Market and CEO Identification
Council first selected a compelling market opportunity to target for investment and then found a talented Executive with whom to jointly search for target opportunities. Council’s Business Development team then found a company in the market looking for a leader, and Council brought that Executive in as CEO with the support of the CEO Council Model.

Background
Howie Lewin is a world-class healthcare services operator, having previously run several multi-site healthcare companies as CEO and having served as a Group Vice President for DaVita where he was responsible for $700 million in revenue and led M&A for the company, completing 39 transactions. The Council Capital team had backed him previously and was looking for opportunities that would fit with his skillsets.

Council Impact
Council’s Business Development team scoured the outpatient substance abuse industry focusing on providers primarily using Suboxone-based Medication Assisted Therapy, due to strong patient success and the low cost of that approach. They developed 71 potential targets and held discussions with 48 of them, achieving a 68% reach rate (well above industry cold-call standards in the 15% range). After narrowing the field of prospective target companies, Council worked with Howie to complete an investment in SaVida Health, determining it was the right platform due to its demonstrated success of providing high quality care for patients.

At closing, CEO Council Members Terri Kline and Larry Van Horn joined the Board of Directors, as well as John McCarthy, the former Medicaid director of Ohio. Terri’s experience spans a variety of senior executive roles with some of the largest health plans in the country, and Larry is a thought leader on healthcare economics and strategy.

Additionally, Council Shared Portfolio Executives Sameer Bhargava (Chief Technology Officer), and Heather O’Keefe (Chief Financial Officer) also joined the company to support Howie in building a scalable platform.