Healthcare >> CEO Interviews >> February 7, 2001
CHARLTON C. TOOKE, III is President of Lumenos. Most recently he was
President and Chief Executive Officer of Value Behavioral Health (VBH),
a $250 million business servicing more than 13 million lives through a
workforce of 2,000 employees in 51 regional operating units. Under his
leadership, VBH became the industry leader serving over 20% of the
Fortune 500 companies, processing $1.2 billion in claims and answering
2.9 million service calls annually for more than 900 corporate and
government clients. Mr. Tooke joined Value Health, Inc., VBH's parent
company, in 1988 and as an early employee, held numerous sales,
marketing and operations positions in the organization and from 1991 to
1994, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
of the company's western region. In May 1997, Value Health and its
subsidiaries, including VBH, was sold to Columbia/HCA. In June 1998,
upon Mr. Tooke's guidance and direction, VBH was sold to FHC Operations
for $235 million as a component of Columbia/HCA's reorganization effort.
Despite the fact that the company was sold twice within a 14-month
period, he was able to retain 100% of his 60 senior managers. Profile
Mr. Tooke: We founded the company back in September 1999 under the name
Direct Healthcare, based in Alexandria, Virginia. In
