CEO for a Year

This first year as CEO has been full of growth, learnings and transitions

As I ended a pitch call this week for a Founder to CEO transition search, I was asked, “Can you tell us why Oxeon is different from other search firms? Why should we work with you?” My answer was simple: “I don’t think about Oxeon as a search firm. We are a healthcare company.” What I mean by that is we start companies, build them and sit on their boards. We also invest in many areas of healthcare. And as a healthcare operator, I know that talent is THE most important lever for any company’s success.

Over the past year, I have had a number of conversations about my decision to take on the role of CEO of Oxeon and they all center around my personal passion about making healthcare better for everyone. I believe the only way to truly deliver change in our screwed-up healthcare system is by having the right people at the table creating new ways to solve its challenges. The current macro environment across the sector – perhaps best summed as a time of scarcity – makes the need for new ideas and new voices even more urgent. If you are struggling with the status quo, you're not alone. We can help.

We will get there by respecting the past, but also building a different future. I believe right now, more than ever before, is the time for the next generation of C-Suite executives to break away from old patterns that have failed to drive real change in healthcare. Many investors, stressed with the current market conditions, are relying on old playbooks. Instead, we need new perspectives on leadership. The next generation of leaders are people with lived experiences and leverage lessons learned from the past. They are more attuned (and represent) the diversity of needs and interests of patients and clinicians who depend on them. Personally, I’ve been “the only'' at leadership tables for much of my career. While early on that was intimidating, I now realize the power of my unique voice and how it helps teams creatively approach problems. Fresh eyes and faces can build new and unique partnerships and have deep commitments to sustainable innovation. My vision is for Oxeon to be a multi-generational company that connects people and ideas to change healthcare for everyone.

This first year as CEO has been full of growth, learnings and transitions. As a first-time CEO and taking over from a Founder, I’ve had to balance going slow to build trust and making quick decisions for the betterment of the business. At times, it can feel very lonely. I appreciate our Founder Trevor Price’s thoughtfulness with his transition to Board Chair, best captured by his constant refrain,“It is your choice, but here is how I think about it.” This guidance has empowered me to make my own decisions to build the foundation for Oxeon’s next chapter, while freeing Trevor to be available (to me and Oxeon) for the most strategic decisions. Our leadership team has embraced Adam Grant’s “Think Again” concept, analyzing our business like scientists to inform what we keep and what we build new for our long-term sustainable growth. I am deeply grateful to the entire Oxeon team for their resilience and thriving through times of ambiguity – both internally with our leadership transition and externally with the market challenges.

We are on track for a successful 2023 across a number of metrics:

I’m also excited to share two big announcements that will help us continue to grow and be better partners:

First, Duncan Reece joins us as President. Duncan will focus on two areas: He will productize and operationalize the unique data platform that Oxeon has built across tens of thousands of proprietary data points. He will also have responsibility for the Oxeon Venture studio, where we build companies with founders and support them in their journeys to make a transformative impact on healthcare. Being a great leader is also knowing your own strengths and recruiting talent that has complementary skill sets. When I first met Duncan at Health Dialog more than ten years ago, he was incredibly helpful to me as I navigated moving from a large publicly traded company environment to a more scrappy entrepreneurial company with much less structure, a new CEO in place and major leadership transitions underway. He was also early in his career and building his team leadership style. We built a deep level of trust and respect for each other that has carried beyond Health Dialog to our days of working together at Iora and now again here at Oxeon. His background in strategic finance, product and multi-time expertise in early-stage company building are directly applicable to his mandate. He will share his thoughts about why he is joining Oxeon next week. 

Additionally, Oxeon is expanding to Nashville. Building on our historical success in NYC (which will remain Oxeon’s HQ) and Seattle, our new Nashville office will be led by Tom Keefe and Rebecca Velez Frey. Tom is a long-term Oxeonite and moved his family to Nashville to lead this expansion. Rebecca moved to Nashville about a year ago to be closer to our key investor partnerships in the market. I am grateful for their leadership to help us build and scale the company. Our Seattle office and west coast growth this last year has also been considerable and led by Ellie O’Brien Coleman who is one of our brightest leaders of the firm. Nashville’s healthcare roots and growing entrepreneurial ecosystem make it the perfect place for Oxeon to expand. Tom will be sharing more about “Why Nashville?” in an upcoming blog post. 

Now a year into my tenure as CEO, I’ve seen the full circle of our model at work and how our 30,000+ conversations a year with trusted partners – investors, company executives and candidates – gives us an incredible amount of data and insights into the challenges and opportunities in healthcare. We’re excited to share those with the broader community over the upcoming year. We also continue to look for talent for our search firm and venture studio. So check our open roles and come join us!

At the end of the day, it is all about people. Oxeon was founded on the idea that talent is the most important lever for any company’s success. I can’t wait to keep building on and expanding that legacy to change healthcare for everyone.