Her Story
About Christine
I've been in the healthcare space since 1998, dedicating my career to improving quality of life for seniors and their families. About a year and a half ago, I went back and got certified as a mergers and acquisitions advisor, and I just started my own M&A firm where I'm the managing partner and CEO. Monday, I just sold my first business, which felt really great. I've been a healthcare consultant and C-level executive for home care and hospice, running my consulting firm since 2007 for turnarounds and strategic advisory work. I've worked with major organizations like Amedisys, the largest publicly traded home care agency in the country. From 2016 to 2022, I owned a skilled home care agency in Michigan which I sold. I also served as CEO of all subsidiary operations for McLaren, a $4 billion non-profit organization in Michigan, where I ran their laboratory, infusion, home care, hospice, and all subsidiary operations. I was one of 22 on the cabinet with only 2 people above me. I had a joint venture with CBS of New York and executive produced a show called Aging Independently with Christine Bartel, which I hosted on the noon news every day. It was wildly successful and we made media history by bringing in millions of dollars in advertising revenue. From 2002 to 2009, I built Hope at Home and Aspire Home Care organically from zero to a $12 million exit with private equity, achieving 3,000% growth and 17.9% EBITDA with no debt and never losing money. I'm very passionate about improving quality of life for seniors because just because they're getting old doesn't mean they have to feel like crap and be mistreated. I've always practiced the golden rule in business, and you could not pay me enough money to operate illegally or push the limits of the rules and laws. I'm also a chronic care manager and certified senior advisor, helping families navigate healthcare decisions and teaching seniors to advocate for themselves.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Christine
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I think that women need to give themselves forgiveness and compassion, and be their own best friend, and not be so hard on themselves when they're also trying to fulfill a calling or a destiny that they have that is specifically something that fills them up. Because when you're a mother, you're giving, but in order to give, you have to keep filling yourself up. It is okay for women to set boundaries, and they can be an executive and be a parent at the exact same time with boundaries. And if people don't accept that, you move on. Successful executives are women because they can multitask and they can do the right thing. They're not motivated strictly by money, they're mostly motivated by doing the right thing. My advice would be, take care of yourself too, because you can't take care of other people unless you take care of yourself, and you can take care of more people the healthier that you are. This industry will try to fire you for being a woman, for advocating ethics and for doing the right thing, because there are a lot of people in this industry and 95% or 99% of the boards are men on these healthcare boards. They don't allow women in. Women need to be running these places. Stick to your guns. We can't let people get to us when they say that it's us, because there was a period of time where I really felt like something was wrong with me because I was having a problem with people doing things illegally. Women going into this, I would say stick to your guns. You know, women need to be running these places.
02What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
If you were to ask me what my number one driving force is, it's ethics. It's just doing the right thing always, even when it's difficult, because when you're in a C-level role, I think that you could make a lot of decisions that are in the best interest of yourself financially and economically, but it might not be the best thing for patients and their families. I really believe that an emotional intelligence test should be taken by every executive in healthcare, because if you cannot put yourself in somebody else's shoes, you should not be leading these organizations, because it's too easy to do the wrong thing. When you talk about values, doing the right thing always is the most important thing to me, because we're faced with things all the time and you have to check yourself at the door. I could go out and make a lot more money, but I have an 8-year-old, and I check myself. I've kind of always done that. I always practice the golden rule in business. I'm very strong faith-based person. I consider myself a Catholic Buddhist. I'm Catholic, but I really do believe in the golden rule, and just doing the right thing.
Keep Exploring
More Influential Women · Colorado
Join Influential Women and start making an impact. Register now.