Group Dentistry Now (GDN) has been committed to the success of DSOs, dental groups, and the people who work for them since 2014.  DSO People is the only comprehensive list of new hires, promotions and awards. January 2024 boasts the lengthiest list thus far in the history of DSO People. Chances are, you’re acquainted with someone on the list or aspire to know them. Kindly take a moment to acknowledge their accomplishment and extend your congratulations:

Oakpoint, an Emerging Groups to Watch winner in 2022, promoted four executives:

• Karla-Marie Santiago was promoted to Sr. Director of Practice Optimization and Growth. Prior to her promotion, Karla-Marie was their Director of Procurement and before that, their Director of Operations. She has also held positions at UNC Adams School of Dentistry and UNC School of Dentistry. 
• Kim Wolozyn was promoted to Chief Marketing Officer. Kim joined the group in 2022 as Director of Marketing. Prior to that she held various marketing and sales roles at Nu Image Surgical & Dental Implant Center, Nobel Biocare, BIOMET EBI LLC, and Acterna.
• Alex Zanetti became VP of Growth. Prior to this position, Alex was their Director of Development. He has also been an M&A analyst for North American Bancard.
• Lauren Laseck was promoted VP of People. Lauren was previously their Director of People.

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Lizzie Garner is hired as the new ClearChoice Dental Implant Center Senior Vice President of People. Prior to joining the DSO, Lizzie worked for Guaranteed Rate and JPMorgan Chase & Co. ClearChoice performs more dental implant procedures every year than any other facility or network.

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Imagen Dental Partners, an Emerging Groups to Watch winner in 2022, announced new hires:

• Erica Swigart became Operations Manager. Prior to joining the group, Erica was operations manager at Great Expressions Dental Centers. She has also worked at Herrick Dental and Narducci Dental Group.
• Bella Zaritsky became Director of Payer Reimbursement and Credentialing. She has also worked at Dental DPO and myOrthos.

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Southern Orthodontic Partners appointed their first Chief Orthodontic Officer, Dr. Scott Blackman. Dr. Blackman is a Founding Partner of SOP and has been a significant influence and key contributor to the platform since day one. Dr. Blackman has proven his leadership success as owner of Reflections Orthodontics, one of the platform’s two founding practices.

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Affordable Care announced the retirement of their CEO, Gene Kirtser. He will retire at the end of February 2024.  Gene informed the Board last year of his intention to retire. Pete Bridgman will succeed Gene as the new Chief Executive Officer. Pete is a veteran consumer healthcare and retail executive, having served most recently as Chief Executive Officer of Visionworks, the sixth largest optical retailer in the U.S., and as Chief Network Officer of VSP Vision, the second largest U.S. vision care company, following VSP’s acquisition of Visionworks in 2019.

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Aspen Dental announced two promotions and one new hire:

• Kimberly (Cameron) Jones to Vice President of Hygiene Operations. Kimberly will be succeeding the retiring Jan LeBeau, who served in the Vice President role for four years. Kimberly has been with Aspen Dental for 13 of her 15 years in dental hygiene.
• Todd Phillips is promoted to Executive Vice President, Real Estate & Development, TAG – The Aspen Group. Prior to this promotion, Todd held various Real Estate and Development positions at Aspen Dental.
• Emily Goode joins TAG as their Division Director of Implant Support. Prior to that she worked for Envista Holding Corporation.

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United Dental Partners announced new roles:

• Tami Savage takes on dual roles or VP of RCM and Operations at United Dental Partners. Prior to these new roles, Tami was Director of Revenue Cycle at Elite Dental Partners. She has also held positions at Heartland Dental and Marcin Dental.
• Stephanie Hohmeier was promoted to Director of Revenue Cycle. Prior to this role, Stephanie was their Revenue Cycle Manger. She has also worked at Elite Dental Partners in their RCM department.

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Elite Dental Partners Kim Mette was promoted to new position as Director of Operations. She has held various operations positions at Elite for almost seven years. 

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Heartland Dental announced the following appointments:

• Tamra Kempf as Senior Vice President and permanent General Counsel. Tamra, previously serving as interim General Counsel, now officially joins the senior leadership team under the guidance of Pat Bauer, President and CEO.
• Heath Hall has been elected to serve as the Chair of the Heartland Dental Foundation Advisory Board in 2024. Health is the DSO’s VP of Government Affairs. Prior to joining Heartland, he worked at Pork Barrell BBQ and Kansas City Barbeque Society.

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Smile Brands Inc. hired:

• Brittany Kearney as the Director of Clinical Operations. Prior to joining the DSO, Brittany was Director of Clinical Success and Special Programs at Elite Dental Partners. She has also held managerial positions at Aspen Dental Managment, Inc. (ADMI) and Chicagoland Smile Group.
• Jason Genta, DDS, MBA as the Vice President of Clinical Operations. Prior to joining the DSO, Dr. Genta was VP of Clinical Affairs at DecisionOne Dental Partners.

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Peak Dental Services welcomes new executives:

• Ryan Torresan joined the group as Chief Marketing Officer.  Prior to joining the group, Ryan was Chief Marketing Officer at Frontline Dental Implant Specialists. He has also worked at Benevis and Great Expressions Dental Centers as head of marketing.
• Mike Yates joined the group as their Chief Financial Officer.  Mike comes to Peak after filling the same role with Lumio Dental based in Oklahoma.  Prior to Lumio, Mike spent more than a decade as the lead financial executive with two cancer centers in Oklahoma.

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Key Dental Management Solutions promoted Demias Pegues to CEO. Prior to this position, Demias was their COO/Integrator. He has also held COO and other operations roles as Great Lakes Dental Partners and North American Dental Group. Key Dental is headquartered in Chapel Hill, NC.

