Management Team

Ahmed Ghouri, M.D., co-founder of Anvita Health, is a board certified anesthesiologist and principal author of 70 scientific publications. As chief medical officer for Anvita he oversees all clinical informatics and serves as Anvita's liaison to the medical community.

Dr. Ghouri served as co-investigator on the Phase III trials for FDA approved pharmaceutical products flumazenil (Romazicon) and desflurane (Suprane). He served as an assistant clinical professor at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, and held an attending anesthesiologist position at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, California. He received a medical degree from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, where he also completed a biomedical engineering research fellowship.

Michelle Hays has over 20 years of financial leadership and accounting experience with a proven record in contributing to the financial growth of hardware and software technology companies in San Diego, California. She joined Anvita Health in July 2008 and is responsible for managing and directing Anvita's financial operations, human resources, and administration activities.

Prior to joining Anvita, Hays served as controller for the Wireless Connectivity Business Unit of RFMD, a publicly traded semiconductor company, where she was responsible for all reporting, analyses, and planning for the division. Prior to her position at RFMD, she held roles as vice president, finance and chief financial officer in several start-up software and hardware technology companies where she was responsible for both finance and corporate development activities. She spent several years as a tax professional with Ernst & Young. Hays received a bachelor's degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Financial Accounting from National University in San Diego, California, and she is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of California.

Raghu Sugavanam has more than 25 years of experience in the software industry with a focus in deploying technology solutions for the direct marketing industry. He has managed the successful deployment of large-scale direct marketing database solutions for several Fortune 1000 companies in the healthcare, technology, finance and retail industries. As Anvita's chief technology officer, Sugavanam is the head of IT strategy, and leads the information technology group.

Prior to joining Anvita Health, Sugavanam was the founder and president of Mercantile Software Systems, a developer of a high performance database marketing system. In 1997, Mercantile Software was acquired by leading direct marketing services company Harte-Hanks, Inc.

Sugavanam began his career at Engelhard Corporation, managing large systems projects for the company's metal refining operations. He then went to AT&T, where he managed the design and implementation of the systems for billing and consumer marketing applications for millions of users. Sugavanam received a master's degree in computer science from Rutgers University and a master's degree in chemical engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras, India.

Gretchen Griswold has spent more than 20 years developing and implementing marketing, brand, and public relations strategies for some of the world's most prestigious brands including Sony, Marriott and British Telecom. She joined Anvita Health in September 2008 and is responsible for the company's marketing and communications strategies.

Previously, after serving as a director of brand management for Sony Electronics, Griswold joined the global wireless entertainment software company PacketVideo, as vice president, marketing. There, she was responsible for rebranding the company and executing successful global product launches as the company entered new B2B and B2C market segments. Griswold received a bachelor's degree in Journalism from San Diego State University, and has completed an additional Marketing Leadership certification program at Kellogg School of Management.

Keith M. Glassford, Ph.D., has more than 15 years of leadership experience with informatics, computational science and health information technology companies. He most recently served as vice president, Client Services for CliniComp, Intl., a developer of mission critical electronic medical record solutions for hospitals, integrated delivery networks and other acute care providers. Prior to that, Dr. Glassford was vice president, Chemicals, Materials & Manufacturing for Accelrys, a leading informatics and computational science company, where he had global responsibility for developing and deploying software and service solutions. He received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota and B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering from Michigan State University.

Keith currently serves on the Industry Advisory Board for The Life Science Information Technology (LIST) Global Institute in helping to define a Good Informatics Practices guidance document for the health care industry in addition to being a HIMSS LSIT Data Management Task Force Chair. Keith is also a Scientific Advisory Board member for Nanostellar Inc., a privately held clean-technology company which develops nano-engineered catalysts for diesel automotive and stationary power industries.