Leadership
Frederick Roberts | Executive Board Member | Corporate Oversight
Frederick oversees strategic relationships, growth initiatives, and organizational performance. He provides executive leadership in optimizing day-to-day operations, ensuring operational efficiency, and aligning departmental objectives with the company’s short and long-term vision. In addition to managing internal operations, Frederick plays a key role in financial planning, compliance, and risk management to support sustainable growth.
Frederick also leads the Board through strategic planning, governance oversight, and performance evaluation, fostering alignment between executive management and board priorities. He works closely with board members to guide decision-making, monitor key performance indicators, and ensure accountability across all levels of the organization.
Prior to joining MEDBENO, Frederick held senior leadership roles across both private and publicly traded organizations including serving as Chief Operating Officer Dart Health Group, Chief Executive Officer, Altare Health Systems and subsidiaries Simplex Medical, Simplex Healthcare, and its national pharmacy licensed in 45 states, President & Chief Operating Officer of Certified Health Management. Earlier in his career, he was Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and General Manager of ASG Software, a global enterprise technology company. Frederick’s strategic leadership and business acumen consistently drove revenue growth, profitability, and operational excellence, earning recognition in leading healthcare, business, and technology publications.
Karen Ciriaco | Chief Revenue Officer and Compliance
Karen is an accomplished healthcare executive and trusted strategic advisor with a distinguished record of driving operational excellence across integrative medical practices. As a successful former practice manager and certified professional coder, she brings a rare combination of clinical workflow insight and financial acumen to every organization she serves.
Karen currently advises five integrative medical practices, where she provides high-level business oversight and strategic direction to chiropractors, physicians, and nurse practitioners. Her leadership spans the full spectrum of practice operations, ensuring alignment between clinical care delivery and sustainable financial performance.
Her core areas of expertise include revenue cycle management optimization, payer credentialing and contracting, enterprise electronic health record (EHR) oversight, fee schedule and reimbursement analysis, document and records management, internal auditing, and regulatory compliance strategy. Karen is known for implementing streamlined systems that improve cash flow, reduce denials, strengthen documentation integrity, and enhance operational transparency.
In addition to her operational leadership, Karen plays a pivotal role in organizational growth initiatives. She serves as a key liaison between the CEO and MEDBENO’s mergers and acquisitions team, providing critical guidance to minimize post-integration disruption. Through careful due diligence review, workflow harmonization, and compliance alignment, she helps ensure seamless transitions that preserve culture, maintain productivity, and protect revenue integrity.
Respected for her strategic insight, meticulous attention to detail, and collaborative leadership style, Karen is a driving force behind scalable growth, operational stability, and long-term success within complex, multi-disciplinary healthcare environments.
David Smith | Chief Market & Product Strategist
David Smith is a results-driven healthcare executive and graduate of Mississippi State University with more than 28 years of experience in healthcare consultancy and strategic market development. Throughout his career, he has partnered with national medical distribution supply chains to design and implement high-performing platforms across e-commerce, product fulfillment, and go-to-market strategy.
David brings deep expertise across the durable medical equipment (DME), homecare and hospice, manufacturing, distribution, medical sales, business development, group purchasing organizations (GPOs), and acute care hospital sectors. His cross-functional insight enables him to align product innovation with market demand while driving scalable revenue growth.
As Chief Market & Product Strategist, David leads high-level manufacturer and vendor negotiations, architects pricing frameworks, and cultivates strategic supply partnerships that enhance competitive positioning. He serves as a trusted advisor to executive leadership and board members, delivering actionable intelligence on market dynamics, operational optimization, and long-term growth strategy.
Kimberly Sullivan | Chief Recruiter & Sales Operation Management
Kim is a senior healthcare workforce strategist with deep expertise in sales operations leadership, partnership development, and enterprise-level staffing solutions. She drives national recruiting and staffing initiatives by building and managing high-value relationships with multi-physician groups, hospital systems, urgent care networks, and primary care organizations across the country.
In her executive capacity, Kim provides strategic oversight of sales, training, and recruiting operations, aligning workforce solutions with organizational growth objectives and market demand. She collaborates closely with C-suite leadership to design scalable staffing models, optimize revenue performance, and strengthen long-term sustainability.
As a trusted advisor to CEOs and executive stakeholders, Kim delivers data-informed insights on healthcare labor market dynamics, competitive positioning, and forward-thinking talent acquisition strategies. Her leadership ensures operational excellence, cross-functional alignment, and the successful execution of enterprise recruiting initiatives that support both clinical performance and financial outcomes.
Donald S. Hanser, MD | Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Hanser is a successful internal medicine practitioner who also provides international immigration services to patients seeking to travel abroad. He currently serves as a board advisor, collaborating with the CEO on service lines, M&A interests, strategic group partnerships, and provider assessments while addressing client-related issues with other senior members.
Robert DiStefano, MD, DC | Chief Integrative Functional Medicine
A leader in integrative functional medicine, Dr. DiStefano works with thousands of patients seeking relief from chronic pain. He has over 30 years of healthcare experience, with certifications and continuing education in sports injuries, rehabilitation, personal training, and strength conditioning. He holds a master’s in human nutrition and a Doctorate in Medicine. Dr. DiStefano strives to provide the most advanced chiropractic techniques available to help patients, with an outstanding reputation supported by exceptional patient feedback.
Russ Newton | Mergers & Acquisitions
Mr. Newton has had a successful 30-year career as an investment banker, focusing on consulting with promising early to mid-stage companies and acting as a private equity investor. He leads the mergers and acquisitions team for MEDBENO, collaborating with practices across all transactional stages. Russ also advises the CEO on strategic partnerships, contracts, practice valuation, and capital formation, guiding stakeholders through the M&A roadmap for a successful relationship with MEDBENO.
Jim Hanson | Chief Information Security Officer
Jim, a Navy veteran, brings 30 years of experience as a Senior Security Engineer. His focus has been on assisting Fortune 1000 companies in ensuring data security and compliance while helping clients migrate to a Zero Trust Security Model. Jim has collaborated with several top security vendors in the United States, and his expertise is invaluable for companies implementing security technologies and procedures to protect critical assets from the global threat landscape. He oversees data center security while maintaining the enterprise vision and strategy, ensuring information systems and technologies retain their integrity. Jim also advises the CEO on forward-thinking security platforms, current IT risks, and artificial intelligence development strategies.
Shane Randall | Chief Development Web Strategist
As CDO, Shane is responsible for all go-to-market strategies for MEDBENO. He oversees divisional digital campaigns, pricing, and supply chain management. With over 20 years of consumer-related healthcare branding expertise, Shane is a seasoned executive committed to driving growth.
Jim Gabalski | Chief Marketing Strategist
Jim is a seasoned executive with over 30 years of leadership experience spanning sales, marketing, and organizational management. He brings deep expertise across IT, training and development, and healthcare, with a proven ability to translate vision into measurable results.
Throughout his career, Jim has led the design and execution of comprehensive market strategies, consistently driving growth through disciplined implementation of targeted, high-impact tactical programs. As a senior executive for a national marketing and healthcare organization, he has successfully guided cross-functional teams, strengthened market positioning, and delivered sustainable revenue expansion.
Jim is recognized for aligning strategy with execution, building high-performing teams, and creating scalable solutions that advance both operational excellence and long-term business objectives.