Ascom Americas Executive Profiles

Kelly Feist serves as Managing Director for Ascom Americas and also serves on Ascom’s extended Executive Committee. She joins Ascom from Philips Healthcare USA, where she served as the head of customer service in North America. Prior, she was the region’s first business leader for patient care and monitoring solutions. In both roles, Feist helped transform Philips from a capital equipment business model to a solutions-based and recurring revenue business model focusing on software, hardware and a growing business services offer. Feist has significant experience in Healthcare information technology (IT) solutions across several functions including sales, marketing, product management and customer care. She earned an MBA from Vanderbilt University and an executive certificate from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Tom leads the Strategic Sales organization for North America and is responsible for strategic partnerships, alliances and business development efforts associated with medical device and healthcare solution sales. Before joining Ascom in January of 2004, Tom held a variety of senior management positions at Motorola, Ericsson, Siemens, Nortel, and NYNEX where he gained extensive experience in both wireless and wired networks for voice and data solutions. With more than 30 years of experience in telecommunications and IT, Tom has a strong background in market planning, business development and staff management.

Corrado Grieci joins Ascom from a long tenure at Philips HealthTech where he served in a series of increasingly responsible roles, concluding as the senior director of innovation and incubation where he led the establishment of the new professional services business and operationalized new business lines. Prior, he was the Senior Director of Patient Monitoring and transformed the division’s sales channel, resulting in 4.3% OIT growth and 3.8% market share growth and managed a team of more than 120 employees.

Michael Augusti has spent the last 25 years in various roles within healthcare, currently serving as Head of Market Innovation for Ascom. Joining Ascom in 2020 Augusti has successfully led efforts to put Ascom solutions on GPO contract, grow Ascom’s government business and dramatically improve and expand strategic alliances. Currently, Augusti leads Product Management and Product Marketing efforts to ensure the continuing, state-of-the-art, evolution of Ascom’s patient-centric solutions that contribute to the health of every patient through integrated clinical practice. Prior to Ascom, Augusti spent 2 years with Masimo and 16 years with Philips in various roles around patient monitoring, cardiac resuscitation, medical device integration and communication technologies. With a BS in Finance from George Mason University and an International MBA in Marketing, from SDA Bocconi in Milan Italy, Augusti has developed a sales and marketing career where he has earned several awards and launched software solutions designed to improve patient outcomes. His wife of 25 years is a Nurse and their two sons have developing careers in transportation and professional sports. Outside of work, Augusti is an active Private Pilot and enjoys boating.

Pat leads the Human Resources organization for Ascom Americas, with more than 15 years of successful HR operational execution. She comes to Ascom from a private equity firm in Raleigh, where she served as Director of Human Resources, managing a full range of HR operations activities including recruitment/selection, onboarding, training and development, benefits/payroll, policy implementation, leave of absence, compliance and federal and state employment law.

Ms. Duffy is the Vice President of Finance & Administration and part of the executive management team for Ascom Wireless Solutions, Inc. Ms. Duffy is responsible for financial affairs of the company including accounting, financial reporting, controllership, budgets and treasury. Additionally, Ms. Duffy is responsible for overseeing the administration functions and management of human resources. Ms. Duffy was one of five individuals selected to establish the presence of Ascom Wireless Solutions in the US and was instrumental in developing Ascom financial plans and policies, accounting and administrative practices, personnel policies and implementing our management accounting system needed to support the growth and goal of our company. Ms. Duffy has more than 20 years experience in accounting and financial management with a proven background in rapidly growing companies and start-up organizations. Before joining Ascom in 2000, she was a key player in the successful startup of a US subsidiary for Furuno Electric Co., LTD. Prior to that she held positions in companies that include General Mechatronics Corp., Fiat Products Inc., and Lincoln Savings Bank, where she served in operational and leadership roles. Ms. Duffy is a graduate of Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY and holds a B.B.A in Public Accounting.

Robert Wittwer is an active Registered Nurse who serves as Senior Vice President of Professional Services for Ascom Americas. Wittwer joined Ascom in July 2021 with the mission to define and scale the company’s project management office and launch a consulting practice. These operations are a strategic part of the company’s transformation to a full-scale healthcare communications workflow solution provider. Prior to Ascom, Wittwer ran his own regional consulting business for five years where he coached executives and organizations, architected sales strategies and business models to grow sales, and managed development of prototypes for pre-FDA validation studies. An accomplished sales executive, Wittwer held roles at OBIX and Philips. At Philips he managed the $1 Billion monitoring portfolio for 25 percent of the U.S. market in High Acuity, General Care, and Fetal patient care environments.

Chris LaFratta is an executive leader with a 20-year track record of driving large-scale operational transformation, customer satisfaction improvement and revenue growth for healthcare technology companies. Previously, Chris was Senior Vice President of Software Engineering and Clients Services at a startup that developed an AI enabled clinical decision support solution for oncologists. Chris has also led field service, support, and professional services organizations for Philips in North America and for Elekta in Europe Middle East and Africa where he's managed diverse teams of up to 900 employees with P&L responsibility from start-up to greater than $1 Billion. He earned an MBA from Bentley University and a Bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts, Boston.