With innovative leadership experience encompassing the depth and breadth of our veterinary profession, I bring a unique perspective - strategically and operationally - to Veterinary Consulting across America and Internationally.Executive leaders seek my counsel to leverage this rare insight, gained from four decades of leading positive, effective change across our veterinary profession in: - Private Veterinary Practice (26 years including owning and building a 5-veteranian, 30-Associate Hospital)- Executive Corporate Practice in Leadership, Strategy, and Transformation (8 years: Banfield Pet Hospital/Mars) - Industry Relations and Strategy (5 years: Hill’s Pet Nutrition/Colgate)- Two National Associations (30-year-service: including AAHA President; AVMA House of Delegates) As a future-thinking leader, I see transformation is needed now. At the heart, is an issue of supply and demand. Our people are a limited resource, with increasing difficulty retaining and acquiring veterinary professionals.Our current path leads to a future that will limit accessibility to care for pets that need us when they need us. Throughout my career, I have consistently and daringly prioritized ‘quality care’ to achieve ‘profitability’, proving when we prioritize our people, our people prioritize our pets. My proudest career moments come from thinking “profession-first”.As Chief Veterinary Medical Officer and the first Chief Transformation Officer at Banfield/Mars, my three goals were to improve the quality of care in hospitals, reduce veterinary and professional staff turnover, and improve the reputation of the company among veterinary professionals.We accomplished all three through a series of programs, essentially prioritizing quality care for people and pets to achieve our financial metrics. It could seem counter-intuitive, but it works.Among our many innovations, we initiated a student debt reduction program for our professional staff of veterinarians and nurses; then inspired by Starbucks founder Howard Schultz, introduced fully paid secondary and post-secondary education for paraprofessional staff, which by listening to their feedback, was further expanded to include more online bachelor programs from more universities.The result is sustained, reduced turnover for veterinary doctors, nurses, and paraprofessional staff. When nurses and paraprofessional staff are happy, veterinary doctors are happy too!The time is always right to do the right thing.If this sparks ideas, let’s connect and start a conversation.