Meet the Akos Team

Dr. Swaraj Singh is a vascular neurologist and Akos co-founder.

Dr. Singh garnered extensive administrative experience serving as medical director for neurology and stroke programs at Banner Thunderbird Medical Center, Banner Estrella Medical Center, and Banner Del E. Webb Medical Center where he played a key role in developing and implementing multidisciplinary approaches to optimize fast, high-quality care for stroke patients while managing resources and containing cost.

Dr. Singh’s entrepreneurial experience includes being a founding and managing partner for NRI Family Health, an app-based healthcare service provider.  NRI Family Health promotes preventive and ongoing care by connecting patients with a team of physicians from a network of healthcare institutions across India.  He self-funded the venture with three partners, which further broadened his understanding of fiscal accountability.  He assisted in the development of a customized electronic health records (EHR) system and worked closely with IT teams to coordinate workflows and manage servers and database structures.  He oversaw a full operations team in India via remote calls while making business processes and patient care and communication more efficient and effective.

Dr. Singh is the founding and managing partner of the Center for Neurology and Spine in Phoenix, Arizona, a multispecialty practice covering neurology, neuropsychology, spine surgery, and pain medicine.  Prior to this role, he was in private practice for several years at the Arizona Neurological Institute.

Dr. Singh remains committed to continuous improvement of his field and throughout the years has written and contributed to numerous publications including a textbook chapter, peer-reviewed articles, poster presentations, and grand rounds.

Dr. Singh earned his medical degree at Government Medical College, Patiala and completed a neurology internship and residency at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, where he served as chief resident.  He also completed a vascular neurology fellowship at University of Massachusetts and performed post-graduate research in experimental medicine at the University of British Columbia.  He is a member of the American Academy of Neurology and the American Heart Association.

Dr. Robb Leigh is an emergency physician and has been with Akos since the company’s inception.

Dr. Leigh has 25 years of experience in the medical field and garnered extensive administrative experience serving as Chief Medical Officer for MedAire in Arizona and Medical Director for Diabetic & Neuropathy Treatment Centers in Arizona and California.  As the former Chief Medical Officer for MedAire, he managed a medical team that delivered medical assistance to the travel industry via telemedicine to passengers and crew members of commercial flights, business jets, yachts, and commercial shipping company crews all over the world, and personally managed several thousands of cases.

Dr. Leigh is an experienced emergency physician having worked in that capacity for 15 years.  He has written numerous articles on general health for the population published in various consumer and trade magazines, and co-authored scientific papers.  He brings an extensive experience in teaching medical students, residents, and physicians, and in development and implementation of training modules.  He also brings extensive experience as a reviewer and editor of educational modules and client-facing materials, and has worked closely with marketing departments for years in previous roles.  He was also part of a team that developed and continuously updated comprehensive medical kits that clients carried in their aircrafts, yachts and commercial shipping vessels, some of which spent months at the sea.

Dr. Leigh earned his medical degree at the University of Sao Paulo School of Medicine, Brazil, and completed his residency at the University of Nevada.  Dr. Leigh holds a master’s degree in business administration from Arizona State University.

Shawn Smith is a seasoned marketing strategist and has been with Akos since the company’s inception.

Shawn brings nearly 25 years of brand strategy and integrated marketing experience to Akos.  With a skillset that includes partnering with core business operations to increase company performance, expand market share and generate sustainable revenue and profit, Shawn has worked for both Fortune 500 companies and innovative startups, marketing everything from emergency medicine to consumer packaged goods.

Prior to joining Akos, Shawn served as the Director of Marketing at Emerus Hospitals, a startup organization in emergency medicine that pioneered an innovative business model in the way emergency medicine is delivered.  Shawn was brought to the executive management team to build and lead the brand vision.  She launched corporate and joint venture brand identities and marketing campaigns.  Shawn also built and managed a patient relations team designed to elevate the overall patient experience.

Shawn began her career serving as Director of Marketing at Frito-Lay where she built a strong foundation marketing some of the world’s most valuable brands.  She spent her first few years leading and managing multimillion dollar field sales divisions and later in brand management.

Shawn holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Texas at Austin.

Mellinda Lanier is responsible for the overall business operations and administration, programming, implementation of board policy and oversees the operations, sales and client relations teams.  Her key role is executing the organization’s strategic plan helping to assure key performance indicators and goals are met.

Mellinda has been a corporate business coach and has over 20 years of experience in workers’ compensation.  She is a nationally known keynote speaker, author and corporate trainer.  She serves as the president of the nonprofit Kidney Support Center and as a Family Resource Support Coach.

Mellinda is currently pursuing a PhD in Psychology and Ministry.

Anand Kumar has been a technology professional for 16 years and has extensive experience in designing, architecting, and guiding geographically diverse teams to develop modern computer applications while planning and meeting short and long term goals.  His expertise in the design and development of restful web services prepared him to execute complex tasks at Akos managing multiple intricate platforms.  He is responsible for the technological leadership and direction of the IT team, and for maintaining high technology standards for the organization.

Anand oversees the IT development team focusing on quality, performance and delivery, and is responsible for implementation of all new programs and updates.  He interfaces with all departments ensuring smooth integration of the IT platform and addresses IT issues bringing prompt solutions preventing breaches in service.

Anand graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in New Delhi, India in 2001.

Edward Nelson brings extensive experience in both telemedicine and workers’ compensation.  He has a deep understanding of the employer, payer and broker landscapes.

Prior to joining Akos, Ed served as Director of Network Support at Equian where he was responsible for the development of an international provider network consisting of 2,418 facilities in over 68 countries.  As Project Development Manager, he worked in partnership with the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services to create a national database of over 2,100 mental health providers & facilities.

Ed was at the ground level of telemedicine in 2010 serving as Director of Client Services at Stat Doctors where he led the development of an electronic client implementation process that was utilized for the onboarding of over 310 national accounts.

Ed holds a degree in Business Administration from University of LaVerne.