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Employee Spotlight: Tara Anguish

Posted on by Sarah Hetrick

At Ideon, we’re proud to have such a talented, diverse team leading the charge for a better and more connected health insurance and employee benefits industry. Our ongoing Employee Spotlight series showcases the people behind our product and unveils what life is like at Ideon. This month we’re featuringTara Anguish, our Sr. Director, PMO!

Name: Tara Anguish
Department: Client Operations
Title: Sr. Director, PMO
Location: Upstate, NY

Work

How long have you worked at Ideon?

Almost 3.5 years.

Tell us about your day-to-day.

In addition to leading our PMO team, I get the opportunity to work with our clients, primarily for our enrollment and EOI products. This involves supporting our sales team as they finalize contracts, meeting new clients and setting them up for an amazing implementation with our team, advising clients as they make operational decisions, and bringing them live with our enrollment and EOI products. This last part is my favorite because we get to showcase the value Ideon brings in real-time!

How have you grown professionally while on our team?

Here at Ideon, I’ve been able to grow, particularly as a leader. I’m supported but given the autonomy to use my experience and expertise to make decisions, including making process and efficiency changes.

What excites you about the future of Ideon?

I’m excited to meet and work with more and more companies as they join our portfolio and see for themselves the value that Ideon brings. The health and benefits industry—particularly the enrollments and EOI realms—doesn’t have to be as difficult as it is now, and the team at Ideon can help. It’s exciting to be working with people and products that serve an industry in need with expertise.

What do you like about Ideon’s company culture?

Our leadership is thoughtful and cares about the personal development of each person on the team—so much so that this is one of the few cultures I’ve seen exude psychological safety. We support each other but also challenge each other in a really healthy way. We’re allowed to fail but encouraged to be stretched, learn, and grow. We’re all dedicated to making improvements in an industry that needs it—and that impacts us all. We feel connected to our mission every day.

Life

Favorite activity when you’re not working? 

Spending time with my family, which includes my husband and 3 kiddos. They are involved in lots of sports which makes life outside of work busy and full. They are growing into great humans!

Favorite place you’ve traveled?

Salamanca, Spain—I was lucky enough to partake in a full immersion study abroad summer program.

Interesting fact about yourself?

Less than 1% of the world’s population has heterochromia, and I’m one of them (left eye is blue, right eye is brown). This didn’t get passed down to any of my kiddos – perhaps my potential grandchildren??? 

 

Employee Spotlight: Christie Lickert

Posted on by Ideon

At Ideon, we’re proud to have such a talented, diverse team leading the charge for a better and more connected health insurance and employee benefits industry. Our ongoing Employee Spotlight series showcases the people behind our product and unveils what life is like at Ideon. Next up… Christie Lickert, our Senior Operations Analyst!

Name: Christie Lickert
Department: Enrollment Operations
Title: Senior Operations Analyst
Location: Omaha, NE

Work

How long have you worked at Ideon?

I have worked at Ideon in Enrollment Operations for two years.

Tell us about your day-to-day.

I work with carriers and platforms, specifically with configurations for EDI and API feeds. Each day, the work I do is different. I can be working on anything from a brand-new implementation with testing to creating documentation on processes and training new team members.

What projects are you excited to work on?

I love working on projects that are challenging and give me a sense of accomplishment. I enjoy it when I can contribute to solving issues with an out-of-box approach.

What excites you about the future of Ideon?

Ideon has many partnerships that are so influential to the growth of our company. We are constantly trying to make the customer experience as seamless and efficient as possible. I am excited to see what innovative ideas my colleagues and I produce to help support that.

Describe your onboarding experience.

What’s great about Ideon is that we have every new employee meet with each department to get a look at what we do. It was interesting and informative to see what each team member’s purpose is. The team is also very welcoming and inclusive. Ideon is very thorough with onboarding and makes sure everyone has what they need to be successful.

Life

Favorite activity when you’re not working? 

I love reading and am part of a book club. My favorite genre of books is a tie between autobiographies and thrillers.

