Menu
The hospital business is highly complex. The process of identifying and acquiring target hospitals, restoring them to fiscal health to successfully deliver high-quality care is quite challenging. However, the unique qualifications of the StoneBridge Healthcare team make these objectives eminently achievable.
Joshua Nemzoff, the Chairman and Founder has assembled at StoneBridge Healthcare a world class team that is comprised of the country’s leading healthcare professionals. They are nationally recognized experts in healthcare operations, financing, turnarounds, and acquisitions and sales, with an average of 35 years of experience. Many of these executives held senior positions at leading for-profit and non-profit health systems with tens of thousands of employees and annual revenues in excess of $10 billion. As such, StoneBridge Healthcare’s management team is steeped in operations leadership experience, understanding what it takes to successfully manage a high- quality, fiscally sound hospital. The members of the StoneBridge team have worked together for many years and present a unified and exceptionally experienced team.
The Board of StoneBridge consists of some of the most experienced hospital professionals in the United States. Their role will be to provide Governance oversight of all of the activities of the company. The board consists of the following individuals:
The Chairman and Founder of StoneBridge Healthcare, LLC is Joshua Nemzoff, one of the country’s leading consultants on hospital mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Nemzoff has more than 40 years’ experience in the industry and has been involved with hundreds of hospital mergers, sales, acquisitions and joint ventures with a combined transaction value in excess of $15 billion. His role in most of those transactions was project director and lead negotiator on the deal, usually reporting directly to the board of trustees. This has placed Mr. Nemzoff in the unique position of supervising hundreds of teams conducting due diligence for his clients and observing others conducting it on his clients. This has afforded him invaluable insights as to what was wrong with these hospitals and how to fix them. His primary area of expertise is negotiating large complex transactions for clients and identifying how to return distressed hospitals to operational and financial health.
Mr. Wright has been an executive in the healthcare industry for over 40 years. He served as a senior executive for Universal Health Services, Inc. (UHS) from 1978 – 2013 and spent eight years with its predecessor company, American Medicorp. During his tenure at UHS, Mr. Wright held positions as CEO of two acute care hospitals in Florida and Texas, Senior Vice President of the Acute Care Division, Vice President of Development and President of UHS Building Solutions. In this capacity as Vice President of Development, he led the acquisition/divestiture process for more than 35 transactions valued over $2 billion and developed strategic initiatives for acute care hospitals. His transaction experience includes: the acquisition of George Washington University Hospital in partnership with the University, acquisition of a nine county health system subject to public referendum, took a three hospital system in California through Chapter 363 bankruptcy and developed a six hospital healthcare system in South Texas. Mr. Wright also has vast experience in the design/build of acute care hospitals. Following UHS, Mr. Wright formed Allergy Services of America LLC, Wright Transactions Advisors LLC, Fusion Health Partners, and served as an Advisor to Brookfield Asset Management Inc. and Senior Advisor to Blue Wolf Capital Partners. Mr. Wright has served on many hospital boards throughout his career and is a former board member for Modern MD Urgent Care in New York.
Mr. Dondero is a retired partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), a global network of firms delivering world-class assurance, tax, and consulting services for businesses worldwide. He has significant experience in the area of financial and strategic planning as well as mergers and acquisitions. He has advised dozens of hospital boards on the financial and strategic implications of proposed transactions and complex healthcare compliance matters usually involving the Department of Justice and other regulatory bodies. During the last decade of his career, his responsibilities included Operations Partner and Partner in Charge of the U.S. Health Industries Consulting Unit. Health Industries encompassed all key sectors of the U.S. healthcare economy including pharma, life sciences, provider (including hospitals) and payer sectors. He was also actively involved in several of the firm’s acquisitions of consulting practices around the country. Mr. Dondero served on the firm’s U.S. Advisory Leadership Team and on the Chairman’s Extended Leadership Team encompassing the firm’s leadership in markets, sectors and business lines of service.
Michael J. Sarrao has represented one of the nation’s largest health systems, as general counsel; serving as chief legal officer in the acquisition and financing of multiple hospitals with total consideration in excess of $750 million. His representation extended to handling disputes involving health plans, independent practice groups, insurance companies, regulatory agencies and billing reimbursement.
Mr. Sarrao focuses on the representation of healthcare systems, hospitals and medical groups in myriad healthcare matters including anti-fraud and compliance matters, heath information privacy matters, managed care disputes, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement matters, mergers and acquisitions licensure and accreditation matters, physician relations/ medical staff issues, contracting, labor and employment matters, and risk management services for medical malpractice matters.
Mr. Rudish is President and CEO of Rudish Health, which provides executive search; interim management; and strategic, financial and IT advisory services. Rudish Health also assists small and mid-cap companies with strategy, financing, sales and marketing. Mr. Rudish has more than 30 years of experience serving the healthcare industry and has enduring relationships with major healthcare organizations both in the United States and abroad. Through May of 2014, Mr. Rudish was Vice Chairman and U.S. Global Health Care Leader for Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, the world’s largest professional services firm. Before joining Deloitte in 2006, he was Executive Vice President of Eclipsys Corporation, a healthcare clinical and financial software vendor. Prior to that, Mr. Rudish was at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young and its predecessor firm, Ernst & Young, LLC. for 20 years, where he was the National and Global Director of the Health Care Practice. EY has the largest hospital audit practice in the United States.
The management team of StoneBridge Healthcare, LLC consists of a highly experienced team that has many years of experience operating the types of hospitals that the company will be acquiring. The team has worked closely together for many years and has a depth of experience that is on par with any of the largest national for-profit and non-profit hospital systems. They know what it takes to turn around struggling facilities, focusing on improving management, enhancing quality of care, and implementing best practices to ensure these hospitals are able to run more efficiently and effectively for the communities they serve.
Garry Gause is a visionary, award-winning healthcare leader with three decades of success in exceeding performance goals and budgets with a background steeped in disciplined financial management, leadership development, program development, expense control, revenue generation, contract negotiations, and innovative problem solving. Throughout his career, Mr. Gause has had a longstanding and successful history of turning around underperforming health systems, specifically improving financial performance, customer satisfaction, quality and safety.
Mr. Gause served for over two decades in executive leadership roles for Tenet Healthcare, a multi-regional, multibillion-dollar healthcare network. Most recently, Mr. Gause served as CEO of Tenet Healthcare’s Eastern Region, Central Division – a 35,000 employee region comprised of 23 hospitals in 6 states from 2016 to 2018. Prior to that, Mr. Gause served as CEO of Tenet’s Southern Region from 2014 to 2016 where he led the overall direction, strategy and operations for the region’s 10 geographically dispersed acute care hospitals, one critical access hospital, 34 outpatient centers and related healthcare services. From 2002 to 2014 Mr. Gause successfully redefined and transformed Brookwood Baptist Medical Center, one of Tenet’s flagship hospitals, a 654-bed, 2,500-employee hospital with over 30,000 admissions, 4,000 births, and 30,000 surgical procedures annually.
Early on in his career, Mr. Gause led a series of turnarounds of underperforming health systems including as CEO of Lloyd Noland Health System, and CEO of Capital Medical Center, with earlier engagements that include progressive leadership roles at Crestwood Medical Center, Parkway Medical Center Hospital, and Woodland Community Hospital. Throughout his career, Mr. Gause has demonstrated success across individual and multi-facility, multi-state hospital, markets, and system management across health plan, physician network, post-acute, mental health, outpatient services, as well as urban, suburban, and rural medical/ surgical hospitals.
Richard D’Aquila is Managing Director and Founder of Destination Health Systems, a specialized health care consultancy that develops and supports the execution of innovative clinical integration strategies between academic medical centers and affiliated hospitals. His firm specializes in building creative alignment strategies around clinically distinctive service lines, prominent centers of excellence and a unique care signature.
Prior to forming Destination Health Systems, Mr. D’Aquila served for two decades in the C-Suite at Yale New Haven Health and New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. He served as President of Yale New Haven from 2006 to 2020, a 2,681-bed health system which includes Yale New Haven Hospital, Bridgeport Hospital, Greenwich Hospital, Lawrence and Memorial Hospital, Westerly Hospital and Northeast Medical Group, which generated more than $5.6 billion in net revenue and accumulated total assets of approximately $6.5 billion in Fiscal Year 2021. Before joining Yale New Haven, he served as senior vice president and chief operating officer at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, a 2,369-bed academic medical center,. Previously, Mr. D’Aquila was executive vice president and chief operating officer at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport.
