Ascom Americas Executive Profiles

Tobias Stanelle brings more than 20 years of commercial experience in healthcare to the role of Managing Director of Ascom Americas. Tobias has a proven track record of building high-performing teams and driving profitable sales growth from roles working at global Fortune 500 healthcare companies. He uses his deep understanding of customer needs to develop simple solutions to complex client problems. Tobias’ sales experience includes capital equipment, medical devices, professional services, pharmaceutical diagnostics, and healthcare IT solutions. Previously, he served as Assistant Vice President, National Accounts for Philips Healthcare where he led a full portfolio of commercial and product services for a large not-for-profit health system and associated GPO. Before Philips, Stanelle spent twenty years at GE Healthcare in strategic sales and leadership roles, most recently as the Market Vice President where he led $200M of incoming orders and $300M in revenue for the Carolinas Market. He started his career at GE in the Experienced Commercial Leadership Program. He graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a BS in Science, Technology and Culture. He later received an MBA from the University of Florida and completed the Heidrick and Struggles program in Leadership Coaching for Organizational Performance at NC State University. In his career, Stanelle enjoys using technology to help solve customer problems and work in new and better ways. In his personal life, he enjoys watching soccer, exploring new places and reading a good book. Stanelle lives in Chapel Hill, NC with his wife and three daughters.

Michael Augusti has spent the last 25 years in various roles within healthcare, currently serving as Head of Market Innovation for Ascom. Joining Ascom in 2020 Augusti has successfully led efforts to put Ascom solutions on GPO contract, grow Ascom’s government business and dramatically improve and expand strategic alliances. Currently, Augusti leads Product Management and Product Marketing efforts to ensure the continuing, state-of-the-art, evolution of Ascom’s patient-centric solutions that contribute to the health of every patient through integrated clinical practice. Prior to Ascom, Augusti spent 2 years with Masimo and 16 years with Philips in various roles around patient monitoring, cardiac resuscitation, medical device integration and communication technologies. With a BS in Finance from George Mason University and an International MBA in Marketing, from SDA Bocconi in Milan Italy, Augusti has developed a sales and marketing career where he has earned several awards and launched software solutions designed to improve patient outcomes. His wife of 25 years is a Nurse and their two sons have developing careers in transportation and professional sports. Outside of work, Augusti is an active Private Pilot and enjoys boating.

Pat leads the Human Resources organization for Ascom Americas, with more than 15 years of successful HR operational execution. She comes to Ascom from a private equity firm in Raleigh, where she served as Director of Human Resources, managing a full range of HR operations activities including recruitment/selection, onboarding, training and development, benefits/payroll, policy implementation, leave of absence, compliance and federal and state employment law.

Ms. Duffy is the Vice President of Finance & Administration and part of the executive management team for Ascom Wireless Solutions, Inc. Ms. Duffy is responsible for financial affairs of the company including accounting, financial reporting, controllership, budgets and treasury. Additionally, Ms. Duffy is responsible for overseeing the administration functions and management of human resources. Ms. Duffy was one of five individuals selected to establish the presence of Ascom Wireless Solutions in the US and was instrumental in developing Ascom financial plans and policies, accounting and administrative practices, personnel policies and implementing our management accounting system needed to support the growth and goal of our company. Ms. Duffy has more than 20 years experience in accounting and financial management with a proven background in rapidly growing companies and start-up organizations. Before joining Ascom in 2000, she was a key player in the successful startup of a US subsidiary for Furuno Electric Co., LTD. Prior to that she held positions in companies that include General Mechatronics Corp., Fiat Products Inc., and Lincoln Savings Bank, where she served in operational and leadership roles. Ms. Duffy is a graduate of Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY and holds a B.B.A in Public Accounting.

Robert Wittwer is an active Registered Nurse who serves as Senior Vice President of Professional Services for Ascom Americas. Wittwer joined Ascom in July 2021 with the mission to define and scale the company’s project management office and launch a consulting practice. These operations are a strategic part of the company’s transformation to a full-scale healthcare communications workflow solution provider. Prior to Ascom, Wittwer ran his own regional consulting business for five years where he coached executives and organizations, architected sales strategies and business models to grow sales, and managed development of prototypes for pre-FDA validation studies. An accomplished sales executive, Wittwer held roles at OBIX and Philips. At Philips he managed the $1 Billion monitoring portfolio for 25 percent of the U.S. market in High Acuity, General Care, and Fetal patient care environments.

Chris LaFratta is an executive leader with a 20-year track record of driving large-scale operational transformation, customer satisfaction improvement and revenue growth for healthcare technology companies. Previously, Chris was Senior Vice President of Software Engineering and Clients Services at a startup that developed an AI enabled clinical decision support solution for oncologists. Chris has also led field service, support, and professional services organizations for Philips in North America and for Elekta in Europe Middle East and Africa where he's managed diverse teams of up to 900 employees with P&L responsibility from start-up to greater than $1 Billion. He earned an MBA from Bentley University and a Bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts, Boston.