Dexter W. Braff,  MBA,  President, Braff Group
 

Dexter has more than 25 years of experience in health care mergers and acquisitions. Prior to forming The Braff Group in 1998, he was an associate and senior appraiser with Telesis Mergers & Acquisitions. He also served as regional Director of Finance for Foster Medical Corporation. Dexter has written numerous feature articles on merger and acquisitions and finance and has authored the chapter on Home Health Care Valuation in the Handbook of Business Valuation published by John Wiley & Sons. Additionally, Dexter is a frequent speaker at major industry conferences and webinars. Dexter holds an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh and received the Vincent W. Lanfear Award for academic achievement.

 

Prior to opening Jaywalker Lodge on April 14, 2005, founder Bob Ferguson served for over 10 years in senior management and business development positions at three of the premier residential programs in the addiction treatment field:

In his role as Founder, Bob oversees Jaywalker’s Chief Executive Officer, Dirk Eldredge. Bob continues to remain active in the Roaring Fork River Valley community, where he serves of the Board of Directors of the following organizations:; The Valley Partnership for Drug Prevention; Colorado Advocates for Recovery; The Right Door; and Aspen Jr. Lacrosse

 

Described as “a driven person with out of the box insights,” Josh Lannon has successfully built and operated Journey Healing Centers, a private drug and alcohol treatment center. JHC grew to six locations with 100 team members and in late 2013, Elements Behavioral Health, a leading nationwide provider, acquired JHC. When exiting JHC, the Lannon's (he and his wife) maintained the real estate and leased the properties back to EBH.  Lannon will candidly speak about what worked and what he would do differently.   Their next project is called Warriors Heart.  The first private, fully licensed and dedicated 40 bed residential treatment center on 543 acre ranch, healing our nation’s heroes.  The focus is on serving the men and women who are our Veterans, Military, Law Enforcement, Firefighters, Medical First Responders and other Warriors. 

 

Real Estate can be a huge asset to your treatment center portfolio. From asset protection, tax savings and exit, this is one speaker you don't want to miss.

Cory Mertz, M&AMI, Managing Partner, Mertz Taggart
 
Cory began his career at a Fortune 500 electronics manufacturing services provider, holding several operational and business development leadership positions, including managing the transition of multiple international acquisitions across Europe, South America and Mexico.  In 2006, Cory started his M&A career focusing solely on healthcare services businesses.  Since then, Cory has had the opportunity to forge relationships with industry leaders and private equity groups throughout the country, having closed over 50 healthcare transactions, nationally.

 

John A. Mills is a partner at Nelson Hardiman and has years of experience representing and advising health care providers in a wide range of regulatory compliance issues and litigation proceedings. John’s practice focuses on managed care and ERISA compliance and litigation, medical staff and peer review, civil False Claims Act and fraud lawsuits, commercial litigation, healthcare fraud investigations, and a wide range of regulatory compliance issues, including corporate internal investigations and voluntary disclosures of possible Medicare over-payments, analysis of business arrangements to ensure compliance with the anti-kickback and Stark laws, and providing transactional and regulatory guidance to covered entities and contract pharmacies in connection with the federal 340B program. John has jury trial experience and has handled numerous arbitrations and administrative hearings.  John’s clients include hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, skilled nursing facilities, physicians, medical groups and IPAs, Knox-Keene licensees, pharmacies and pharmacists, ambulance providers, and a variety of other businesses and individuals in the healthcare industry. John’s diversity of clients has provided him with a rare understanding of the unique business objectives and compliance risks facing different segments of the healthcare provider community. John’s litigation successes include obtaining numerous pre-trial dismissals of lawsuits brought against his clients, including a summary judgment in favor of hospital in a civil False Claims Act lawsuit, obtaining favorable settlements for healthcare providers clients in reimbursement disputes with commercial insurance payors and ERISA plans, obtaining a reversal of a finding of ERISA preemption on appeal, and obtaining favorable results for clients following arbitrations and administrative proceedings.

 

Before joining Nelson Hardiman, John was an associate at the Los Angeles office of Hooper, Lundy, and Bookman, a firm dedicated solely to the representation of healthcare providers and suppliers, where he specialized in managed care litigation, medical staff and peer review compliance and litigation, and commercial litigation. John also served as a Law Clerk to the Presiding Justice of the Texas Third District Court of Appeals.

 

John was nominated a Rising Star by Super Lawyers 6 times in the last 7 years, and was named a Best Lawyer in America for 2016.

 

Pete Nielsen is the Chief Executive Officer for the California Consortium of Addiction Programs and Professionals (CCAPP) and former Executive Director of the California Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse (CAADAC), the California Certification Board of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselors (CCBADC), and the California Foundation for the Advancement of Addiction Professionals (CFAAP).Mr. Nielsen has worked in education as a campus director, academic dean, and an instructor. He has worked in the substance use disorders field for eighteen years as an interventionist, family recovery specialist, counselor, and administrator.

Tom Schramski, PhD, CMAA, President/Managing Partner, Vertess
 
Dr. Schramski is a Certified Merger and Acquisition Advisor (CMAA), consultant, and Licensed Psychologist with over 35 years of very successful national experience in the healthcare marketplace, including co-founding and building a $25 million behavioral health/disabilities services company.  His M&A background has incorporated national seller and buyer representation across the healthcare spectrum and he was recognized for his executive leadership in the 2005 Entrepreneur of the Year issue of Inc., as well as the Harvard Business School Press publication, Equity.  As the Founder of Vertess, Mr. Schramski’s focus is on helping behavioral healthcare business owners build remarkable value in their companies and maximizing value in the transaction process.  In addition, Mr. Schramski is the Editor of the Vertess bi-weekly publication, Salient Value, and the author of Selling Your Baby (2nd Edition).

 

Kathy Steadman primarily practices in the areas of employee benefits, public pension, insurance and other regulatory matters. Kathy routinely represents and counsels clients in their dealings with Arizona regulatory agencies, including the Arizona Department of Insurance and the Arizona Department of Health Services. She counsels clients in connection with compliance matters under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and related state and federal laws.
 

Kathy represents a variety of interests in the insurance and employee benefits industries, including insurance companies, health care services organizations (HMOs), medical providers, third party administrators, self-funded plan sponsors, excess loss and reinsurance companies, utilization management firms, managing general underwriters, captive insurers and prescription benefit management firms. She also provides representation to municipalities and other public entities in connection with public pension issues and disputes. She also serves as an expert witness in insurance regulatory and employee benefit matters, including excess/stop-loss disputes.

Kathy formerly served on the Board of Directors for a life insurance company, a property and casualty insurance company, and a motor vehicle service company. She is a member of the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, the Insurance Regulatory Examiners Society. She is a member of the Federation of Regulatory Counsel where she serves on the Board of Directors and the Admissions Committee.
 

In 1997, Kathy was presented the Schrader Nelson Publication Award by the Insurance Regulatory Examiners Society for her article addressing confidentiality in the market conduct examination process.