With nearly 40 years of experience in health care, Mr. Aquila began his career as an Administrative Resident at The Mount Sinai Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut. He received his graduate degree in hospital administration from Yale School of Medicine and his bachelor’s degree in economics from Central Connecticut State University. Mr. D’Aquila currently serves on the Board of Trustees at Yale New Haven Hospital. He is an adjunct professor at Yale University School of Management and a visiting lecturer at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of University Health System Consortium (UHC) / Vizient in Chicago, Illinois.
Michael J. Sarrao has represented one of the nation’s largest health systems, as general counsel; serving as chief legal officer in the acquisition and financing of multiple hospitals with total consideration in excess of $750 million. His representation extended to handling disputes involving health plans, independent practice groups, insurance companies, regulatory agencies and billing reimbursement.
Mr. Sarrao focuses on the representation of healthcare systems, hospitals and medical groups in myriad healthcare matters including anti-fraud and compliance matters, heath information privacy matters, managed care disputes, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement matters, mergers and acquisitions licensure and accreditation matters, physician relations/ medical staff issues, contracting, labor and employment matters, and risk management services for medical malpractice matters.
Kathleen Kinslow, CRNA, EdD, MBA, is a leading healthcare executive with over 20 years of progressive management experience in all aspects of healthcare, including academic medical centers, as well as community-based facilities. Ms. Kinslow most recently served as East Coast President of Prospect Medical Holdings LLC., a multibillion-dollar hospital system with 14 hospitals and over 25,000 employees, where she oversaw strategy and growth opportunities for Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Ms. Kinslow also led the organization’s disaster preparedness response during the COVID-19 pandemic and ran the national command center.
Prior to Prospect Medical Holdings, Ms. Kinslow was named Chief Executive Officer of Aria-Jefferson Health in 2010, an $800 million health system comprised of three hospitals and 6,500 employees. She was also appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Integration Officer of Jefferson Health in 2016. As Chief integration Officer, Ms. Kinslow was responsible for creating and developing corporate-wide departments from IT, finance, and Human Resources to clinical areas including physician services. She helped develop the structure, processes, metrics and infrastructure support. She worked closely with GE Healthcare to implement Artificial Intelligence (AI) modalities to provide predictive analytics and machine learning technology to labor and workforce management. A large access process improvement initiative was also completed that allowed online scheduling, improved physician productivity and decreased appointment wait time for patients. At the end of the 3-year integration engagement over $350 million was eliminated from the run rate of the organization.
Before joining Aria, Ms. Kinslow served as Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of Pennsylvania Hospital, part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, a $3.5 billion system with 32,000 employees. Ms. Kinslow’s tenure at Pennsylvania Hospital began in 1992 as Director of the School of Nurse Anesthesia, and she subsequently held progressive management and leadership positions, including Vice President of Clinical Services/Chief Nursing Officer, and Chief Operating Officer, before ultimately serving as CEO and Executive Director.
A Philadelphia native with more than 35 years of experience in health care, Ms. Kinslow began her career in nursing. A Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA), she holds a bachelor’s degree in education from Ottawa University, Kansas City, a master’s degree in education from St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, a master’s degree in nursing from Temple University, Philadelphia, a doctorate in education from Widener University, and a master’s degree in business administration from St. Joseph’s University.
In addition to the board and management of the company, StoneBridge has assembled a team of advisors with unmatched industry expertise to assist in the acquisition of hospitals and the operation of these facilities. The Advisory group includes the following professionals.
Steven Braun is a partner at Bradley and advises hospitals, surgery centers and other healthcare providers in transactional, regulatory and operations matters. His transactional experience includes numerous acquisitions, dispositions and joint ventures of hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers and insurance companies.
Mr. Braun also has extensive mergers and acquisitions experience in a variety of industries; public and private offerings of equity and debt securities; and stock options and other equity compensation plans. He has been responsible for negotiating definitive agreements and securities work on five hospital transactions valued at more than $1 billion each, as well as numerous other hospital and health system
acquisitions. He has represented issuers or underwriters in a variety of industries, including healthcare, banking, oil and gas, biotechnology, retail and manufacturing. Mr. Braun’s work also has included the review of periodic reports of publicly traded companies. He was formerly the Senior Vice President and General Counsel of HCA, Inc. from 1991 to 1997.
