Ben Rooks, Founder and Principal
Passion for Healthcare
Healthcare, and especially the healthcare information technology sector, is where my passion lies and I’ve been lucky enough to have spent the majority of my career in this fascinating part of the largest sector of our economy.
All-Star Analyst
After earning my MBA in healthcare management from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, I worked in healthcare claims data analysis for a consulting firm. Finding it too academic, I decided to pursue a career in equity research, where I was one of the first analysts to recognize the potential impact of healthcare IT and to cover it as a discrete sector. Over the course of a decade as a sell-side research analyst, I covered the stocks of over 25 healthcare information companies and followed companies in the e-health, drug information and pharmacy benefit management sectors. During this period, I worked on multiple IPO and follow-on offerings and built a strong reputation for penetrating insight and high integrity with both institutional investors and the management of the companies I followed. Zacks recognized me as an All-Star Analyst during this time.
Investment Banking Success
Having had such success as a research analyst, I recognized I could provide even more value working directly with companies, so I moved to investment banking and continued to focus on healthcare information technology, pharmaceutical information, revenue cycle management and technology-enabled services companies along with both distribution and medical technology companies. In six years as an investment banker, I helped more than 25 companies complete transactions ranging in size from $40 to $365 million.
During my banking tenure, my clients consistently commented on my industry knowledge, strategic perspective and my differentiated ability to position their companies to both investors and potential strategic partners. More than once I heard, “I’ve never met a banker who really understood my business before.”
Creating ST Advisors
Although successful as an investment banker, I determined that I would be both happier and most effective when I could have a more genuine and less transaction-driven relationship with my clients. Realizing that banking was not the best platform from which to offer objective advice, I formed ST Advisors in 2009. ST Advisors seeks to partner with management teams and financial sponsors to craft and drive corporate strategic direction and growth without the need for an immediate transaction as the basis of our relationship. As an independent and trusted advisor, ST Advisors helps our clients evaluate and express their strategy and key value drivers, define their market opportunities and approaches, and determine their optimal partners and ultimate goals, including, at the appropriate time, exit strategies.
Keeping Current on an Evolving Industry
After over 16 years, I continue to find the industry fascinating and look for ways to continue to both share and expand my knowledge. I’ve been a judge for the Microsoft Health Users Group Innovation Awards since its inception in 1997 and also regularly judge the Microsoft Life Sciences Innovation Awards as both give me the opportunity to observe and evaluate leading-edge technology. I sit on the advisory boards of a number of private companies. I also sit on the editorial board and write an annual M&A article for Healthcare Informatics. I am a regular guest lecturer at both Northwestern University and the Wharton School and write the Healthcare IT from the Investor’s Chair column for HISTalk.