Who We Are

Driving disruption from the Inside

The Providence Digital Innovation Group is a team of strategists, software engineers, marketers and investors focused on digital innovation that further Providence’s vision of “Health for a Better World.” The organization works hand-in-hand with clinical and operational teams at Providence to identify opportunities and deliver innovative solutions through the use of technology that will have an impact on patients, clinicians, communities, and the strength of our organization.

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Teams

United in a mission to make a difference.

Strategy Team

This team is charged with understanding the opportunities available in digital health, marrying them with health system requirements and then translating them into scalable technology experiments within Providence. This requires partnerships with technology innovators and other health systems—as well as the ability to commercialize solutions incubated within the organization.

Product Development

Over 100 strong, this global team consists of gifted product developers, researchers, data scientists, UX experts, and engineers from the world’s top organizations. They bring with them best-in-class technology, healthcare and consumer expertise from the world’s top technology organizations to develop solutions that matter – to Providence and beyond.

Digital Experience

This digital marketing and experience organization is charged with developing and implementing innovative digital customer experiences that drive sustained business impact and value. They are obsessed with bringing the customer centricity and measurability of great eCommerce digital experiences to healthcare.

Marketing

This group is responsible for building a powerful, global brand across our 51 hospitals and 1,085 clinics in all seven states that Providence serves. From marketing communications to marketing operations they are charged with helping Providence lead conversations with patients, caregivers, experts and influencers.

Providence Ventures

Providence Ventures manages $300M of venture capital across two funds on behalf of Providence. The funds are designed to achieve venture class returns through direct investments in innovative companies that improve quality and convenience, lower cost and improve health outcomes. For more information visit: www.providenceventures.org.

Think you might be a good fit for one of our teams?

Careers at DIG

Leadership

We draw our leadership and talent from organizations outside of traditional healthcare—bringing the expertise and mindset of disruptors, inside.

Aaron Martin

Executive Vice President
Chief Digital Officer

Sara Vaezy

Senior Vice President
Chief of Digital and Growth Strategy

Andy Chu

Senior Vice President
Product and Technology Incubation

Shweta Ponnappa

Senior Vice President
Chief Digital Experience Officer

Jigar Shah

Senior Vice President
Chief Marketing Officer

Jeffery Stolte

Senior Partner
Providence Ventures

Maya Davis

Senior Director
Chief of Staff

How We Work

We believe health is a cooperative effort.

We value the need for combined expertise and are committed to building relationships across a diverse set of talent, partners, and systems. This isn’t a journey we can go alone.

We value informed action.

We balance our bias for action with a rigor that ensures there’s insight and information that support the direction we’re headed.

We take risks, so others don’t have to.

We’ve created an environment to fail fast and build confidence in solutions that can help better the health of all.

We
never
settle.

Both health and technology are ever-changing, so we operate in a state of continual improvement.

We design for them, not us.

We have a customer obsession and we constantly start by identifying the biggest issues THEY have and solving for them.

We’re opportunity, not technology focused.

The technology doesn’t matter unless you understand the need it solves. We don’t talk solution until we have a full understanding of what we’re solving for.

Our values

Compassion

We nurture the spiritual, emotional and physical well-being of one another and those we serve. Through our healing presence, we accompany those who suffer.

Dignity

We value, encourage and celebrate the gifts in one another. We respect the inherent dignity and worth of every individual.

Justice

We foster a culture that promotes unity and reconciliation. We stand in solidarity with the most vulnerable, working to remove the causes of oppression and promoting justice for all.

Excellence

We set the highest standards for ourselves and our work. Through transformation and innovation, we strive to improve the health and quality of life in our communities.

Integrity

We hold ourselves accountable to do the right things for the right reasons. We speak the truth with courage and respect. We pursue authenticity with humility and simplicity.

Aaron Martin

Executive Vice President
Chief Digital Officer

Aaron Martin is the Executive Vice President and Chief Digital and Innovation Officer for Providence where he leads Digital, Marketing, and Ventures for Providence. Aaron is also Managing General Partner for Providence Ventures where he is responsible for early stage/venture technology and device investments for the $300M Providence Venture fund.

Aaron has more than 25 years of experience in product, ventures and technology, including leadership of the Amazon teams that transitioned traditional publishing from physical books to Kindle. He has experience as an executive/founder at two venture-backed startups and has held strategy positions at McKinsey & Company. He currently serves on the board of Wildflower Health, Avia, Xealth and Kyruus. He is also a board member of Presbyterian Healthcare Services in New Mexico. Aaron holds a BS in Economics and Music from Austin College and an MBA in finance and healthcare management from The Wharton School.