Favorite place you’ve traveled?

My favorite place I have traveled to is Sedona, Arizona. I absolutely love the red rock and enjoyed going on a “Pink Jeep Tour” which drove me up and down cliffs.

Interesting fact about yourself… Go!

I am obsessed with the Golden Girls. I still have all their box set DVDs, and my first dog was named after Sophia Petrillo.

 

Employee Spotlight: Virginia Loeffler

Posted on by Ideon

At Ideon, we’re proud to have such a talented, diverse team leading the charge for a better and more connected health insurance and employee benefits industry. Our ongoing Employee Spotlight series showcases the people behind our product and unveils what life is like at Ideon. Next up… Virginia Loeffler, our Product Manager – Enrollments!

Name: Virginia Loeffler
Department: Product
Title: Product Manager – Enrollments
Location: New York

Work

How long have you worked at Ideon?

I’ve worked at Ideon for 6 years, since 2017. I started on the Quoting and Decision Support Operations team, eventually moving to Enrollments and the Product team.

Tell us about your day-to-day.

I work closely with carriers, platforms, and Ideon’s Operations team to identify strategic additions and changes to our Enrollment products. From scoping work to tracing issues and preventing future bugs, I work alongside the Engineering team to ensure that our outbound processes for enrollments are running smoothly.

What projects are you excited to work on?

I love projects that really identify a high-impact change. We have some special projects for current customers which provide a lot of clarity into industry processes that are historically “black-boxes.” These are processes where Ideon can increase the accuracy of the data and raise discrepancies early on for all parties involved.

What excites you about the future of Ideon?

We are in an industry with so much potential for change. Because of the nature of how insurance corporations develop, the connections that we are forging today are connections and processes that will be used for years to come. Making the right choices now isn’t easy, but it’s incredibly important. We get to craft and hone processes that could impact the lives of employees and patients for years to come!

What do you like about Ideon’s company culture?

I appreciate the ability we have to have difficult conversations–on topics that we care about as well as topics about the workplace. We have a strong desire for feedback, and to have that call for feedback come from leadership is unique for a lot of companies.

Life

Favorite activity when you’re not working? 

It’s a tie between Art and Video Games. I have a backlog of games to get through, and I love working on hand-animation and watercolor illustration.

Favorite place you’ve traveled?

France! I studied abroad in high school and was able to attend a French high school for 5 weeks. The region of France was called Pays de la Loire, named for the local river.

Interesting fact about yourself… Go!

I love learning languages – I studied French for 7 years (high school and university) and studied Japanese at college as well. Italian is next!

 

Employee Spotlight: Joe Piendel

Posted on by Ideon

At Ideon, we’re proud to have such a talented, diverse team leading the charge for a better and more connected health insurance and employee benefits industry. Our ongoing Employee Spotlight series showcases the people behind our product and unveils what life is like at Ideon. Next up… Joe Piendel, our Director of Product Marketing!

Name: Joe Piendel
Department: Marketing
Title: Director of Product Marketing
Location: Rochester, New York

Work

How long have you worked at Ideon?

I’ve worked at Ideon for 2½ years.

Tell us about your day-to-day.

What really excites me about my role as Director of Product Marketing is that it allows me to collaborate with members of every team in the organization, which makes no two days the same. For example, I could be working with our Product Management Team to learn about the latest-and-greatest new product launches and strategize on how we will promote them, or with our Sales Teams on sales enablement and go-to-market strategies.

What excites you about the future of Ideon?

Ideon’s future is bright because of our mission to help advance the employee benefits industry into the future with cutting-edge technology such as APIs. It excites me to see our unique solutions in action, helping our customers tackle their pain points and assisting them in achieving new levels of efficiency and accuracy. I find it rewarding to be part of an organization that is so forward-thinking and customer-focused with the overall goal of improving members’ experiences in the health insurance and benefits ecosystem.

What do you like about Ideon’s company culture?

What I like is that Ideon fosters a creative atmosphere and encourages everyone to take risks. The team consists of some of the most intelligent problem-solvers I’ve ever worked with. It’s amazing how we confront the issues in our industry head-on to provide solutions that help our customers deliver positive end-user experiences.

What attracted you to Ideon’s mission?

Throughout my career, I worked for an insurance carrier, a broker, and an HCM company and have witnessed first-hand what the challenges are in our industry. Enrolling in health insurance and employee benefits is never on anyone’s “favorite things” to-do list because of the complexity and uncertainties associated with it.

What attracted me to Ideon is that we address many of these challenges, and we’re leading the charge to move our ecosystem into the digital age so that as an industry, we can provide the efficient user-experience that everyone expects in 2024 and beyond.

Life

Favorite activity when you’re not working? 

I am an avid sports and music fan, so when I’m not working, you’ll probably find me with my family at a sporting event or concert! When I’m not doing one of those activities, I’m on the golf course, cycling, or kayaking.

Favorite place you’ve traveled?

Last year, my wife and I traveled to the Grand Canyon with our two sons. To experience it through their eyes was incredible and will be a family trip we’ll never forget.

Interesting fact about yourself… Go!

I’m a huge Buffalo Bills fan and have been a season ticket holder for over 20 years. Go Bills!

Employee Spotlight: Sean Wilkins

Posted on by Ideon

At Ideon, we’re proud to have such a talented, diverse team leading the charge for a better and more connected health insurance and employee benefits industry. Our ongoing Employee Spotlight series showcases the people behind our product and unveils what life is like at Ideon. Next up… Sean Wilkins, our Engineering Manager!

Name: Sean Wilkins
Department: Engineering
Title: Engineering Manager
Location: New Jersey

Work

How long have you worked at Ideon?

Since June 2019.

Tell us about your day-to-day.

My day-to-day can vary a lot. Sometimes I am down in the weeds investigating specific issues for customers. But on other occasions, I take a long-term, bird’s eye view to assess where improvements are needed to enhance our service for existing customers or to accommodate new ones.

I also have the opportunity to work directly with customers on how our solutions can fit into their business processes to maximize value. We work hard to meet our customers wherever they are in their digital transformation, so it is important to have a breadth of experience across our solutions.

What projects are you excited to work on?

My team’s responsibilities mainly deal with, broadly speaking, “enrollments data flowing into our system.” One of our tools for importing data is a file-based translation service which we use to translate flat files, such as an XML, CSV, or JSON document. I have really enjoyed improving this service over the last year, in terms of reliability and scalability, as well as making the system easier to modify.

How have you grown professionally while on our team?

Being with Ideon since 2019, I have had a really great opportunity to build my career here. When I joined the company as a “Software Engineer” I was an individual contributor working on our soon-to-be-launched enrollments product. Since then, we’ve seen our team size grow and I have been promoted twice. Now as an “Engineering Manager,” I can leverage the skills and industry knowledge I gained during the earlier stages of the product development to help onboard new team members. I think getting early, on-the-ground experience set me up for success as a manager.

What excites you about the future of Ideon?

I really enjoy the process of taking an idea from concept to execution, seeing it evolve over time as we support more use cases and add functionality. I like sitting between our customers, engineers, and internal operations to hear all sides of the equation and help solve the problems each stakeholder faces.

What do you like about Ideon’s company culture?

I enjoy working with a team of really talented engineers. Prior to my experience at Ideon, I was at smaller companies where the engineering work was really a one-man show. In those situations, I didn’t have anyone to collaborate with. Coming to Ideon and getting a lot more feedback from peers really helped me grow as an engineer and was a breath of fresh air.

Life

Favorite activity when you’re not working? 

The most stereotypical computer nerd answer – video games! Aside from that, I enjoy reading and playing with my dog Dottie.

Favorite place you’ve traveled?

Rome, Italy. I loved the sheer amount of interesting things to do in Rome, from the food to the centuries of history there was never a dull moment when visiting.

Interesting fact about yourself… Go!

Despite my indoor nature as a computer guy, I achieved the rank of Eagle scout and did a lot of hiking and camping growing up.

Employee Spotlight: Robin Rogers

Posted on by Ideon

At Ideon, we’re proud to have such a talented, diverse team leading the charge for a better and more connected health insurance and employee benefits industry. Our ongoing Employee Spotlight series showcases the people behind our product and unveils what life is like at Ideon. Next up… Robin Rogers, our Senior Sales Director, InsurTech!

Name: Robin Rogers
Department: Sales
Title: Senior Sales Director, InsurTech
Location: Colorado

Work

How long have you worked at Ideon?

1 ½ years.

Tell us about your day-to-day.

My day to day routine varies but our customers and prospects always come first. When I am not working with them directly, you can usually find me digging into InsurTech platforms of all sizes to better understand their strategy, pain points, and roadmap with the goal of creating a deeper relationship. I also enjoy reading about the industry as a whole — new trends, barriers to innovation, and recent success stories.

What projects are you excited to work on?

I am always excited to work with customers and prospects as we strategically navigate their needs and Ideon’s solutions. Another thing that I am passionate about is an internal committee I am part of called “Ideonauts Developing Ideonauts”. We educate all of our team members on various topics that interest them. They range from great tips and tricks like how to use Slack more efficiently to in-depth discussions about our products and services.

What excites you about the future of Ideon?

What we do isn’t easy but it is necessary. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it! Enrollment API’s and data standardization are here to stay and it’s amazing to watch our products and services bring our customers next-level benefits experiences.

What do you like about Ideon’s company culture?

There is an incredible amount of passion and commitment. The enthusiasm is present every day and in every employee. It is truly infectious!

Life

Favorite activity when you’re not working? 

I love being outside! I live on a 110-acre ranch in Colorado so long walks right outside my front door and bird watching are two of my favorite activities!

Favorite place you’ve traveled?

My favorite place that I have traveled to outside of the US was the Christmas Markets along the Rhine River in Germany. Inside the US, a recent trip to Gloucester, Massachusetts was an amazing reminder of how young our country is (and how old Germany is).

Interesting fact about yourself… Go!

I am a Denver, CO native. I grew up skiing in Vail and even met Robert Redford while I was there.

Employee Spotlight: Meredith Saran

Posted on by Ideon

At Ideon, we’re proud to have such a talented, diverse team leading the charge for a better and more connected health insurance and employee benefits industry. Our ongoing Employee Spotlight series showcases the people behind our product and unveils what life is like at Ideon. Next up… Meredith Saran, our Marketing Specialist!

Name: Meredith Saran
Department: Marketing
Title: Marketing Specialist
Location: New York

Work

How long have you worked at Ideon?

Almost two years!

Tell us about your day-to-day.

The majority of my time goes into preparing for the conferences and events we attend. I organize all the details from booking hotels and restaurants, ordering swag and booth elements, tracking the budget, handling shipping, and owning the communication between our team, the vendors, and the conference staff. When we exhibit at a conference, I travel to the event, organize the booth build, and represent our company, communicating Ideon’s value to potential new customers!

I’m also the voice behind our social media accounts. I spend time on LinkedIn almost every day – posting, responding, and researching new ways to use the platform.

How have you grown professionally while on our team?

I came to Ideon with a little bit of corporate event planning experience and some social media experience. I’ve really appreciated the timely, honest feedback I’ve received from my manager and team on my work, allowing me to grow in those areas. I’ve built out processes and learned to use project management systems that have helped me level up my skills and keep our team organized. I am currently learning to track the ROI from the conferences we attend, which allows me to be more involved in strategy rather than just execution.

What do you like about Ideon’s company culture?

I like that Ideon has created committees that give opportunities for each employee’s voice to be heard. We have the DEIBA committee (focused on diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and accessibility), and the Wellness Committee (focused on improving our benefits offerings). Anyone can volunteer to be a part of these committees and give their opinions and suggestions on these subjects. I am on both committees so I can personally attest to the honesty and transparency that occurs in our meetings!

Ideon has grown a lot in the last few years, and many of our new employees are remote from across the country, so these committees came at a perfect time to make sure we are accommodating the feedback of our increasingly diverse team.

What attracted you to Ideon’s mission?

To be honest, when I was looking for a new job, I was looking for something a bit more meaningful and exciting, and I thought that meant getting out of the insurance industry. But when I discovered Ideon, I was surprised to find such a great fit! It took me a while to fully understand everything Ideon does, and honestly, I am continuing to learn every day. However, what I understood when I took this job was that Ideon’s focus is making things better. This means rejecting the status quo and taking the long and difficult road that others have ignored to finally get the entire benefits ecosystem caught up with the rest of the world, i.e. go through a digital transformation. And that transformation helps carriers, helps benefits platforms, and most importantly to me, helps the everyday person. Helping people excited me, so I knew being a part of Ideon would mean doing rewarding work.

Life

Favorite activity when you’re not working? 

I’ve been really getting into yoga recently. I also like reading, seeing theatre and comedy, and trying new restaurants.

Favorite place you’ve traveled?

Puerto Rico! I fell in love with the beaches and food in San Juan last summer.

Interesting fact about yourself… Go!

I am a former theatre geek, with a master’s degree in acting.

Employee Spotlight: Kevin Montgomery

Posted on by Ideon

At Ideon, we’re proud to have such a talented, diverse team leading the charge for a better and more connected health insurance and employee benefits industry. Our ongoing Employee Spotlight series showcases the people behind our product and unveils what life is like at Ideon. Next up… Kevin Montgomery, our Customer Success Manager, InsurTech!

Name: Kevin Montgomery
Department: Solutions Delivery
Title: Customer Success Manager, InsurTech
Location: Fairfax, Virginia

Work

How long have you worked at Ideon?

A year and two months.

Tell us about your day-to-day.

The exciting part about this role is that each day is different from the last. I am constantly working with customers and finding ways to improve their experience with Ideon. Each day consists of coordinating with different teams, from sales to operations to marketing.

What projects are you excited to work on?

Our enrollment and member management solutions! When I joined Ideon I worked primarily with our Quoting and Decision Support products and loved being part of the progress we made with those. I’m excited to dive in and help drive growth and adoption for our enrollment solution now as well. It’s such a critical stage of the member journey and there are so many possibilities – I am excited to see what we accomplish.

What excites you about the future of Ideon?

I am really excited about Ideon’s growth. Over the last two years I’ve been privileged to witness the company expand from 40 employees to over 100! Seeing that growth is motivating, inspiring, and it’s a big part of why I’ve enjoyed my time at Ideon.

What attracted you to Ideon’s mission?

Coming from a benefits administration platform before Ideon, I have seen a lot of inefficiencies and problems with the health insurance industry. There is A LOT of work that can be done to make the entire process of quoting, enrolling, and utilization of health insurance easier and more efficient. It is exciting that Ideon’s goal is to push the insurance industry into a more tech-forward space, and I am proud to be a part of that journey.

Life

Favorite activity when you’re not working? 

Watching and playing soccer! I am a huge Liverpool FC fan and I also play in a casual league with my friends.

Favorite place you’ve traveled?

Paris, France. Amazing food, wine, and history.

Interesting fact about yourself… Go!

Growing up, I was a really big Washington Capitals fan. I have a signed hockey puck and picture of Adam Oates and Peter Bondra!

Employee Spotlight: Tyler Henn

Posted on by Ideon

At Ideon, we’re proud to have such a talented, diverse team leading the charge for a better and more connected health insurance and employee benefits industry. Our ongoing Employee Spotlight series showcases the people behind our product and unveils what life is like at Ideon. Next up… Tyler Henn, our Quality Assurance Coordinator!

Name: Tyler Henn
Department: Data Ops
Title: Quality Assurance Coordinator!
Location: New York

Work

How long have you worked at Ideon?

Two and a half years.

Tell us about your day-to-day.

My day-to-day involves a lot of quality checks on our data — ensuring everything is the way it is supposed to be. I also work on automating our validation checks and coming up with new ideas to further improve our data accuracy.

