CFO and Board Member Play Integral Roles in Powering Massive Growth in Record Time at PE Firm’s Healthcare Platform

Leveraged their highly relevant backgrounds to appreciably scale the platform at an accelerated pace and drive it through to an advantageous investor exit

Client:

A leading platform for ophthalmology service providers

Services:

Executive search

Industry:

Healthcare Services

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After acquiring a physician-owned platform, a PE firm with an existing relationship with Focus Search Partners retained our firm to find a CFO capable of transforming two recently merged local eyecare practices into a regional powerhouse through an acquisitive and organic growth strategy. Several months later, the client reached out for additional leadership bench strength for this investment: a board member with experience scaling a PE-backed healthcare platform to guide the CEO of this fast-growing firm.

The CFO placed in this position was well known to Focus Search Partners’ founder for her finance work in the healthcare industry, and she represented the ideal finance executive for this role: Her accounting mastery included successful stints as a company controller, creating accurate and timely financials in both PE and public company healthcare environments. She also honed her business intelligence and data analytics expertise as the director of reporting and applications at a large health system before joining a Big 4 accounting firm’s transaction advisory services, guiding buy- and sell-side decisions within healthcare as a director.

Our board member also hailed from the healthcare sector. At the pinnacle of his career as a CFO, he successfully steered a founder-led, PE-backed dermatology platform through

multiple funding rounds. Ultimately, he became president and COO of the platform, expanding his executive experience beyond finance oversight to the platform’s entire operational purview. In short, he had a unique and valuable perspective to share with our client’s CEO as a mentor and guide.

Outcomes

With the help of Focus Search Partners’ CFO at the finance helm and our board member as an experienced conduit between the company’s senior management and the rest of the board, the platform grew exponentially from a local practice composed of 11 providers, four clinics, and one ambulatory surgery center (ASC) to a multi-state engine comprising 140 providers, 63 locations, and 11 ASCs
The platform also completed a successful rebranding
While our client owned the platform, it completed 23 acquisitions, with the CFO scaling the business at an ever-increasing year-over-year pace