BoardWalk Consulting Leading CEO Search for Adapt Integrated Health Care
November 12, 2024 – Executive recruitment firm BoardWalk Consulting was recently called in by Adapt Integrated Health Care in Rosenburg, OR, to lead in its search for a new CEO. Founder Sam Pettway and director of research Patti Kish are leading the assignment. Greg Brigham will retire in May 2025, after 42 years of service and over a decade at Adapt. Dr. Brigham will remain with Adapt until the new CEO is onboarded to ensure continuity in both business and service operations. Adapt’s next CEO will inherit an organization with significant momentum: Operating revenues of over $80 million, a highly motivated staff of over 500, and a growing, intersecting array of primary care, mental health and addiction services provided through multiple locations across the region.
Adapt’s next CEO will lead an organization of committed professionals providing life-changing and life-enhancing services to thousands of residents in rural Oregon. The new CEO’s first mandate will be to provide a steady hand, ensuring the stability of Adapt’s services following the change in top leadership.
The organization is a looking for a passionate, committed executive with the experience to lead a large, complicated non-profit operating in rural Oregon. A proven leader seasoned by the special demands of growing organizations with integrated community-facing services and complex, multifaceted revenue streams would be ideal. Adapt’s next CEO will succeed a well-respected clinician who has transformed the organization over the past ten years. The most appealing candidates will be those who are respectful of Adapt’s reach impact and the leadership that made them possible but who are undaunted by the inevitably high expectations that characterize such a transition.
The search committee is open to a variety of relevant backgrounds, but deep, credentialed grounding in at least one of Adapt’s program areas—primary care, mental health, or treatment of substance use disorders —is likely essential. Adapt has been led by just two CEOs over the last 40+ years, both of whom were clinicians. While the search committee is not closed to creative alternatives, the clear expectation is that the next CEO will also be a credentialed clinician, ideally with a terminal degree in a discipline relevant to Adapt’s mission.
Founded in 1971 as an addiction treatment program, Adapt has evolved into a comprehensive healthcare provider, offering a full continuum of primary care, mental health, and addiction services. Adapt’s services are provided by over 500 professionals, about 300 in Douglas County and the balance in Coos, Curry and Josephine Counties. This leadership transition marks a pivotal moment for the organization, setting the stage for new leadership to further its mission of promoting health and wellness in the community.
Serving Non-Profits
BoardWalk Consulting, based in Atlanta, is a national executive search firm that recruits CEOs and senior leadership for mission-driven non-profit organizations. Founded in 2002, the firm leads executive searches for clients from across the non-profit sector with global, national, regional, and local missions. Many of the firm’s team members have previously served as non-profit executives, grant makers, and board leaders. BoardWalk Consulting is also an active partner in Panorama, the global network of independent executive search firms.
Related: BoardWalk Consulting Helps Recruit New CEO for Girl Scouts Nation’s Capital
BoardWalk Consulting was founded by Sam Pettway, a 30-year search veteran. Over his career in executive search, he has worked with hundreds of board members and leadership teams with entities ranging from start-ups to mature multinationals in both the corporate and nonprofit sectors. Since founding BoardWalk in 2002, Mr. Pettway has served clients as varied as international relief agencies, national foundations, regional trade associations, and local agencies in dozens of markets.
BoardWalk Consulting has been tapped by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to lead in its search for a chief people officer. Director Michelle Hall and senior research associate Lysondra Somerville are leading the assignment. NED seeks a skilled and visionary chief people officer to join its leadership and drive organizational change to support its urgent mission. As an accomplished and deeply credible thought leader and partner, this executive will bring best practices and strategies to move the endowment’s work and culture forward. The chief people officer will help the endowment optimize its greatest asset, its people, by bringing efficacy, accuracy, and collaboration across the 300-person organization.
Ms. Kish works closely with search consultants to develop and implement research strategies and proactively recruit senior level executives into non-profit leadership roles. Prior to joining BoardWalk Consulting in 2015, she led full life-cycle talent acquisition for a national search firm that specialized in C-suite executive search for consumer products organizations. She began her career with EDS (now HP) where she spent several years managing the entire talent acquisition organization for the southeast region. A career recruiter, Ms. Kish has placed CEOs, presidents, executive directors, and CFOs for organizations with national and global impact.
Past Search
BoardWalk Consulting recently assisted in the recruitment of Carrie Besnette Hauser as the new president and CEO of Trust for Public Land (TPL). She succeeded Diane Regas. Senior director Crystal Stephens and senior associate Diane Westmore led the assignment. In January, TPL board of directors commenced a national search for the organization’s next president and CEO. Supported by Boardwalk Consulting, the selection of Dr. Hauser was recommended by a transition committee of current and former TPL board members to the full national board, which voted unanimously to name Dr. Hauser the next president and CEO.
“We are thrilled to welcome Carrie as our next president and CEO,” said Lucas St. Clair, chair of TPL’s board of directors. “Her passion for the outdoors, commitment to equitable access to nature, and extensive community leadership will propel TPL’s mission and team forward. Carrie understands the profound impact that access to the outdoors can have on individuals and communities, and her leadership will help us bring these benefits to even more people across the country.”
Related: BoardWalk Consulting Assists Dare to Care Food Bank in the Recruitment of New CEO
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
