After three decades of building teams, Brandon Edwards can say with conviction that healthcare's need for real leadership has never been more urgent.
Do you remember the exact moment you realized you were a "healthcare person?"
My moment arrived when I was 31 years old. I was finishing five years at Tenet Healthcare. I’d spent three years managing crisis communications across the country, then two more in the corporate strategy and ventures group working for Paul Kusserow. I was weighing several options for my next move when it dawned on me: those five years had made me a healthcare person. I was 31 years old and standing at a fork in the road. I could lean into that reality and keep building my expertise, or deliberately walk away to another industry.
I chose healthcare. And I have never looked back.
I didn't land here for the same reasons many people do. There are no physicians or nurses in my family. I wasn’t pre-med in college. I was never pulled in by a personal health crisis or the empathy of a caregiver who got me through it.
I was drawn to healthcare for the complexity and, ultimately, for the extraordinary people I've worked alongside for the last three decades. The ability to make an impact in this industry, and therefore on the millions of people who rely on the U.S. healthcare system, depends almost entirely on the quality of leadership at the forefront. Healthcare is all about people. The stakes are high. It demands a level of sacrificial, empathetic leadership that may be impressive in other industries, but in healthcare? Table stakes.
Healthcare is not a hobby. It is so complex and multifaceted that it must dominate what we read, listen to, watch, and think about. The complexity and interdependencies demand a level of commitment that not every industry requires, and the cost of getting it wrong is much higher than in other fields.
It has always been about the team.
When I look back on the three decades I've spent in this industry (and after starting my career running political campaigns), one truth flows through all of it.
It's always been about the people.
It's always been about building high-quality, high-impact teams.
It's always been about putting the pieces together so a group can accomplish what no one has accomplished before.
It's always been about working with the best and being the best: as a person, as a team, and as an organization.
I've spent the last 17 years as CEO of the two best-known, most-awarded healthcare marketing agencies in the country, and eight years before that as president and COO of another highly awarded agency. I've hired hundreds, maybe thousands, of people. I've parted ways with my share and watched others leave, almost always traceable to the simple fact that the wrong person was placed in a critical role. I've built three distinct executive teams at three different companies and interviewed dozens of C-suite and senior executives across our industry. And I've counseled hundreds of health system CEOs, CFOs, and chief marketing officers as they wrestled with how to move their organizations forward to fulfill their missions.
I never planned to focus my career on executive search. And yet, when I add it all up, that's exactly what I've been doing all along: building teams, assessing and developing talented people, and helping them find the environment where they can do their best work. Through that lens, I take my next step in joining Oxeon as a Partner.
I cannot think of anything that has more impact on a healthcare organization right now than the right team: a group of executives and leaders working in concert to accomplish big goals and maximize their impact on the system.
And the timing matters. The health systems world and the investor-backed world are converging like never before. About one in nine health systems now has its own venture investment arm. Roughly one in three participate in vehicles built for strategic health system investors, putting them shoulder to shoulder with the startup ecosystem, alongside organizations such as Heritage Group, Flare Capital Partners, Health Velocity Capital, 7wireVentures, and others. Meanwhile, every health system is focused on growth like never before, bracing for an era of smaller exchange enrollment, smaller Medicaid enrollment, and far more uninsured patients. Growth is no longer a preference. It's a matter of survival.
That convergence is exactly where I see my experience delivering the most value. I've built high-growth companies, both independent and investor-backed, while working continuously with health systems and other healthcare organizations across the country. I've witnessed firsthand the ripple effect of strong leadership, and I've seen what it takes to succeed in both worlds. It turns out the ingredients aren't so different: expertise, experience, relationships, and drive.
Over my three-and-a-half-decade career, I've been fortunate to work alongside inspiring growth-stage innovators and remarkable leaders across health systems, all striving to deliver better care to their communities. Much of my work has centered on helping organizations translate strategy into meaningful growth, connecting mission-driven leadership with the operational, clinical, and market insight needed to navigate an increasingly complex landscape.
That's what drew me to Oxeon: a collective belief that transforming healthcare starts with people. The firm sits at a rare intersection of executive search, investment, and company building, bringing together leaders, ideas, and capital to shape a more human-centered healthcare system. Its mission to “reimagine a healthcare system that every person can trust” resonates with me deeply and with the work so many of us have dedicated our careers to. It's why Oxeon has placed more than 1,300 healthcare executives since opening its doors 15 years ago.
Like many of you reading this, I've worked with plenty of search firms over the years. I've worked with the big SHREK firms like Spencer Stuart, Heidrick & Struggles, Russell Reynolds, Egon Zehnder, and Korn Ferry. I've worked with mid-market and boutique firms. I've seen the good and the bad up close. What I know with absolute clarity is that Oxeon's team, process, and focus are unparalleled. There is no B team or C team here. The entire Oxeon team is the A team. And everyone wants to work with the A team.
And frankly, that's the only kind of team I want to be part of. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.
This work matters more than ever. It determines the quality of executive leadership in an organization, which in turn determines the trajectory of the healthcare system itself. I'm grateful there's a firm like Oxeon focused on making a real difference in the organizations that impact the lives of millions of Americans every year, and even more grateful that I get to help make it happen.
As the Partner leading the health system practice, I'll work with healthcare companies and investors to identify and support the leaders who will shape the next generation of healthcare organizations. I'll help find executives for high-growth, investor-backed companies while building the firm's health systems practice, placing C-suite executives and board members in hospitals, health systems, physician enterprises, and outpatient organizations. I believe healthcare providers deserve the same access to high-quality, experienced talent that investor-backed companies enjoy today.
Oxeon will do both, complementing the remarkable Clinical Leadership practice built over the last couple of years by chief executive officer Sonia Millsom and practice leader Dr. Reena Pande. I get to join an extraordinary healthcare talent ecosystem and help take it to the next level. Whether I'm building executive teams, advising growth-stage companies, or connecting innovators with the right strategic partners, my focus will remain on helping great leaders build organizations that improve the health and lives of the people they serve.
Healthcare is entering a period of profound transformation. New models of care, new technologies, and new expectations from patients and clinicians are reshaping the industry. I'm energized to join a firm that isn't just supporting that transformation, but actively making it happen by bringing the right people and ideas together for the future of healthcare.
For years, I've signed off in letters and notes with the same two words: onward and upward. I didn't think much about it at first. Yet over time, I came to realize that every word we write or say means something. "Onward" is about forward progress, momentum, and energy. "Upward" is about improvement, excellence, and striving for better in everything we do. There is a certain elegance to the phrase.
Together, those two words are a call to action for every leader and organization that believes better is possible. It's easy to be "good." Excellence is hard. Momentum is elusive. When you hit your stride and watch it all come together, you spend the rest of your life trying to repeat it. I want to spend the rest of my career working with people who are striving for better.
So, onward and upward. Always.
