John H. Simmonds

CEO, President and Senior Consultant

John Simmonds is the founder and President of StrateBen, Inc., a premier employee benefits technology and consulting firm focused on leveraging both technology and leading-edge information management tools to address the rapid and alarming increase in healthcare costs. Simmonds brings over 35 years of employee benefits, health plan management and managed care experience to STRATeBEN.

Prior to joining StrateBen, Simmonds worked with a leading Mid-Atlantic health plan administrator for 5 years. Expanding responsibilities included managing business development as well as being the lead consultant on major clients. His greatest achievement was designing and taking the project lead on the development of a unique healthcare cost management program. Prior to that, he worked with progressive national managed care companies such as HealthCare COMPARE (now known as First Health Group Corp.). His responsibilities included the development of strategic relationships with clients in order to deliver unique and valuable ways to manage the trend of their healthcare costs. Some of Simmonds’ past corporate clients are recognized leaders in their industries like Thyssen Krupp Elevator, Magellan Health Services, Texas Instruments, and EDS.

John is a graduate of Vanderbilt University.  He has also participated in Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business' Managed Care Leadership Forum as well as the Wharton School of Pennsylvania Direct Program.

L. Darlene Shurley

Vice President, Account Management

Darlene Shurley is Vice President of Account Management with Strateben.

Prior to joining StrateBen, Shurley worked for third party administrators in operations and account management. Responsibilities included providing strategic and creative solutions to everyday problems for employer sponsored health plans, managing the account management staff, client retention, and annual reviews. With over 20 years of experience working with third party administrators in both operations and account management, Shurley possesses the organizational agility to facilitate the needs of clients and members. Fast-paced and energetic was the formula to successfully managing over 60,000 employee lives. This creates the perfect balance of knowledge and skill while operating in our complex environment. 

Shurley is responsible for all account management functions and runs the team who serves our clients on a day to day basis.  She is also responsible for strategic partner relationships which deliver added value to our client benefit programs. 

Jennie Deuber

Assistant Vice President, Data and Reporting

Jennie Deuber is responsible for all data and information management activities at STRATeBEN, Inc. Jennie came to STRATeBEN with over 15 years of experience in budgeting and analysis of employee benefits and health plans.

A detail oriented and analytical information manager, Jennie has held senior director positions in finance offices in large governmental departments including Budget Director for the Community College of Baltimore County, with more than a $173 million operating budget and with the County Government. Jennie was responsible for development and analysis of annual operating and financing budgets, including the self-funded health insurance budget for more than 1,300 full time employees. Additional responsibilities included the annual development of the budget document which received the Government Finance Officers Association’s annual award for budget development. Jennie has worked with analytical staff in several agencies, and her background is a unique asset for her to provide the best provider selections and track ongoing service provider performance for each client.

Jennie's role at Strateben and Stratehealth is crucial in delivering on our mission to improve member health and control costs.  By managing the data analytics platform, Jennie ensures that our team is able to access the critical information necessary for our nurses to reach patients in need as well as provide our clients with crucial reporting to assess plan trajectory.

Penny Weaver, RN, CCM

Team Leader, Personal Health Nurse Services

Penny is the Team Leader of all integrated Clinical Management Service activities at STRATeBEN, Inc and StrateHealth. Penny comes to Strateben with over 20 years of nursing experience with an emphasis in case management and data driven clinical outcomes study.  Penny and her nurse team mates operate under our sister company called StrateHealth.

A caring and talented nurse, Penny has held senior positions in care management at some of the largest Care Management companies in the United States.  Penny has been managing nurses and delivering high quality care to members for over 30 years.  One of her proudest roles was working in Neonatal Intensive Care Units for over 8 years.

Her role at Strateben is to manage clinical management activities for StrateHealth to ensure the best possible performance from Strateben’s High Performance Health Management Program. Using her extensive experience working with employers of all sizes, she is able to identify members health trends and assist in improving outcomes and rightsizing all stakeholders’ expenditures.

Karen Colonell, PHR

Former Vice President, Strateben (In Memoriam)

Karen Colonell was the Vice President of Account Management and Operations of StrateBen, Inc, a premier employee benefits consulting firm focused on leveraging both technology and leading edge information management tools to address the rapid and alarming increase in healthcare costs. Colonell was instrumental in establishing Strateben as a premier service organization dedicated to its clients. She came to StrateBen with over 18 years of employee benefits, health plan and managed care experience.

An intense and sophisticated project manager and client support strategist, Colonell held senior management positions with key employee benefits providers including a leading national insurance carrier, a regional third party administrator, and a national HR outsourcing service provider.

Colonell was responsible for business units that focused on the service and management of over 7,000 group health accounts. Additional responsibilities included the development of strategic relationships with broker partners and vendors as well as product training and continuing education. Karen has worked with an impressive list of local and national vendors in order to deliver maximum value to her clients. Her background uniquely positioned her to assess performance, make service provider selections and track ongoing service provider performance.

Karen was a graduate of Towson University and was certified as a Professional in Human Resources. Karen was also a Certified Healthcare Reform Specialist. Karen's influence on Strateben and its colleagues will be felt forever.