Mark Cuban, Investor & Entrepreneur

Billionaire venture capitalist Mark Cuban has founded or invested early in hundreds of startup companies over the years. But only one of them, founded in January 2022, bears his name. 

The Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co. seeks to disrupt the $365 billion U.S. prescription drug market, which is rife with pricing inefficiencies. 

Cuban said that his main motivation behind creating the company is to be "the absolute lowest cost provider for as many medications as we can offer and to reduce the stress for as many people as we possibly can." 

The company offers 350 prescription drugs at cost, plus a fixed 15% margin that still makes some prescription drugs significantly cheaper than their retail prices. Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs is reinventing the industry by putting transparency, simplicity, and clarity at the forefront of their business model to lower drug costs. 

Dr. Waring is an endocrinologist with a focus on caring for people living with metabolic conditions. She has worked with patients in a variety of clinical settings for over 15 years and currently serves as the Chief Medical Officer at 9amHealth where she provides seamless virtual care to members living with diabetes, obesity, and other chronic conditions. Her clinical passion is the development of technology-enabled care delivery models that improves quality, access, and equitable outcomes. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and completed her endocrinology fellowship at the University of California San Francisco. Before joining 9amHealth, she was the medical director of the Diabetes Management program at Kaiser Permanente in Washington State. She is originally from New Jersey but has lived on the West Coast since 2009 and currently resides in Seattle, Washington. When she's not at work, you can find her on the soccer sidelines cheering on her 3 kids, running and hiking the nearby trails, and skiing the local mountains in winter. 

Jake Frenz, Founder CEO at SmithRX

Jake Frenz is the founder and CEO of SmithRx, a pharmacy benefit management (PBM) company based in San Francisco. His vision is to bring a new disruptive business model to the PBM space, one that couples technological innovation and efficiencies with a transparent and autitable pricing program. Previously, Jake built the operations organization at Collective Health, and led large program teams delivering commercial and Medicare healthcare products at Anthem. Jake served as a Captain in the Marine Corps as a logistics officer with 3d Battalion, 5th Marines, where he completed two tours in Iraq. After leaving active military service, he turned his attention to healthcare and co-founded CombatIV, an infusion-pump IV device designed for combat zones. Jake received a B.S. in Finance and Economics from the University of Colorado and holds an MBA from UCLA.

Dave Ross, National Director of Benefits Strategy at Brown & Brown

As an Executive Vice President, David’s role is to provide guidance and leadership that fosters each office’s ability to satisfy their growth objectives. David is a key player in defining Brown & Brown’s macro initiatives and providing the vision, tools and education to support those objectives.

David’s secondary role is the Director of Underwriting Services where his primary responsibilities include the development and maintenance of financial tools and methodologies that improve clients’ ability to effectively manage their employer-sponsored health plans. David’s role keeps him actively involved in the management of key accounts, representing more than 300,000 members.

Additionally, David acts as a national resource and the primary source of both internal and external education and support regarding efficient health plan structure. David spends much of his time traveling around the country educating consultants, employers and legislative bodies on the many counter-intuitive and nuanced components of effective health care cost management.

Previously, David worked as an Underwriting Strategist at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota where he designed pricing methodologies that satisfied Blue Cross Blue Shield’s strategic objectives. During his tenure, David acted as an internal liaison between actuarial, underwriting and sales and assisted with BCBS’s lobbying efforts to expand the HDHP marketplace.David has periodically taught statistics at Minnesota State University where he earned his bachelors degree in Finance.