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 and his leadership team guided Heartland through this unprecedented time, the strategies they focused on and the opportunities he sees for the future. During this presentation learn:
• How Heartland is operating now and their plans for the future
Lessons Dr. Workman has learned navigating previous economic downturns in dentistry
• Dr. Workman’s advice for dentists to sustain and thrive through adversity
• How Heartland developed a roadmap for their practices to follow to handle the mandated closures
• What he sees for the future of dentistry and how DSO/ group practice leaders can prepare for its contingencies and opportunities
• An inspiring take on this time of turmoil and why innovation and better patient care may be its positive outcome

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, its growth story, and how the tough lessons he learned during that process can be applied to this rapidly-changing time including:
• How to take your current situation and turn it into the best opportunity of your life
• The essential “Recession Mindset” for every dental entrepreneur
• Who is going to come out of this ahead, and who will not
• What he sees coming up in the seismic shift that has taken place in the dental industry and where there may be opportunities

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 Community Dental Partner’s approach to this unprecedented time’s financial impact plus the essential strategies you need to optimize your DSO’s finances now, mistakes to avoid, and a roadmap for the future including:
• Why it can be misleading and dangerous for DSO leaders to just look at bank statements to manage their DSO’s finances especially now
• How to be a wise consumer of tax, accounting, and auditing financial services and use them to your advantage during this challenging time
• 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
• The financial benchmarks to measure the health your DSO now and going forward in the new world of group dentistry
• How to align leadership and strategy overall finance functions and carve out a solid financial plan to sustain and thrive
• Empowering you to lead the financial functions of your DSO, knowing that you can get out of it what you need to take on the future 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, providing a roadmap for DSO leaders striving to reach their leadership potential, and address why now more than ever, leadership may be the key to not only surviving this time but thriving ahead. Steve will discuss:
• Lessons he’s learned that can help you become your best potential leader during these hard times
• Maintaining integrity and focus while planning for the future
• Communication lessons to keep morale high
• How to shift your mindset shift from being a dentist — a “doer” — to being a leader and embrace your role leading into the unknown, new world of group dentistry
• How to motivate your team to be better “doers” and leaders and to step up during this challenging time
• How to express your authentic leadership qualities — even vulnerability due to this unprecedented time — 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 and why integrity matters more than ever

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 provide the correct definition for KPIs and share the value and importance of establishing and tracking the right KPIs and metrics for your DSO during this unusual time, including:
• Which KPIs to use to drive your practices into recovery
• Critical numbers to beware of as you ramp up
• How KPIs can provide the information you need to help your DSO recover and thrive
• Why KPIs are essential to any DSO/dental group’s future plans
• Essential operational, HR, and financial KPIs for exponential growth
• 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

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 how systems can help your DSO weather times of adversity. He will focus on the importance of and methods for building solid systems to ensure your DSO thrives going forward, discussing the following:
• The value of systems to help you get ahead of issues that come with challenging times and why it’s not too late to implement new systems now
• A roadmap for and how the right systems can lead to more synergy and plans for success
• The four dimensions of successfully sustaining 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

Kevin Cumbus is Co-founder & Partner of Tusk Partners. Kevin has over a decade of experience in the business of dentistry. He has valued and sold over 120 dental practices, managed over $100MM of revenue in a DSO and is co-owner of a start-up dental practice, Mundo Dentistry.

During this time of volatility, DSO/ dental group leaders are seeking guidance and insight into what to expect in the M&A markets for the future and how that will impact their future plans. Kevin will provide this in his presentation and more including:
• An update on where the dental M&A market has been
• A forward-looking assessment on where dental market is going
• Strategies to optimize your position for the second half of 2020

Alyssa Keefer is Founder and CEO of Novateur Media. She has over 10 years of extensive “hands-on” experience in the dental industry. She helped to launch a second dental group from $0 to 40M in five years and now coaches and consults dental groups, dentists and their teams on marketing, data analytics, operations, and more.

Appointments have been missed and care has been put off due to this challenging time. When those patients are able to seek care again, will they turn back to their original dental providers or go elsewhere?
Marketing may make the difference especially if it addresses the concerns of this new landscape. Alyssa will discuss how to prepare your marketing now for the new world of group dentistry, addressing:
• How to leverage the biggest patient opportunity in history
• Strategies to secure exponential patient and demand growth
• Critical messaging needed now to adapt to the “New Dental World”