BOISE ENTREPRENEUR BOB LOKKEN LAUNCHES NEW BUSINESS VENTURE
Lokken sees current economy as fraught with opportunity
BOISE, Idaho – April 27, 2009 – Bob Lokken, CEO of WhiteCloud Analytics, admits to being a contrarian when he says the worst economy in decades is a great time to launch a new company – especially one focused on addressing a daunting societal problem, like health care.
Lokken’s new company, WhiteCloud Analytics, is a Boise-based software and consulting company focused on providing decision support and performance management for health care systems. Lokken and his team are passionate about the WhiteCloud vision of “better care for more people at lower costs.” And they fully intend to fulfill this vision by helping hospitals drive process efficiencies and rein in spiraling costs through better decision support.
“I love driving innovation and creating value from white space,” said Lokken. “I knew I wanted to tackle a specific problem with my next venture. We certainly want to build a great company here in Boise and return excellent shareholder value – but even more importantly, we want to make a difference.”
“It is clear that the rising costs of health care have the potential to bankrupt our country if left unaddressed,” Lokken added. “We plan to do our part, by driving innovation into this critical market.”
The health care industry is familiar territory for Lokken and his team, many of whom are seasoned veterans from ProClarity and later Microsoft. “Health care made up some of our best ProClarity success stories,” said Lokken. “In fact, the largest ProClarity customer was the Veteran’s Health Administration.”
“I am excited to see Bob and the team focus on such a pressing societal problem,” said Bill Baker, CTO of Visible Technologies and business intelligence industry veteran. “Given their deep analytics expertise, I have every confidence in their ability to apply the lessons learned at ProClarity to the challenges facing hospitals today,” added Baker.
Lokken found it relatively easy to raise capital from private investors, attract talented and experienced professionals, and garner support from the local business community. He attributes all of this to a near “perfect storm” of intersecting opportunities: the combination of his ProClarity and Microsoft track records, a timely business strategy that tackles a pressing problem, and a weak economy which means investors are looking for innovative business opportunities.
The WhiteCloud team has established relationships with hospitals around the country and has several prototype solutions under development – not bad for a company launched less than a month ago.
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