Stars in Our Constellation: Brent Schimke

Brent celebrates one year with Luminous as COO/CFO

Brent Schimke brings a unique blend of entrepreneurial/intrapreneurial energy and operational expertise to Luminous. Whether he's working with venture-capital-backed start-ups or Fortune 50 companies, he is passionate about building transformational enterprises. He has been focused on public health and safety for the last two decades.  Brent joined Luminous last year to set in motion a growth plan that is producing early dividends in brand awareness, client adoption, and new service offerings. 

Prior to Luminous, Brent served as COO and co-founded Datacubed Health, a B2B SaaS life-sciences tech company that has earned global recognition for its award-winning patient-centric app to collect data in clinical trials. Under Brent's leadership, Datacubed Health achieved annualized revenue growth of 200-300% and secured venture capital funding, as well as certifications for HIPAA, GDPR, Good Clinical Practices (GCP/GAMP), and SOC2.  

Prior to his work with Datacubed Health, Brent served as program director and advisor to the NYC Mayor's office on the city’s most complex and important public safety initiative and second-largest capital project ($2B) of its time. Brent held multiple leadership roles overseeing critical milestones of the Emergency Communications Transformation Program (ECTP) and transformed the city’s emergency call centers in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He led multiple, multi-year, high-visibility negotiations valued in excess of half a billion, and subsequently co-led settlements on behalf of taxpayers.  

Brent holds an MBA/MSIA in Operations Research from Carnegie Mellon University and a BA in math from Whitman College. He has also completed certifications in A.I. deep learning and supervised learning regression models from Coursera and Stanford University. Brent's skills include operations management, business transformation, program management, data management, compliance/process management, crisis and risk management, business incubation/start-up, analytical modeling, and leadership.  

Throughout his career, Brent has received numerous accolades and recommendations from colleagues and leaders in his industry. He has been praised for his professionalism, work ethic, and rare ability to handle the demands of multiple tasks and stakeholder management. Brent is highly respected for his insight into customer needs and his ability to work cross-departmentally to achieve team goals.  

Q & A with Brent Schimke

Q: What experience and expertise do you bring to Luminous?

A: Two-fold.

One, entrepreneurial/intrapreneurial insight and capabilities to complete initiatives where the resources (personnel, financial, processes) may not yet be known or defined. Metaphorically this is akin to “building a plane while it is going down the runway.” Examples: doubling staff, creating the company's first 3-year forecast, and creating compliance processes for project delivery and financial management, etc. 

Two, operations know-how to create practices, processes, responsibilities, and performance plans as well as institutional approaches across the business to improve quality, reporting, and profitability. I draw on my experience in business transformation, program management, data management, compliance/process management, crisis and risk management, business incubation/start-up, analytical modeling, and leadership. 

Q: What motivates you about Luminous and its mission?

A: I am motivated by the transformational element of Luminous’ consulting practice (related to the biopsychosocial model, culture analysis, and biosemiotics) and by its mission of creating better outcomes for patients, business, and society. Technology does not have a monopoly on driving transformation. Insights, strategies, and capabilities are equally transformational when the right models and systems thinking are used.

Q: What types of projects do you find most rewarding, and why?

A: Projects with a high degree of uncertainty (or where success isn’t guaranteed) and where change is required within a division, an organization, an industry ... or globally. 

Q: What are the big challenges & opportunities you’re seeing related to patients, life sciences, and impact?

A: The manufacturing and development process can be a step or two removed from patients, and most who work in the health industry are not exposed to patients. The patient’s lived experience and/or journey are not immediately accessible to companies and their workers. Reframing the work of the industry to incorporate patient voices is our big challenge and opportunity. 

As a COO and board member, I also see the challenges in healthcare being fought on many fronts (increased competition, shrinking profit margins, aging population, siloed data and single-purpose tech, and loss of staff, nurses, doctors, etc.). 

Prior to healthcare, I came from public safety, and over a combined twenty years, I've found that in these highly regulated, risk-averse industries with important public missions, organizations need to prioritize supporting people. This includes many things: 1) listening for good requirement gathering, 2) routinizing and building good processes that are understandable, repeatable, and explainable, 3) training so staff feel motivated and valued, and 4) including different voices in the discussion to build a truly different world. 

Q: What is a quote or mantra that guides you?

A: One can build a different world only after first including different people at the table. 

Q: What inspired you to pursue a career in healthcare, and how has your experience shaped your approach?

A: Dr. Paul Glimcher (Professor, Department of Neuroscience and Physiology at NYU Langone Health) was my inspiration to pursue a career in healthcare & life sciences.  Dr. Glimcher's vision was a digital public health initiative greater in scope than any previous study and aimed at SOLVING THE PUZZLE TO A BETTER, LONGER LIFE.   
 
Dr. Glimcher, I, and two other co-founders started a company to develop a tech platform that would make this public health transformation possible and in the process yield one of the most patient-engaging, high-retention platforms of its kind. (ref award: https://www.datacubed.com/data-cubed-selected-by-gartner-as-a-2018-cool-vendor-in-data-driven-health-platforms/)  

Q: What advice would you give to someone starting out in healthcare leadership, and how can they best prepare themselves?

Make data a friend.  Learn what structured data is and how to design (architect) for good data. Build trust by advocating for data privacy in every form.  Use A.I. for lessons from data.  Build solutions that are patient-centric and client mission-driven.  It is never too late to learn. 

Q: What excites you most about the future of healthcare, and how do you see your work contributing to that future?

A: Now is the golden age of innovation in healthcare. What we do now will have impacts for the rest of the century. 

In the U.S., healthcare has been the second largest contributor to GDP but the second slowest adopter of digital innovation. Being part of controlling the "whether, when, and how" healthcare innovates is a great calling. I posted about this here.

About Luminous

Luminous is a consultancy that partners with global life sciences organizations, meaningfully connecting lab and life to achieve better outcomes for patients, business, and society. Founded in 2005, we empower our clients with deep and revealing insights that can be leveraged across the development pathway through to commercialization. Our work drives healthcare solutions that are truly patient-centric.