David L. “Wally” Ward
Managing Director and Practice Leader, Performance Improvement, Advisory Services
Wally Ward is a managing director and practice leader of Performance Improvement, Advisory Services at Nordic. A certified public accountant and accomplished healthcare advisor with 40 years of experience, he has helped clients discover new strategies and navigate complex and transformative business initiatives. As a consultant, he focused on driving profitability, performance, and growth initiatives for large payer organizations and provider systems throughout the country, including several of the largest payers in healthcare. His work involves strategy development, new business ventures, operational improvement, financial turn-around, business transformation, provider network development, and medical cost management.
Wally has worked closely with providers and payers to develop strategies related to new ventures and business performance improvement involving collaborative approaches to meet current market and business challenges. He has helped bridge the gap between payers and providers to develop innovative approaches to financial performance, network development, customer engagement, and product development.
Prior to joining Nordic, he was CEO of digital transformation consultancy Optimity Advisors, where he led its turnaround focused on healthcare payers and provider organizations. Before Optimity, Wally was the managing director of the Southeast Region and the Health Care Advisory market leader at Ernst & Young. There, he led the development and delivery of EY services and solutions to large payer and provider organizations, including large healthcare systems, academic medical centers, and Blue Cross Blue Shield plans.
In addition to his background as an executive consultant, Wally's industry experience includes roles as a CEO, COO, CFO, and Chief Marketing and Sales Officer for large payer and provider organizations, such as Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in Georgia and Washington, D.C.
Wally has a Bachelor of Arts in Accounting from North Carolina State University.