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Michael “Teddy” Bean was promoted to Director of RCM Analytics at DECA Dental Group. Prior to his promotion, Teddy was Revenue Analytics Manager. He has also held various RCM positions at United Surgical Partners International, Inc. DECA just celebrated their 15th anniversary. 

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Tatiana Morton was promoted to Senior Director of Operations at Tend. Prior to the promotion, Tatiana was a Regional Director of Operations. She has also held regional management positions at both Pacific Dental Services and Heartland Dental.

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Flagship Specialty Partners welcomed Sean Lyman as their newest CFO. Prior to joining Flagship, Sean was CFO at Beacon Oral Specialists, Frontier Derm Partners, Absolute Dental, US Community Behavioral, American Optical Services and Sound Physicians. Flagship is headquartered in Charlotte, NC and was founded in 2021.

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Simply Dental Managment introduced James Berry as their Chief Financial Officer. James has been CFO of Brown University’s Emergency Medicine Foundation, VP of Finance at CareWell Urgent Care, CFO of ClearChoiceMD Urgent Care, and CFO of XpresSpa Group.

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Jade Vardeman became VP of Surgeon Recruitment at US Oral Surgery Management. Prior to this position, Jade was Director of Surgeon Recruitment. She has held various recruiting positions as at NorthStar Anesthesia. USOSM was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Irving, TX with practices in 27 states.

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Private equity firm Cathay Capital has appointed Rene Sauerteig as an Operating Partner and to the board of directors of Parkview Dental Partners, a dental service organization (DSO) in the Cathay Capital portfolio. Rene is a healthcare industry veteran with over two decades of experience in executive leadership roles.

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Dental Care Alliance promoted:

• Beth Wynacht to Vice President of Integrations. Prior to this role, Beth was their Director of Affiliate Integration. She began her career as an area manager at Kool Smiles.
• Eduardo Laventman to President of Specialty Division. Prior to this role, Eduardo was their VP of Orthodontics. Beginning his dental career as regional manager, he has been with DCA for nearly 17 years.

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Chantel Long joined Elevate Dental Partners as their Director of Marketing. Prior to joining the group, she was Director of Marketing at Signature Dental Partners. She has held various marketing positions at Pacific Dental Services. Elevate Dental Partners was founded in 2019 and is headquartered in Denver, CO.

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Canadian Orthodontic Partners appointed Michael Willmott, CPA, as Chief Financial Officer, and announced its Doctor Advisory Council Members and Senior Leadership Team.

• Michael joined COP in late 2022 as VP of Finance. Prior to joining COP, Michael served as director of accounting and investments at Dynacare. Michael is currently completing his MBA at Laurentian University.
• Consisting of 12 members, the COP Doctor Advisory Council was created and is co-led by Dr. Hatheway and Jeffrey, who serve as its co-chairs. The DAC serves the purpose of reinforcing the company’s mission and its nature as a patient centric, doctor partnered operating network. The council has representatives from various Canadian and U.S. regions and a cross-section of clinical practice areas, and includes Dr. Hadi Daia from Charlottetown, P.E.I., Dr. Lennard Weiss from Toronto, Dr. Sheldon Salins from San Francisco, Dr. Wassim Kassas from Kitchener-Waterloo/Cambridge, Dr. Brent Douglas from Vancouver, Dr. Nandan Buch from Victoria, Dr. Suzette Instrum from Fredericton-, Dr. Ibtisam Al Riyami from Toronto, Dr. Paul Major from Edmonton, and Dr. Mary-Ellen Polymeris from Toronto.

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Rock Dental Brands promoted Kelcy Barger to Vice President of Clinical Operations. Kelcy has held various operations and management positions at Rock, Heartland Dental, R2 Cener for Dentistry, and Pacific Dental Services. Rock Dental Brands was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Little Rock, AR.

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Joe Cea was promoted to Director of IT Enterprise Operations at Pacific Dental Services. Joe has spent nearly the past two decades at PDS in various IT support roles. PDS has been on the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing private companies in America 14 times, exceeding cumulative revenues of over $2 Billion for the first time in the company’s 28-year history in 2021.

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Alayna Brent joins Spark Dental Management as their new Chief Operating Officer. Prior to that she was the VP of Operations at D4C Dental Brands. She has also held operations positions at Specialty Dental Brands and Snodgrass-King Pediatric Dental. 

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SupportDDS announced the appointment of Dr Nikki Green as the Vice President of Partner Integration. With an impressive 21-year career in Dentistry, Nikki brings a wealth of experience and a unique perspective to this role. She’ll help dentists and dental business professionals unlock their full potential by leveraging their remote talent.

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Dina Youssef promoted to Director of Talent Acquisition at BOND Orthodontic Partners. Prior to this promotion, Dina was their Senior Recruiter. She has also held recruiter positions at Smile Brands, Inc., Ace Parking, and Western Dental & Orthodontics.

Paul Solomon stepped in as Smile Design Dentistry‘s Chief Financial Officer. Paul’s journey in healthcare finance has been diverse and extensive, having served as CFO for companies in various sectors including substance use disorder, physical therapy, veterinary health, medical laboratory, and surgery center services. Smile Design Dentistry has grown to over 50 family and cosmetic dentistry practices across West and Central Florida. 

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DSO People is sponsored by Fidler and Associates, the premier executive search firm in the DSO industry and proud partner of Group Dentistry Now. From startup and emerging groups to large, private equity backed organizations Fidler and Associates reputation and experience are unmatched within the industry. Whether you are looking to hire an executive or looking for a new career, please contact Fidler and Associates to discuss your next steps at www.fidlerandassociates.com.

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