Sara Vaezy

Chief Digital and Growth
Strategy Officer

Sara Vaezy is the Chief Digital and Growth Strategy Officer for Providence leading digital strategy and roadmap, digital partnerships and business development, commercialization, technology evaluation and pilots and digital thought leadership as a part of the Providence Digital Innovation Group.

Prior to Providence, Sara was at The Chartis Group, a health care management consulting firm, where she advised clients on enterprise strategic planning, payer-provider partnership, and the development of population health companies. She holds a BA in Physics and Philosophy from the University of California Berkeley, and an MHA and MPH in Healthcare Policy from The University of Washington’s School of Public Health.

Andy Chu

Senior Vice President
Product & Technology Incubation

Andy Chu serves as Senior Vice President of Product and Technology Incubation and is responsible for building world-class digital experiences for both consumers and caregivers at Providence and for incubating healthcare SaaS solutions that become commercial offerings for the broader healthcare ecosystem.

Prior to Providence, Andy held number of leadership roles in career management, travel, omni-channel commerce, search, consumer messaging and enterprise software including Microsoft to bring customer-centric, innovative, and profitable solutions to market. He brings over 20 years of cross discipline leadership experience in product, design, technology, business development and marketing—within both mature and start-up companies. He hold a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia.

Shweta Ponnappa

Senior Vice President
Chief Digital Experience Officer

Shweta Ponnappa is the Senior Vice President, Chief Digital Experience Officer at Providence where she built and now runs the system-wide digital marketing & experience organization which is focused on accelerating growth through digital innovation. She has developed and implemented innovative, powerful digital customer experiences that drive sustained business impact and value. As an ecommerce leader with more than 15 years of experience in driving business growth through digital at retailers like Amazon, Shweta continues to obsess over bringing the customer-centricity and measurability of great eCommerce digital experiences to healthcare.

Shweta holds a Bachelors of Commerce in Finance from The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda and a Masters in Information Technology and Management from the University of North Carolina.

Jigar Shah

Senior Vice President
Chief Marketing Officer

Jigar Shah is a Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Providence where he is responsible for the Providence global brand and marketing communication and marketing operations for the health system. Prior to Providence, Jigar led the direct marketing function at T-Mobile, designing and driving their breakthrough customer relationship management (CRM) strategies in support of the Un-carrier brand. Jigar has extensive experience in utilizing data-driven, machine-learning marketing efforts to maximize ROMI. Before T-Mobile, Jigar was a marketing and business development executive who pioneered e-commerce strategies at Syngenta Crop Protection, the largest agro-chemical company in the world.

Jigar is fascinated by the velocity and magnitude of the impact of technology on consumer buying behavior and how that impacts what we think and do as marketers. He is passionate about always-on and data-driven marketing to create win-win scenarios for brands and customers.

Jigar holds a bachelor’s degree in physics, a master’s of business administration and a master’s in information technology & management. When he is not trying to solve healthcare marketing challenges, Jigar enjoys spending time with his wife and 10-year old son in outdoor activities and tinkering with gadgets.

Jeffery Stolte

Senior Partner
Providence Ventures

Jeff Stolte is a Senior Partner at Providence Ventures, where he leads healthcare technology investments and manages fund operations. He is currently a board director at Binary Fountain and Intelligent Retinal Imaging Systems (IRIS) and previously Jeff served on the Board of InDemand Interpreting prior to its exit.

Prior to joining Providence Ventures, Jeff was an investment manager at Ascension Ventures, where he served as a director of Advanced Practice Strategies and was a board observer at GetWellNetwork, CHF Solutions and OptiScan Biomedical Corporation. Prior to Ascention Ventures, Jeff was a member of Ascension Health’s strategic development group and has prior experience in software product management and business development for entrepreneurial health care technology companies WebMD, WellMed, and HealthLanguage (formerly, CyberPlus).

Jeff holds a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, a Master’s in Science in Medical Informatics from the Oregon Health & Science University, and a Bachelor’s of Arts from The University of Chicago.

Maya Davis

Senior Director
Chief of Staff

Maya Davis is Senior Director and Chief of Staff for Providence Digital Innovation Group where she has end-to-end responsibility for business operations and enabling the organization’s leadership team to fulfill the organization’s mission to re-invent health care.

Maya brings extensive experience building, running and supporting software within large companies and her background contains a blend of program and product management, strategy, technical operations and software engineering. Prior to Providence, Maya was Director of Engineering and Product Management at Nordstrom, with a focus on the employee technology experience and spent 15 years at Microsoft in a variety of business, engineering and operating roles.

Maya holds a Bachelor of Engineering, Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan.