Healthcare, and especially the healthcare information technology sector, is where my passion lies, and I’ve been fortunate to have spent the majority of my career in this fascinating sector of our economy. I worked in managed care consulting immediately after graduating from Brandeis University with a BA in psychology, and then attended the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania to earn an MBA in healthcare management. After Wharton, I worked in managed care and then in healthcare claims data analysis.
Finding claims analysis to be far too academic, I decided to pursue a career in sell-side equity research in 1993. Over the course of the next decade I covered the stocks of over 25 healthcare information technology companies, as well as companies in the e-health, drug information, and pharmacy benefit management sectors. During this time, I worked on multiple IPOs and follow-on offerings and built a strong reputation for penetrating insight and high integrity with both institutional investors and the management of the companies I followed. I was one of the first analysts to recognize the potential impact of healthcare IT and to cover it as a discrete sector. It was during this time that Zacks recognized me as an All-Star Analyst.
After ten years in equity research, I wanted to work more closely with companies and decided to move to investment banking. For the next six years I helped more than 25 companies in healthcare information technology, pharmaceutical information, revenue cycle management, and technology-enabled services complete transactions ranging in size from $40– to $365 million. During my banking tenure, my clients repeatedly commented on my industry knowledge, strategic perspective, and differentiated ability to position their companies to both investors and potential strategic partners. More than once I heard, “I’ve never met a banker who really understood my business before.”
Investment banking was exciting but, by its nature, almost solely transaction-driven. I determined that I would be both happier and have a greater impact if I could have a more genuine and less transactional relationship with my clients. Realizing that banking was not the best platform from which to offer objective advice, in 2009 I formed ST Advisors so that I could partner with management teams to craft strategic direction and drive corporate growth without the need for an immediate transaction as the basis of our relationship. As an independent and trusted advisor, I work with companies to help define the key value drivers of their business, express their strategy, evaluate their approaches to markets and opportunities, and determine their best partners and ultimate goals, including, at the appropriate time, optimal exit strategies.
After more than 25 years, I continue to find the healthcare information technology industry fascinating and look for ways to continue to both share and expand my knowledge. I’ve been a judge for the Microsoft Health Users Group Innovation Awards since its inception in 1997 and regularly judge the Microsoft Life Sciences Innovation Awards as well. I sit on the boards and advisory boards of a number of private companies, and I sit on the editorial board and write an annual M&A article for Healthcare Informatics. I am also a fairly regular contributor to the industry blog, HISTalk, through my Healthcare IT From the Investor’s Chair column.
I am lucky to live in one of the most beautiful areas in the country, splitting my time between San Francisco and Sonoma. When I’m not working, I love to spend time with my wife and our dog, enjoying northern California, traveling, and attending theater.