How have you grown professionally while on our team?

This is my first full-time job, so I have grown quite a bit over the years. All of my co-workers at Ideon have helped to shape me with a focus on being professional and respectful of everyone I work with. They always push me to do better and come up with new ideas to further exceed our goals.

What excites you about the future of Ideon?

I am really excited about Ideon’s growth. Over the last two years I’ve been privileged to witness the company expand from 40 employees to over 100! Seeing that growth is motivating, inspiring, and it’s a big part of why I’ve enjoyed my time at Ideon.

What do you like about Ideon’s company culture?

I love the overall atmosphere of my team and the company as a whole. Everyone is super supportive and I think Ideon really pushes to make sure that our company culture is welcoming and enjoyable.

Life

Favorite activity when you’re not working? 

I love to play the board game Catan! And I have found a new obsession with Reality TV.

Favorite place you’ve traveled?

My favorite place I have traveled to would definitely have to be France.

Interesting fact about yourself… Go!

I can’t think of anything, so I am just going to go with the generic response –  I am left handed!

Employee Spotlight: John Emge

Posted on by Ideon

At Ideon, we’re proud to have such a talented, diverse team leading the charge for a better and more connected health insurance and employee benefits industry. Our ongoing Employee Spotlight series showcases the people behind our product and unveils what life is like at Ideon. Next up… John Emge, our SVP of Carrier Sales!

Name: John Emge
Department: Carrier Sales
Title: Senior Vice President of Carrier Sales
Location: South Carolina

Work

How long have you worked at Ideon?

I have been part of the Ideon team for one incredibly exciting year.

How have you grown professionally while on our team?

While I had been in the benefits technology industry for thirteen years prior to joining Ideon, I have grown in my understanding and appreciation of the various stakeholders in the benefits market (carriers, insurtechs, brokers, employers). I have learned that while they all acknowledge the need for improved data quality and data integrations in order to operate effectively and serve the members, each stakeholder has their own unique capacity and priorities.

My current focus is on actively listening to the market to understand how Ideon can best empower carriers and platforms at the crossroads of their data and business strategies. By doing so, we’ll drive meaningful and positive change in the industry.

What excites you about the future of Ideon?

We are helping solve problems in our industry — efficiently. When we meet with carriers and platforms, I clearly see our joint path ahead and our mutual desire to work to transform our industry through improved data management.

What do you like about Ideon’s company culture?

I really like our leadership — and I don’t just mean our executive team. Leadership is every member of the team who wakes up and approaches each day with an attitude of “how can I make a positive difference for our team today?” and “how can I contribute to supporting others in their objectives today?” “How can I help drive this company forward in our mission?” I consider myself very fortunate to work as part of a team in which this is the dominant mindset.

What attracted you to Ideon’s mission?

It’s simple: I believe that Ideon is going to help drive positive change with our partners. Benefits is an enormous industry, but what it is really about is families having the coverage they need, when they need it, for their health and financial protection. When they go to the hospital on that unexpected night, it needs to be there. For that to happen, all of the steps in the process must occur from quote, to card, to access, to claim. Whether that process functions correctly for that family is driven by data flow and data quality. Our industry has, for too long, accepted integration projects that take a year or more for point solutions and it has institutionalized post-impact data clean up or manual data entry that causes errors. We are helping to create a better way.

Life

Favorite activity when you’re not working? 

I love traveling, camping, and backpacking with my family.

Favorite place you’ve traveled?

Southern tip of Patagonia in Chile while backpacking. It is so remote and beautiful. It is rugged and peaceful at the same time. The people that we met on the trail were wonderful. They had all made a hard personal effort and choice to be there and that makes a difference in a lot of ways – and not just on the trail.

Interesting fact about yourself… Go!

I enjoy scuba diving and searching for megalodon teeth and fossils that are 3.6M to 20M+ years old. When I was a kid, I developed an early interest in archeology (King Tut was all the rage) so that and enjoying scuba diving is likely where it comes from.