Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Will it stick?!1 Vanity Fair: Jeb Crow Shrub elitist arrogant prick, stoner, goofy, slob, freak. [View all]UTUSN
(77,795 posts)4. ANnnnnnd HEeeeere's *Jonathan*!1 (cashing in on OBAMAcare)
?quality=80
The nephew of one President and the cousin of another, Bush has seen his company prosper in the age of Obamacare.Photograph by Andrew Hetherington for Fortune
?quality=80
"Bush dressed as fictional talk show host Ali G. at an Athena event in 2012, at the White House with cousin George W. in 2006, and driving an ambulance in New Orleans during College."
?quality=80
"Bush (left) in 2005 with his Athenahealth co-founder, Todd Park.
Photograph by Michael Edwards"
********QUOTE*****
http://fortune.com/2014/12/29/athenahealth-ceo-jonathan-bush-bubble/
[font size=5]Is Athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush in a bubble?[/font]
The Athenahealth CEO believes his company can become the Amazon of health care. But hedge fund manager David Einhorn and others are betting that his soaring stock is ready to burst.
Jen Wieczner December 29, 2014, 7:00 AM EST
Jonathan Bush is having a lot of fun for a guy under attack. As he barrels around his 387-acre Maine resort at night in an all-terrain vehicle, weaving through trees and bumping over curbs, the co-founder and CEO of health care technology company Athenahealth doesnt appear to be worried at all about a short-selling assault by hedge fund manager David Einhorn, who is very publicly betting against Athenas highflying stock. Moments earlier, Bushnephew of President No. 41 and cousin to No. 43was regaling his guests with tales of the time he nearly had sex at Camp David. Now its past midnight, and he should really be getting to bed, because at 7 a.m. hell be leading a group on a jog to a serene but bone-chillingly cold pond for a swim. Then the ATV rumbles up to the afterparty cabin, where a few dozen venture capitalists, investors, health care startup CEOs, and Athena execs are playing drinking games, and Bush cant stand to miss out. The night before he had ended up shirtless while playing something called flip cup. And when a Morgan Stanley portfolio manager, Athenas largest shareholder, joked that he was selling his stock because Bush was buying everyone beer, Bush threw his hands in the air and yelled, Yayyyy!!!
Welcome to Athenahealths fourth annual More Disruption Please conference, the Animal House of corporate gatherings. The setting for this early-fall event is Point Lookout, a resort Athena purchased in 2011 as an employee-training and client-entertainment facility. A four-hour drive north of the companys headquarters outside Bostonand some 120 miles up the Maine coast from Walkers Point, where the presidential side of the family spent summers in officePoint Lookout also doubles as a wedding venue, a vacation destination, and the local bowling alley. Despite the rustic surroundings, there is rarely a quiet moment whenever Athenahealths hyperactive, no-filter goofball of a chief executive is around. Bush, who last May published a book titled Where Does It Hurt? An Entrepreneurs Guide to Fixing Health Care, says the ultimate point of his antics is to foster irreverence for the status quo. At MDP he brings together investors with startups that might someday make his own company obsolete. Bushs rallying cry, as always, is the need to reform the U.S. health care system through innovationand by whatever means necessary. And hes not afraid to look like a doofus in the process. Ive got to go past the rules of this game to the new game, says Bush, 45, in a typical moment of rhetorical crescendo. And Im going to win the new game, even though it hasnt been invented yet. You can call that visionarya willing- ness to withstand emotional pain and isolation.
Bushs gonzo approach to corporate leadership has worked spectacularly well at Athenahealth ATHN 1.49% so far. Since the company went public in 2007, its shares had returned 266% through mid-Decembermore than double the Nasdaq (87%) or the Russell 1000 Health Care Index (130%) over the same period. The rocketing stock price has pushed the market value of the company to around $5 billion. Investors have been attracted to the companys rapid growth in a vast market that is suddenly undergoing radical change thanks to Obamacare. Athenahealth has seen average revenue gains of 32% a year by selling cloud-based software services to doctors offices, including electronic medical recordsa business that, spurred by government incentives, has caught fire in recent years. The global health care IT market, now worth about $40.2 billion, has grown 35% in the past five years and is projected to surge another 64% over the next five, to more than $66 billion in 2020, according to Global Industry Analysts. And research firm MarketsandMarkets predicts that health care cloud computing in North America will nearly triple by 2018. ....
Bush co-founded Athenahealth in 1997 with Todd Park, a fellow former health care consultant who left Athena in 2008 and started Castlight Health, before being tapped by President Obama to serve as the U.S. chief technology officer. Since late August, Park has served as a government technology adviser in Silicon Valley. They were offended as Americans that health care is as dysfunctional as it is, and they had a zealots sense of mission to make it better, says Hull of Bush and Park. ....
The companys early success surprised even members of Bushs own clan. Jonathan managed to score a meeting in the Oval Office with President George W. early in his first term. Reenacting that visit, Bush imitates the incredulous look on his cousins face when he mentioned Athenahealth: He was like, Youre CEO of a company? And in my head I was like, Well, if you can be President, I can be CEO! ....
As Bush plots the future path for Athena, hes also redefining his own life. Hes going through a divorce from his second wife. Now hes trying to find balance between running his company and spending time with his five kids from his first marriage. Bush took a step back this year when he took an eight-week sabbatical, taking advantage of an Athena employee policy. He skied, he traveled to the Sochi Olympics, and he spent a week shadowing an Army colonel at Fort Hood to glean leadership lessons. He says he never checked Athenas stock price once. ....
This story is from the January 2015 issue of Fortune.
*********UNQUOTE******
Edit history
Please sign in to view edit histories.
Recommendations
0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):
6 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
RecommendedHighlight replies with 5 or more recommendations