Our team
Federal executives, clinicians, educators, and technologists
Leadership and subject matter experts accountable for delivery. Their routes into the work run from Army command and CMS systems architecture to clinical practice, curriculum design, and program facilitation.
Penny Aktepy, BA, CHRM
Co-Founder, President & COO
Penny co-founded Verve and serves as President and COO. She retired as a Sergeant Major after 29 years in the Army, where she led the Surface Deployment and Distribution Command…
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Swami Swaminathan, MS, MBA, PMP
Co-Founder & CEO
Swami co-founded Verve and leads the company as CEO. Before Verve, he served on CMS's Technical Review Board, where he advised the agency's CTO on systems architecture…
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Jennifer Stephen-Ogbe, HDI-SCM, ITIL v4, CSM
Program Director
Jennifer leads complex federal healthcare initiatives at Verve. She brings more than 19 years of experience and deep knowledge of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working at the intersection of healthcare, technology, operations, and program delivery…
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Dr. Joseph A. Huber, PhD., MEd., EMBA
Program Director
Joseph manages Verve's work on the VA's SSG Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program and its Rocky Mountain MIRECC data initiative. He spent 35 years in the Army…
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Rajesh Iyer, PMP
Program Director
Rajesh is a PMP-certified facilitator with more than a decade supporting federal clients, including ten years at Deloitte Consulting, where he led PMP boot camps for hundreds of practitioners…
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Jenna Larson, M.Ed.
Project Manager
Jenna serves as Project Manager on Verve's SSG Fox work, bringing deep field experience in rural and Indigenous community mental health. She originated and led ANCHR…
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Taylor Belluardo, LCSW
Program Design Lead
Taylor leads program design for Verve's suicide and violence prevention work. As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, she brings direct clinical experience to how programs are built…
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Michael Morrow, CCISO, CISSP, CISM, CISA
Cybersecurity Executive
Michael is a cybersecurity executive with 20 years of experience leading security, risk, governance, and transformation initiatives across large, complex, and highly regulated organizations…
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Dr. Thiyagu Rajakannan, Ph.D., M.Pharm.
Practice Director / Pharmaceutical Subject Matter Expert
Dr. Rajakannan brings more than a decade of experience supporting complex federal healthcare programs, with deep expertise in pharmaceutical policy, drug coverage and payment, utilization management, and regulatory compliance across Medicare…
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