Audacious Inquiry (Ai) announced today the appointment of Dan Mendelson to the company's Board of Directors.

Mr. Mendelson recently joined the healthcare group of Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe (WCAS), a leading U.S. private equity firm, as Operating Partner. In 2000, Mr. Mendelson founded Avalere Health, a provider of advisory and business intelligence solutions to health plans, delivery systems, and life sciences companies. Dan served as CEO of Avalere, which brought in ABS Capital as a minority investor in 2008, and the company was sold to Inovalon Holdings in 2015. He continues to serve as an advisor to the firm.

Prior to founding Avalere, Mr. Mendelson served in the White House Office of Management and Budget during the Clinton Administration, as the Associate Director of Health. In this role, he was responsible for the nation's healthcare portfolio, including Medicare, Medicaid, NIH, CDC, and the FDA.

Chris Brandt, Audacious Inquiry's CEO, commented, "Dan brings a unique and valuable perspective from his experience as an entrepreneur, professional investor, and healthcare policy leader and strategic advisor. He has a deep industry subject matter understanding as well as an admirable leadership and communication style. I am enthusiastic to welcome him to Ai as a business partner and board member."

Mr. Mendelson added, "Connectivity is key to improving quality and reducing cost in the US healthcare system. As value-based care is increasingly an expectation, Audacious Inquiry is enabling health systems to innovate through better connectivity. I'm excited to join Ai's Board at a unique inflection point for the company and for the American healthcare system."

As an Executive in Residence, Dan shares his healthcare industry insights with students at Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, and he is a frequent and well-regarded keynote speaker on the American healthcare system.

Mr. Mendelson serves on the Board of Champions Oncology, Centrexion Corporation, and numerous non-profit and philanthropic boards. He is a member of the Strategic Advisory Committee at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. He previously served on the boards of Coventry Healthcare (sold to Aetna in 2013), PharMerica Corporation, and HMS Holdings.

Mr. Mendelson is the fifth member of Ai's Board of Directors. Other members include Penny Thompson, a former CMS leader and respected healthcare operations strategist, and Cal Wheaton, General Partner of ABS Capital Partners, which invested in Ai in January of 2018. Audacious Inquiry's President, Scott Afzal, is a member of the board, and Brandt serves as Chairman.

About Audacious Inquiry

Audacious Inquiry (Ai) is an industry-shaping health information technology and policy company that provides bold solutions for connected healthcare.® Nationally recognized for its work to facilitate health data interoperability, Ai is a trusted partner to CMS, ONC, Health Information Organizations, state Hospital Associations and Medicaid agencies across the country. The company delivers a cloud-based software as a service platform that is the catalyst for secure and smart health information exchange among physicians, hospitals, health plans, ACOs, MCOs, and public health agencies across ten US states. Ai is raising the bar for how health data is shared, managed, and protected.