Michael Neilson ’20

Michael Neilson, EMBA ’20, followed a meandering course at first. He started out as a realtor, then got into nursing, which led him toward a role in healthcare administration in a Level 1 trauma hospital.

To go further, he needed to build up his skills. “My background was all clinical, and to really to get to where I wanted to be — which was the VP or C-suite level — I needed to get an MBA,” he said.

LeBow’s Executive MBA program proved a perfect fit. “I loved the flexibility of the executive program,” Neilson said. “It was conducive to my work schedule and my home life, and that’s what made me led to the final decision to attend Drexel.”

It appears to have been the right move. After graduation he went to work for Pelorus Elder & Behavioral Health, quickly rising to become chief operating officer role and helping to grow the business nearly three times in four and a half years. Now he’s COO for Pelorus and two other behavioral healthcare companies, with an additional company slated to be added to the roster soon.

As the COO, “I oversee all operational aspects from clinical to business, as well as business development opportunities and growth opportunities,” Neilson says.

This is challenging work, as behavioral health is an especially complex space with many payers and clinicians to manage and issues with retention, turnover and recruitment. “There are regulations — healthcare as an industry is very highly regulated,” Neilson says, adding that growing the business means “making sure that you’re staying within compliance.”

Across three business entities, Neilson is helping to manage over 300 clinicians including social workers, clinical psychologists, nurse practitioners and psychiatrists. The total staff is about 500 people across five states.

It takes a broad mix of skills to operate successfully in this role. Multitasking is a must, as is the ability to negotiate effectively, a skill he honed through a EMBA course with Professor of Management Jonathan Ziegert, PhD.

“Negotiations are a huge piece of what I do on an almost day-to-day basis,” he says “It’s contract agreements with different vendors and services that could help make my company more efficient and streamlined. It’s negotiations with payers and with clinicians over compensation.”

“It’s so ingrained in my day-to-day world, so that class was a huge piece for me.”

A course in accounting was also pivotal. “My background prior to that was really more clinical, and that class helped me grasp the financial applications that I now put to use on a regular and routine basis,” he says. “It opened up my eyes to the business-finance end of things.”

As a leader of teams, Neilson also looks back fondly on LeBow’s introductory team-building exercise. “I’ll never forget my time on the Schuylkill,” he saiys “They put you into that boat and you really get to bond. It showed me that it doesn’t matter whether you’re the low man on the totem pole or the big corporate executive: If just one of you is off-rhythm by just a little bit, the entire boat is off.”

In the big picture, Neilson reflects that his corporate role isn’t just about growing the business. It’s about delivering essential services to people who need them.

“We provide psychiatry and psychology services to the geriatric communities in long-term care, skilled nursing, assisted living and personal care facilities,” he said. “COVID helped people to realize that depression and anxiety are actual, real things. These are people who’ve lived a long life, and they deserve to have a great quality of care.”