Connecture Inc., a Brookfield-based provider of web-based information systems used to create health insurance marketplaces, today announced the appointment of Jeff Surges as chief executive officer, effective Nov. 17.
Doug Schneider, current CEO since January 2012, will continue with Connecture as president and chief product officer. He will also retain his seat on the company’s board of directors.
Surges will be responsible for driving all company growth strategies, operations, business functions and overall organizational development. He joins Connecture following his most recent and senior roles as chairman of strategic health services and president of Healthgrades. Prior to those positions, Surges served as CEO and as a director of Merge Healthcare, as well as president of Allscripts Healthcare Solutions.
Surges’s annual base salary will be $450,000, and beginning in fiscal 2016, he will have an annual target bonus of 50 percent of his annual base salary. In connection with his appointment, the company granted him stock options to purchase 100,000 shares of the company’s common stock and restricted stock units representing 225,000 shares of the company’s common stock. On or about Jan. 1, he will be granted additional restricted stock units representing 355,000 shares of the company’s common stock.
“Jeff has immense experience with hospital and health systems, as well as in the benefits administration and wellness platform space,” said David Jones Jr., chairman of the Connecture board of directors. “Under his leadership, we’re confident about our future both within the current payor markets and beyond as the market shifts to new and emerging trends.”
During the coming months, Surges and Schneider will work closely with company leadership to establish strategies and streamline execution processes to better serve the company’s customers and realize the growth opportunities ahead.
“We are pleased to welcome Jeff to the Connecture team,” Schneider said. “Jeff not only has a background of outstanding accomplishments in healthcare IT, including leadership of a public company; but he also has the vision, experience, contacts, and sheer force of personality to lead Connecture forward. Jeff is exactly the right person for Connecture and at a time where we are poised for enormous opportunity.”
Connecture also today reported third quarter earnings, in which it narrowed its net loss to $2.3 million, or 11 cents lost per share, compared with a net loss of $2.9 million, or $21.06 lost per share, in the third quarter of 2014.
The quarterly operating loss was $894,000, compared with an operating loss of $1.4 million in the same period a year ago.
And Connecture’s third quarter revenue was $22.7 million, up from $21.5 million in the third quarter of 2014.
“We are pleased to report another strong quarter, highlighted by revenue growth that was driven by a strong level of upsell activity among our base of health plan customers as they prepared for the annual open enrollment period. The quarter was also strong overall from a bookings perspective, highlighted by the addition of nine new customers,” Schneider said. “In addition, we recently concluded a successful selling season, which demonstrates how our technology helps consumers optimize their health insurance choices, and positions us well going forward.”
