the company’s commitment to making health insurance easier for all Californians.

Promoted to Vice President, Corporate Marketing in 2006, Doug’s scope of responsibility broadened to include all centralized marketing functions and management of over 100 marketing professionals. Doug and his department have won many awards including the Blue Cross/Blue Shield Association Brand Excellence Award and the Jay Sheet Planning Award. Currently, Doug sits on the Board of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.

Pete Eggleton
Administrative Director, Human Resources
Eden Medical Center

KLKingsley recruited Pete from The Clorox Company to Director, Human Resources at Sutter Solano Medical Center. Sutter Solano, a Sutter Health affiliate, has 111 beds, 700 employees and three unions - SEIU, CNA and Local 29. The CEO challenged KLKingsley to find a strategic human resources partner with extensive union experience. At Clorox, Pete supported the product supply organization, which produced name brands such as Clorox bleach, Kingsford charcoal and Glad bags and wraps. One of the many roles that Pete performed at Clorox was to develop and implement an organizational labor relations strategy as well as function as spokesperson and lead negotiator for the organization. During his tenure at Clorox, Pete successfully negotiated seven different collective bargaining units across three business units. The recruitment was a match made in heaven.

At Solano, one of Pete’s initial challenges was to develop a recruitment and retention strategy to respond to the nursing staff shortage and create stability in the nursing leadership ranks. Pete developed recruitment and retention strategy focused on moving from the mindset of nurses from one that had them acting as "renters" to one that had them engaged as "owners" and in one year that strategy resulted in over 50 nurses joining and staying with the organization. In union negotiations, Pete stays in control. He knows there are two different agendas and manages through the environment to find a win-win solution.

In July 2006, Pete was promoted to Administrative Director, Human Resources at Eden Medical Center. Comprised of two campuses, Eden has 387 beds and 1800 employees. Prior to Pete’s arrival, the human resources department was not seen as credible or proactive. Today, because of Pete’s leadership style and ability to connect and communicate with all audiences, HR is completely integrated as a true business partner, providing a high level of customer service to all departments. Pete works broadly and his influence stretches beyond HR. He promotes the idea of shared services and collaboration to reach economies of scale and more efficient systems.

Laura Newman
Administrator, Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases
Childrens Hospital Los Angeles

Laura’s experience in research administration and finance made her a strong candidate for the position of Administrator, Children’s Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases at Childrens Hospital LA. The Center, one of the largest pediatric hematology-oncology programs in the nation, enables research and clinical faculty to treat children and young adults with many forms of cancer and blood diseases generally considered rare. As Administrator, Laura is responsible for all aspects of Center operations including financial management, clinical operations, clinical research and research administration in addition to fundraising, marketing and program planning.

KLKingsley recruited Laura from City of Hope/Beckman Research Institute where Laura was responsible for the operations and financial management of four key divisions including $20 million in grants and contracts. This, along with her experience at UCLA and Cal Tech, prepared Laura for the management of a complex, multidisciplinary operation working with research, faculty members and administrative staff. Laura’s strengths include excellent organizational and analytical skills; physician relations; facilitating and solving problems; and moving projects forward.

Prior to Laura’s arrival, the Cancer and Blood Disease Center had grown rapidly. Laura’s initial priority was to evaluate infrastructure to accommodate the growing and changing demands of the program. This included an overhaul of the finance department and development and reengineering of systems and processes within clinical operations. Laura revamped the Center’s marketing materials and website and, this year, her department will embark on operational process improvement. She continues to be actively involved in the expansion of practices in the Southern California area. Laura undertook operations of the Pediatric Adolescent Hematology Oncology (PAHO) practice in Long Beach as well as the pediatric hematology-oncology practice with Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena. She opened the Ventura practice last year and is currently developing three new initiatives in Santa Clarita, Orange County and San Gabriel Valley. Currently, Laura is pursuing a dual program for an Executive MBA at The Drucker School of Management and an MPH at UCLA.