Operational recovery
Understand the real causes of poor performance, establish accountability, and give leaders a practical path from diagnosis to action.
Executive advisor · Consultant · Speaker
Clarity for
complex work.
Damon Rich is the executive leaders call when a difficult operation needs clarity, alignment, and a practical path to results. His work sits where people, processes, technology, vendors, and executive decisions meet. He asks the questions that reveal what is actually happening, then helps leaders and teams move with purpose.
Where I work best
When the stakes are high, clarity has to lead.
I work with leaders facing complex delivery, strained service operations, or a gap between what a vendor promised and what people experience.
Contact center transformation
Connect customer experience, workforce realities, platform selection, and implementation decisions so service improvements can hold up in practice.
Vendor and technology decisions
Help buyers define what they need, evaluate options, manage delivery, and repair relationships that are putting outcomes at risk.
Experience
Across the decision and the delivery.
Examples of the kinds of challenges I have been trusted to address.
Executive advice · Public service
Florida Agency for Health Care Administration
As a Senior Info Tech Business Consultant in the Chief of Staff's Office, I advise agency leadership on IT operations and difficult decisions that cross organizational boundaries. Earlier roles included leading statewide Medicaid field operations and vendor relationships. As a business and technical architect, I helped design a Unified Operations Center approach and a provider services module for a major Florida modernization effort.
Service recovery · Platform change
Florida Department of Children and Families
I served as a trusted advisor to the Secretary on improving the performance of the ESS contact center and led the evaluation, selection, and implementation of a new contact center solution.
Independent advisory · Selection
A Florida health plan
I advised on improvements to the health plan's contact center operations and organizational structure, and helped evaluate and select a new platform that fit its operational needs.
Procurement · Customer experience
South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
I evaluated contact center and business operations contracts and developed procurement requirements for the Healthy Connections Service Center, including current and future customer experience mapping. I also guided the team on improving performance under its existing vendor arrangements.
Innovation in practice
Challenge the assumption. Build a clearer path.
Complex operations rarely improve by accepting the first definition of the problem. Progress starts by challenging inherited assumptions, building something people can examine, and bringing business and technology teams around a clearer path forward.
Provider lifecycle management
I developed a prototype for a new provider lifecycle management platform and used it to elicit business requirements and rules from the business unit. The prototype gave the team something concrete to examine and refine as the agency developed its approach.
Program Integrity
I developed a prototype for a replacement case management approach, giving program staff a concrete way to evaluate workflows and define what the new system must do.
Long-term care eligibility support
I am developing a tool to help applicants understand the long-term care eligibility process, identify questions to ask, and recognize when they may need qualified legal assistance with asset protection. The tool is in development and is intended to support informed decisions, not determine eligibility or provide legal advice.
Tools for providers
Using AI-assisted development, I created AHCA's provider pages and enrollment readiness tool. I also developed the initial Policy Bot concept prototype, which the agency's IT team advanced further. Explore the provider center
My approach
Ask better. Decide clearly. Build what works.
A complex program rarely fails for only one reason. I bring operational, human, and vendor perspectives together so leaders can see the whole picture, identify gaps and pain points, and make informed decisions that improve outcomes.
01 / See
Question the assumptions
Ask why the work is done this way and who decided it had to be. Listen across levels and look beyond symptoms to find the real constraint.
02 / Align
Make tradeoffs visible
Bring the gaps, competing needs, and consequences into the open so executives, staff, and partners can make and own clear choices.
03 / Move
Build change that lasts
Turn decisions into practical steps, follow through with the people doing the work, and keep testing whether the change improves the outcome.
In their words
What colleagues have seen.
One of Damon’s greatest strengths is his ability to assess challenges and create practical pathways to solutions. His breadth of experience, depth of knowledge, adaptability, and commitment to service distinguish him as an exceptional professional.
Erica Floyd ThomasFormer Chief of Staff, Florida Agency for Health Care AdministrationHe is a talented innovator who sees beyond the surface of a challenge and navigates processes that get results.
Derek JacksonVice President, Automated Health SystemsHe communicates effectively both up and down the corporate ladder. He is a very good project leader.
Brad LevineCEO at TellusConnect
Let's talk about the work in front of you.
Whether you are considering an executive leader, looking for an advisor, or planning a conversation for your audience, I welcome a thoughtful introduction.
Use the button to find a time, or find me on social media.