7 Mile Advisors Expands Healthcare Practice by Hiring Ben Garber to Oversee Healthcare Delivery & Providers Services
Garber Formerly Served as Senior Director, Corporate Development & Innovation at MedExpress Urgent Care, an Optum Subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group
CHARLOTTE, NC — Ben Garber, former Senior Director, Corporate Development & Innovation for MedExpress, to join 7 Mile Advisors, a Charlotte, NC based investment bank, as Vice President and head of Healthcare Delivery & Provider Services practice. Mr. Garber, a Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business alumnus, has spent the past seven years active in the Private Equity and Corporate Development space; spending five years at Grouse Ridge Capital before joining MedExpress, an Optum Subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, in 2016.
“I’m excited to join an exceptional team at 7 Mile Advisors and expand the footprint of this leading middle-market investment bank to better serve businesses in the Pittsburgh region and the Northeast,” said Mr. Garber. “7 Mile Advisors holds an upstanding reputation in the market and has enjoyed stellar growth propelled by their record of consistently delivering successful client outcomes. There’s a natural fit between the trends driving consolidation and investment in the healthcare sector and 7 Mile Advisors’ deep experience in business services and technology that enable the transformation underway in healthcare today.”
In leading Corporate Development, Mr. Garber was responsible for MedExpress acquisitions and joint ventures, and cultivating relationships with health systems, physician groups, insurers, and business partners. He represented the company as part of the executive team on Optum platform acquisitions and coordinating inorganic growth initiatives across Optum entities and regions. As head of MedExpress’s Innovation Program, Mr. Garber chaired the Executive Innovation Committee and served as player/coach working with teams across MedExpress, Optum, and UnitedHealthcare to develop new product and service lines that aligned with enterprise strategic objectives.
Optum operates local care delivery organizations in 12 states as well as two national ambulatory care organizations in Surgical Care Affiliates and MedExpress, which operates over 260 neighborhood medical centers in 20 states as well as a network of corporate onsite clinics. Mr. Garber worked with medical leadership and local operators on cross-organizational teams across the country to integrate delivery to achieve better coordination of care and improved patient outcomes. By working with multiple payors and expanding patient access and engagement, Mr. Garber developed and expanded several initiatives that were successful in achieving population health management goals. These efforts included launching a joint venture with BriovaRx to deliver outpatient specialty pharmaceutical infusions initially in Florida, Indiana, and New Jersey; a multi-state ER-diversion program; and a referral management program to reduce the total cost of care through appropriate site of service delivery.
Before joining MedExpress, Mr. Garber spent five years with Grouse Ridge Capital, a lower middle market private equity firm, where he was responsible for new investments in heavy industrials, robotic automation, and technology, and oversaw the turnaround of two distressed manufacturing companies acquired separately through bankruptcy and receivership. During his time with the firm he managed four control acquisitions, seven minority investments, two de novo startups, and raised over $40 million of outside equity financing.
“When we first met with Ben, we were impressed by his focus on the broader healthcare market as well as his experience in sourcing, qualifying and negotiating strategic transactions with physician owned and investor owned practices,” said Andy Johnston, Partner at 7 Mile Advisors. He continued, “Ben’s depth of market knowledge, ability to identify emerging trends, history of strategic initiatives beyond M&A, along with his track record of identifying strong management teams and investment opportunities should be of great value to our future clients as well as our investor and buyer relationships in this vertical. We are excited to have him join our firm, expand our industry coverage and play a key role in our strategic growth.”
Mr. Garber will expand 7 Mile Advisors’ footprint into downtown Pittsburgh, where he has opened an office in One Oxford Centre at 301 Grant Street, Suite 4300, Pittsburgh, PA 15219. Mr. Garber served as president of his Carnegie Mellon MBA class, and currently sits on the Board of Landmarks Financial Corporation, the affiliated fiduciary of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, a national pioneer in historic preservation since 1964. The Pittsburgh region continues to see economic transformation and business growth, and 7 Mile Advisors, alongside Mr. Garber, look forward to being a part of these exciting changes.
About 7 Mile Advisors
7 Mile Advisors is a partner-led boutique investment bank offering advisory services in sell-side transactions, buy-side transactions, and capital raising. Based in Charlotte, NC, the firm has 20 full time employees that serve the Business Services, Technology, Healthcare, IES, and Consumer sectors across the U.S. and globally. Since the firm’s founding in 2008, the team has successfully completed over 150 transactions across five continents. In addition to offering advisory services, 7 Mile Advisors also regularly publishes research on the sectors they cover in the form of Whitepapers, Sectorwatches, and Blogs.
For more information, visit www.7mileadvisors.com.