We are excited to introduce a feature in our weekly Monday Morning Report newsletter to showcase our highest-level members. Leaders You Should Know highlights community leaders who are making a notable impact in the Nashville region.
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Tell us about yourself?
I am a lifelong Tennessean – I grew up in Robertson County, attended Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) for college, and have worked in the region my entire career. I joined Delta Dental in 2015 and recently took on the role of President & CEO. My wife, Bethany, and I have two boys, one in college and one who recently graduated from college. On the weekend, you can find me playing golf, watching UT football, or playing gentleman farmer on my family farm in Robertson County.
Tell us about your business/industry?
Delta Dental of Tennessee is the state’s largest independent dental benefits carrier with 1.5 million lives covered. As part of the Delta Dental Plans Association, our members have access to the largest dental network in the nation with more than 201,150 providers serving more than 540,713 locations. Several years ago, we launched vision insurance, DeltaVision, in partnership with VSP and are excited to see that continue to grow.
Through our philanthropic arm, the Smile180 Foundation, Delta Dental is an active supporter of children’s hospitals, charitable dental clinics, the state’s dental colleges, and other like-minded charities. We donated more than $4.0 million in funding and in-kind services to over 100 organizations in 2023.
What should we know about you?
We have a lot of exciting opportunities ahead at Delta Dental, including continuing to grow DeltaVision, which we launched in 2019, and our special health care needs benefit, which launched January 1 and aims to help improve access to quality dental care for individuals with disabilities. Outside of work – I grew up in a family of educators, and education remains a big area of interest for me today. I serve on the board of the Governor’s Early Literacy Foundation and am very involved with my alma matter, Middle Tennessee State University, through my role on the MTSU Accounting Advisory Board. I would love to one day teach a class there.
How did you get to your current position?
After 20 years in various roles across the financial industry, I joined Delta Dental of Tennessee as CFO in 2015, seeking a more mission-driven opportunity where I could use what I had learned in my career to date while also giving back to the community. It has been a great fit. I was honored to be named president of Delta Dental in 2022 and took on the role of President & CEO in January 2024.
What value do you see in Chamber involvement?
My colleague, Missy Acosta, is on the board, and I’ve seen firsthand how invaluable the opportunity to connect and collaborate with like-minded leaders and companies is. The Chamber plays an important role in shaping a vision for our city’s future as well as the overall economic development of our region. We’re glad to be members.
What is your leadership style? How does that motivate yourself and your team?
My leadership style is collaborative; I like to get everyone’s input. I like to know where marketing is coming from, where accounting is coming from, IT, get everyone in a room and make the best decision we can with the best information we have at that point. It’s a cliche to say but you want to surround yourself with people that are a lot smarter than you, especially in their discipline. I want to take all the information I can and make the best decision I can for the company, and I hope this empowers our team to speak up and bring their best ideas and thinking forward – I want to hear it.
What local non-profit has a mission that resonates with you?
The Governor’s Early Literacy Foundation. I grew up in a family of educators in small town Tennessee. Of the 130 or so students in my high school class, I’d estimate that maybe only 25% of us ended up graduating college. My family’s emphasis on education was a big reason why I ended up being one of those who did graduate, and I believe has contributed significantly to my success today. We were not able to travel much growing up, but books became a way to explore the wider world. Today, I serve on the board of the Governor’s Early Literacy Foundation in order to help make sure other kids have that same exposure to reading and books that I did.
What is the most rewarding part of your job? What is the best part of working in your field?
Delta Dental’s commitment to giving back was a big draw for me when I first joined the company in 2015 and is something I am firmly committed to maintaining as president & CEO. Doing well as a business allows us to do good in the community – you don’t have to choose one or other, you can do both.
One of the things I am most proud from my time as CFO is the growth of our philanthropic foundation, the Smile180 Foundation. When I joined the company, the Foundation was newly-established and had been initially funded with $12 million; today it is more than double that with about $30 million in the corpus. Along the way, I implemented a formal Board of Directors and Board meetings, an audit, financial controls, an accounting system, budgeting and reporting processes, and more. The Foundation operates today as a well-run small business that is doing great things in the community through its support of oral health education including Tennessee’s two dental colleges, children’s hospitals, free and reduced-cost dental clinics, and other like-minded charities.
We try to address issues from all sides, from programs that encourage kids to drink more water to grants that go directly to safety net dental clinics. We have also taken on several healthcare issues that are perhaps a bit less traditional in recent years, from developing a program to help make PPE more accessible to dentists in the early days of the pandemic to working to increase the number of dentists practicing in Tennessee.
What are you currently reading?
I am currently reading “Co-Piloting” by Jim Haslam, who is the founder of Pilot convenience stores. I truly admire Jim, he has been in business for 70 years, and at 93 he is still working today. In his book he says that luck, leadership, and learning- that it’s all about others. He credits some of his success to luck, but throughout his life, Jim took the road less traveled to do the right thing. So, I don’t think it was luck, I think his desire to do the right thing was a huge part of his success. I would recommend this book to everyone as Jim is a great role model. And Pilot is a great client of ours!
