Dr. Rick Workman is the founder and executive chairman of Heartland Dental, a DSO based in Effingham, Illinois, with 1,000 offices and 1,600 dentists nationwide. After seeing the need in his community, Dr. Workman opened his second office within one year of opening the first, followed quickly by a third office: Heartland Dental was born.

Dr. Workman spearheaded the success of Heartland by viewing its dentists as customers. Heartland’s philosophy is: Take care of dentists, set them up for success, and surround them with opportunities for success. They also prioritize taking care of their patients, which creates more demand for both new and experienced dentists. Dr. Workman will share how he guided Heartland to focus on these strategies:
•  Recruit highly successful, experienced dentists
•  Mentor dentists just out of dental school, teaching them the practices of experienced dentists
•  Provide ample opportunities for continuing education; make developing leadership skills just as important as honing technical skills
•  Prioritize the economic security of dentists

For six years, Eric Roman was the CEO and co-founder of CarolinasDentist — a six-location DSO — where he provided the company’s vision and day-to-day executive-leader development. Eric will share his journey as CEO of CarolinasDentist and its growth story, including:
• Knowledge he has gained, having lived “the DSO life” for his entire career, and experienced firsthand the rollercoaster ride of founding, scaling, and finally exiting a successful company
• Lessons learned and pitfalls to steer clear of
• The ways you can attract investors and speed up growth
• A roadmap for the potential challenges that go along with the introduction of outside financing
• What he sees coming up in the constantly growing and evolving sphere of group dental practice

Ken Kaufman is CFO of Community Dental Partners, a 28-location DSO based out of Denton, TX. Serving in this position since 2016, Ken successfully led the financial management of this growing DSO. Ken will share the essential strategies for optimizing your DSO’s finances, as well as mistakes to avoid, including:
•  Why it can be misleading and dangerous for DSO leaders to just look at bank statements to manage their DSO’s finances
• How to be a wise consumer of tax, accounting and auditing financial services
• Why accrual based financials are the best way to manage your dental group’s finances, leading to better forecasting and budgeting
• Why it’s critical to your DSO’s financial health to make sure you are legally compliant in all financial functions
• How to align leadership and strategy over all finance functions
• Financial benchmarks to measure the health your DSO
• Empowering you to lead the financial functions of your DSO, knowing that you can get out of it what you need to take on scaling your group with confidence

Steve Bilt is the Chief Executive Officer at Smile Brands Inc. Steve has overseen the development and operationalization of over 200 de novo practices and multiple acquisitions. Smile Brands has 5,500 employees and 450 locations across the United States and has been recognized as a Best Place to Work by Glassdoor for three straight years (#1 in multi-site healthcare) and by Comparably as a top-10 US Large Company for Culture, Diversity and Best Places for Women.

Steve was recognized as People Focused CEO of the Year and Healthcare CEO of the Year by American Business Awards (Golden Stevie) and as a top-rated U.S. Large Company CEO by Glassdoor, Comparably and CEOWORLD Magazine in multiple years.

In his presentation, Steve will share his story of success as a leader and provide a roadmap for DSO leaders striving to reach their leadership potential, discussing:
• How to shift your mindset shift from being a dentist — a “doer” — to being a leader
• How to motivate your team to be better “doers” and leaders
• How to express your authentic leadership qualities and best accentuate them through your organization so your team can know you as a leader
• The importance of matching your values with actions — your “why” — with how you behave
• Why the key to scaling is to empower your team to amplify “your why” — to be a leader developing leaders in your organization

Cheryl Penava, VP of practice excellence at Mortenson Dental Partners, is an expert in operational best practices, learning and development, leadership development, and change management. Cheryl has a unique background of leadership experiences, having worked for several Fortune 500 companies: BellSouth Advertising & Publishing, Allstate Financial, and Humana.

Cheryl will share her passion for developing people so they can achieve operational excellence, resulting in outstanding patient care. She will share the essential keys for growing a successful team within your DSO:
•  Best practices for managing employees
•  Proven strategies to successfully onboard and train both new and existing employees
•  Ways to effectively build a positive company culture
•  How to get new employees excited about the company vision

Tarek Aly is co-founder and COO of OrthoDent Management, which has 12 locations, and co-owner of Modern Smiles, with six dental practice locations. He also owns Precision Advisory. His expertise includes DSO platform development and management, M&As, business valuation, business operations, and dental organizations management.

Tarek will share the value and importance of establishing and tracking the right KPIs and metrics for your DSO’s success, including:
• The correct definition for and why KPIs are valuable
• Why KPIs are essential to any DSO/dental group’s success
• Defining the types of KPIs: strategic, financial and operational
• The methodology for tracking KPIs: manual and automated including the pros and cons for each and how to discern which would be best for your DSO/dental group
• Biggest mistakes most dental groups make with KPIs
• Solutions to a finding the right KPIs for your dental group… and uncovering the real problems that KPIs show you

A.J. Peak is CEO of Peak Dental Services, a 30-location DSO based out of Colorado Springs, CO. A.J. founded Peak Dental Services in 2008. Under A.J.’s leadership, the company has been recognized as one of Inc. Magazines Top 5000 fastest-growing companies.

Drawing from his experience as a leader of a rapidly growing DSO, A.J. will share the key strategies for building systems to successfully scale your DSO. He will focus on the importance of and methods for building solid systems for the following to ensure your DSO’s success :
•  Why it's important to build systems as you scale to get ahead of issues that come with rapid growth
• Lessons learned from his journey: the mistakes not to make and what went right
• The four dimensions of successfully scaling a DSO: strategy, cash, people and execution
• Hazards to avoid and what to look for ahead as you grow
• How the right systems can lead to more synergy and faster growth 

Panel: Keys To Supporting Growth of Women Leaders in Group Practice

Facilitator: Dr. Lori Noga, Founder & CEO, Tranquility Dental Wellness, Tacoma, WA

Women now make up more than half of all dentists. Empowering women leaders is paramount to the success of any DSO. This panel will answer questions such as:
• What are the unique challenges faced by women in a growing DSO?
• What role will women leaders play in the growth of DSOs?
• What trends are happening at the practice level?
• How does a DSO create an optimum work environment to develop women in leadership?
• What are the most cutting-edge strategies to develop women leaders in group dentistry?

Panel: Keys To Spending Less Time in the Chair... and More Time as a CEO

Facilitator: Dr. David Janash, President and CEO, Underbite Dental Management, New York City

As dentist-entrepreneurs grow, they will inevitably face the question, "How do I spend less time in the chair and more time leading my business?" Hear from a group of dentists who have achieved the ability to choose freely between in-chair time and out-of-chair time. This panel will discuss:

• Step-by-step ways to spend less time in the chair
• How to decide when it's finally the "right time" to step back
• How do you prepare your team to help you spend less time in the chair?
• How do you deal with the perceptions that come with less time in the chair?
• How do you overcome the financial loss of practicing less dentistry?