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Daniel Willis
PAST PRESIDENT at HFMA NJ CHAPTER
Professional Background
Daniel Willis is a seasoned professional with extensive experience in various sectors, including healthcare, business management, and organizational leadership. His illustrious career spans across multiple high-profile organizations where he has consistently demonstrated exceptional leadership skills and strategic acumen. Daniel currently serves as the Associate Vice President (AVP) Network at Aetna, a leading health benefits company under the CVS Health umbrella. In his role at Aetna, Daniel is pivotal in managing and enhancing network operations, ensuring that the company's health services are both effective and efficient, thereby contributing significantly to the well-being of those served.
His previous leadership roles have been equally impressive. As an Advisory Council Member and President Elect at the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) New Jersey Chapter, Daniel played a crucial part in the organization's mission to enhance the understanding and management of healthcare finances. His contributions as Annual Institute Chair at HFMA NJ underscores his commitment to professional development and excellence in the healthcare finance industry.
Before his tenure at Aetna, Daniel brought his expertise to RWJ Barnabas Health, where he served as the Corporate Manager of Ancillary Contracting. His ability to navigate complex contractual relationships was vital in ensuring that the healthcare system operated smoothly and efficiently for patients and providers alike. In addition, his role as Engagement Director at Sutherland Global Services (formerly Apollo Health Street) allowed him to further hone his management and operational skills, enabling him to coordinate extensive projects and cultivate meaningful engagement with stakeholders.
Daniel's vast experience also includes significant roles in pediatric care and managed care. At Children’s Specialized Hospital, he was the Director of Payer Services, where he focused on enhancing the quality of care and services through strategic partnerships with payers. As the Director of Managed Care at PBI Regional Medical Center, he was instrumental in developing programs that improved patient access to needed services while managing costs effectively. Furthermore, Daniel has held senior international roles at The Walt Disney Company as the VP of International Sales and at Worldvision Enterprises, Inc. as the VP of International Administration, showcasing his flexibility and ability to adapt to diverse industries and markets.
Education and Achievements
Daniel’s educational background laid a strong foundation for his remarkable career. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater and Business Management from Fairleigh Dickinson University. This unique combination of business acumen and creative thinking has certainly contributed to his innovative approach in various roles throughout his career. His education at Fairleigh Dickinson was not only pivotal in shaping his professional path but also enabled him to develop a multifaceted perspective that he applies to problem-solving and strategic planning.
Daniel’s journey began at Phillipsburg High School, where he established the groundwork for his future academic and professional achievements. The combination of a strong foundational education and exemplary university study has equipped him with the necessary skills to navigate the competitive landscapes of business and healthcare.
Over the years, Daniel has made impressive contributions to the organizations he’s been part of, earning him accolades and recognition among his peers. His diverse experiences have allowed him to cultivate a profound understanding of organizational dynamics, enhance operational efficiencies, create positive healthcare environments, and generate sustainable growth in varying capacities.
Notable Achievements
Throughout his career, Daniel Willis has demonstrated a commitment to excellence and innovation in all of his endeavors. His leadership at Aetna as AVP Network is marked by his focus on intelligent network management and patient care quality, aligning with the broader goals of the CVS Health Company.
While serving as President Elect and Advisory Council Member at HFMA NJ Chapter, Daniel was instrumental in advancing the education and involvement of financial professionals in healthcare, enabling them to succeed in a rapidly changing environment. His work at HFMA exemplifies his dedication to fostering growth and professionalism within the healthcare finance sector.
In his previous roles in the healthcare industry, he developed extensive relationships that enhanced patient access to care and improved financial outcomes for the organizations involved. His work in managed care has contributed substantially to improving health equity and access, which remain critical issues in today’s healthcare landscape.
Daniel's international experience at The Walt Disney Company and Worldvision Enterprises, Inc. provided him with a global perspective essential for today’s interconnected market, enabling him to drive sales and administrative functions that resonated across various cultures and practices.
Daniel’s career is a testament to his unwavering commitment to enhancing healthcare services and operations while also demonstrating remarkable adaptability and leadership across industries. His diverse background positions him as a significant player in any sector he engages with, contributing positively and sustainably to growth and development.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
- Comprehensive Contact Management: Automatically collects contact data and enriches profiles to keep them up-to-date
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- Timeline: Shows your relationship history with each contact
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
Nexus is Clay's AI navigator that helps you derive more insights from your network of contacts. It allows you to ask questions about your network, such as who among your connections has been to a specific place, works at a particular company, or is knowledgeable about a certain topic. Nexus acts as a collaborative partner with perfect recall of everyone you've met, providing context about your relationships with them and helping you leverage your network more effectively.
Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.