Stuart Brown is a Partner at DLA Piper, a global law firm with lawyers located in more than 40 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. An accomplished bankruptcy lawyer, Mr. Brown’s practice encompasses the representation of companies in distress and as debtors in possession, institutional lenders, investors and business enterprises in diverse matters, including general business, transactions with bankruptcy estates, anti-bankruptcy transactional consultation, bankruptcy litigation, substantive non-consolidation, securitization and servicing and bankruptcy fraud. A significant part of Mr. Brown’s practice is M&A, including the sale and acquisition of businesses and assets out of court and through in-court processes and Article 9 sales. Mr. Brown also represents non-traditional funding sources with respect to workouts, claim realization and asset recovery. The American Board of Certification recognizes Mr. Brown as a specialist in the area of Business Bankruptcy.
Fran Pennell is a leading health care consultant with over 35 years of working experience in the industry. Ms. Pennell has worked as a Health Care Consultant for most of her career, including 21 years as Partner with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in their Health Care Performance Improvement consulting practice. Her focus has been on operational improvement, financial turnarounds, strategic planning, and organizational restructuring for clients such as hospitals, academic medical centers, physician practices, and Schools of Medicine. Ms. Pennell has directed many professional teams to resolve difficult and complex operational, financial, and strategic issues with successful outcomes. For several turnaround projects, Ms. Pennell has provided senior leadership with day-to-day management support. Ms. Pennell has worked extensively with boards of directors, senior leaders, and medical personnel to guide decisions for achieving efficient and effective health care operations and financial stability.
Throughout Ms. Pennell’s career, she has achieved numerous accomplishments. She implemented small and large scale operational and financial improvement projects for hospital systems, academic medical centers, and Schools of Medicine resulting in net operating margin improvements. She led and supported financial turnaround projects for hospital and health systems (with operating deficit ranges of $10 million to $200 million) who were seeking to achieve financial solvency and stability. She’s successfully worked with hospital boards, where she led numerous strategic planning activities with boards of directors and senior leadership with a focus on clinical program development, operational and organizational reconfiguration, and change management. Ms. Pennell understands how to deliver returns on investments, providing expertise to large financial investment groups in acquisitions and equity/ debt investments.
Scott Rayson is a partner at Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP, where he began his legal career in 1981. He started working on his first healthcare M&A transaction the day after he arrived at the firm and his practice has focused on healthcare matters ever since. Within that space, Scott has represented healthcare providers, including individual hospitals, local and regional
healthcare systems and some of the country’s largest owners and operators of hospitals and other healthcare facilities; underwriters and other financial institutions; pharmacy benefit management companies; and other companies in the healthcare industry. His work includes the acquisition, divestiture and joint venturing of hospitals, surgery centers, imaging centers and other provider facilities, as well as PBMs; the merger of publicly and privately owned healthcare companies; leveraged buy outs; and an array of public and private financings. In addition to his healthcare transactional experience, Mr. Rayson frequently works with high-profile corporations to secure tax and other incentives in connection with the relocation of their headquarters or their development and expansion of major manufacturing facilities. He also represents the Tennessee Titans and had a major role in relocating the franchise from Houston to Nashville and the development of Nissan Stadium. Mr. Rayson earned his J.D. in 1981 from Washington and Lee University Law School. He earned his A.B. in 1978 from Duke University.
Mark Diana is a professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. He is a nationally known public health and health care delivery expert with substantial experience in the field of Community Health Needs. His research focuses on the organizational impact of health information systems, primarily in hospitals in the U.S., and the performance of new care delivery models, such as patient-centered medical homes and accountable care organizations, among others. He also has experience in funded evaluation work as the principal investigator (PI) on the external evaluation of the Louisiana Long-term Care Real Choice Systems Transformation Grant, through the Louisiana Department of Health, as the PI for an evaluation of an electronic health record implementation in Mexico, funded by the MEASURE Evaluation project of USAID, as the PI for the evaluation of the Louisiana Health Information Exchange, and as the PI for the evaluation of Louisiana’s Medicaid Expansion, among other projects.