Building Teams: Barry Tanner and Physicians Endoscopy's Incredible Success

Barry Tanner.  Simply say his name to anyone who has been around the private-equity backed, healthcare services sector in the last 25+ years and his name, Barry Tanner, will generate a response.  When you say Barry’s name, you’ll hear positive comments about the Company’s growth and you’ll hear effusive praise towards his incredible work ethic, passion for the business and Team and commitment to trust-based physician relationships.

Funny but when you talk with Barry you won’t hear any of this.  Instead, when you talk with Barry, all he’ll talk about is The Team.

“Throughout my career it’s been the people I have been so privileged to work with and the performance Teams we developed together who are responsible for the success.  Focus Search Partners has been a long time search partner to me and to Physicians Endoscopy. Paul Frankenberg and his team recruited talented leaders and Team Members such as our COO and Chief Development Officers as well as several other team members within our Field Operations and Clinical Teams.”

Barry joined Physicians Endoscopy as CEO in 1999.  He joined believing in the business, knowing that there was a lot of work to do in growth.  Reality hit in the very first year as the Company looked as though they would be unable to fund the upcoming payroll.

To turn this dire situation around, Barry began Building Teams and strong, performance-based physician relationships.

If you’re reading this, you’re most likely pursuing high growth at your own organization.  And WOW have Barry, his partners and his Team delivered on just that goal.  To achieve this growth he also had to build his investment partner Team.  Physicians Endoscopy’s majority investors through multiple recapitalizations in the last 15+ years are just as impressive as the Physician Endoscopy Team: Navigation Capital, Silver Oak Services Partners, Pamlico Capital and Kelso.

The Company went from the inability to fund payroll to sustained financial and operational performance that any organization would be proud of. Ask Barry why he selected each PE firm and he’ll tell you that they were great partners.  Each of our investors cared about our vision, their cared about the business and they cared about the Team and perhaps more importantly, the way in which the team wanted to deliver services to their physician partners.  To this day, Barry remains engaged through ongoing portfolio companies in these firms.  As for Physicians Endoscopy, Barry has hired and transitioned the Company’s leadership to the Next Generation Team and he believe that the future is brighter than ever.

Thank you to Barry for your willingness to allow Focus Search Partners to be part of your Team.  We are proud to say that we worked with and recruited multiple leaders and team members who each played a key role in Physicians Endoscopy’s continued success, including Barry’s COO, Frank Principati who was with Physician’s Endoscopy from 2010 through his retirement in 2020.