Addus HomeCare Corp. (Nasdaq: ADUS) has named Dirk Allison as president and CEO, effective immediately.
Allison replaces long-serving Addus executive Mark Heaney, who joined as COO in 1985 and became president and CEO in 2008. The next year, he became chairman of the board, a position he also now will be leaving. Steve Geringer, who has served as a director since 2009, will step into the chairman role for the company, based in the Chicago suburb of Downer’s Grove.
“I am very excited to become CEO of Addus, a company that I have grown to know and respect since joining the board of directors six years ago,” Allison said in a prepared statement. “Addus is very well-positioned to continue providing high-quality services in the lowest-cost setting, the home, and to help reduce total system healthcare expenditures through the early identification of health care episodes.”
Allison most recently was CEO of Correctional Healthcare Companies, which provides medical services to correctional facilities. Prior to that, he was CEO of CCS Medical, a medical supplies and services provider. He also was senior vice president and CFO of Odyssey Healthcare, an end-of-life care provider that was sold to Gentiva. He is a certified public accountant and received his MBA from the University of Dallas.
Since 2009, Geringer has been chairman of the board of AmSurg Corp., the country’s largest operator of ambulatory surgical centers. He also served as president and CEO of PCS Health Systems Inc., a pharmacy benefits manager, until it was acquired by Eli Lilly & Co. It is now part of CVS Health.
Allison and Geringer are stepping into their roles at a time when the company’s strategy is under some scrutiny, following a bad miss on revenues in the third quarter of 2015. Executives blamed recent acquisitions that had not lived up to expectations, and a slower transition to managed care in some of Addus’ key markets. The company has positioned itself to be a provider of choice to managed care organizations—a strategy that Heaney recently defended as sound, if “not particularly sexy.”
The company did not disclose the reasons for Heaney’s departure in announcing the leadership transition Monday.
“Speaking on behalf of all of Addus’ stakeholders, we would like to express our deep thanks to Mark Heaney for his more than 30 years of outstanding service on behalf of Addus,” said Mark First, lead director of the company and a managing director of Eos Partners, the company’s largest shareholder. “Mark has played a significant role in building Addus and shaping it into a market leader and his efforts and initiatives will forever be a part of the fabric of this organization. We wish him luck in his next endeavor.”
Written by Tim Mullaney
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