When Hector Barragan joined Family Resource Home Care in December of 2022 as the president and COO, it was understood that he was part of a succession plan.
However, in order to make sure a transition was smooth, outgoing CEO Jeff Wiberg wanted to make sure Barragan could help the company succeed in two areas.
“Jeff was really after somebody that was going to accomplish two things,” Barragan told HHCN. “He had built this really terrific family-like culture and he really wanted to make sure that was preserved because it was something he is really proud of. But he also wanted somebody who can help scale the company, and then kind of marry those two ideas with a good performance mindset.”
Backed by Great Point Partners, Family Resource Home Care is one of the largest independent personal care companies in the Pacific Northwest. The company’s services include personal care, medication management, meal preparation, housekeeping, companionship, dementia support and end-of-life, transitional and respite care.
Jeff Wiberg, the company’s founder and former CEO, is transitioning his focus towards mergers and acquisitions, the company announced. Wiberg will also continue to hold a position on the company’s board.
Barragan told HHCN that Wiberg plans to spend more time on charity work and with his family.
“As an organization, we set out to find the right person who would enable me to step back from the full-time chief executive position and we found that in Hector,” Wiberg said in a statement. “In his time at Family Resource, he has proven himself not only to be an effective leader but also the right cultural fit to carry on the legacy that I’ve strived to create at Family Resource.”
Over the past few years, Family Resource Home Care has continued to expand its geographic footprint across the Pacific Northwest. Under Barragan’s leadership, the company has no plans of slowing down.
Most recently, the company acquired Companion Care Inc., a home care agency that bolstered Family Resource Home Care’s footprint to seven locations in the Puget Sound region and to 29 total across Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
While the company continues to grow, it’s important for Barragan and the rest of the leadership team to never lose sight of what got them here in the first place.
“We need to ensure that we deliberately preserve our identity and our culture,” Barragan said. “There’s this notion that as you grow as a company, it’s easy to lose sight of your DNA and what makes you special. What makes you special is oftentimes what keeps people attached to the organization, so we don’t have any plans to change that.”
Barragan is a firm believer that any company that puts culture over margins will find success over the next five years. That’s especially the case in home care, he said, because employees are ultimately motivated by the quality work they are doing on a daily basis.
“Culture is at the forefront of our decisions and so preserving it is super important,” Barragan said. “That keeps people ignited way more than what drives margins. Home care is a business at the end of the day, but I think sometimes people overcomplicate it. You put a caregiver in the home with a client and, when it all comes together, it’s beautiful. When a good match happens, it’s simple and takes care of itself. For us, we really cherish the simplicity of it.”
One of the only changes, Barragan noted, will be an increasingly disciplined approach to M&A.
“One of the things that’s most important to scale effectively is staying disciplined,” he said. “I think we’re going to have to be more sophisticated as a team and learn how to do that together. Looking for ways to refine the business as we continue to scale. In essence, we’re looking to potentially double the business in size over the next couple of years. That’s the goal and that’s the mission.”
Companies featured in this article:
