Our Business Development Team
Our Geographic Focus
Benefits of Partnership
Western Veterinary Partners acquires veterinary practices across the United States and supports partner practices with the non-clinical business challenges they face. See below for our approach and areas of support.
Flexible Partnerships
- Secure a strong purchase price with the opportunity for equity participation
- We offer a variety of deal structures to meet your personal goals
Collaborative Environment Built To Support
- We assume the administrative burdens of running your business (operational support, payroll, HR, recruiting, payables, marketing, etc.)
- We provide expertise and infrastructure to solve day-to-day business challenges
- We honor our commitment to not mandate sweeping changes post-close (keep your staff, hours of operation, practice management software, etc.)
People-Centric Focus
- We put tremendous value on our people-first mindset to ensure a smooth transition for all
- We offer a generous suite of benefits for employees
- We provide support for growth and professional development for all team members
We maintain a “as good as or better” promise as it relates to pay and benefits
- We preserve your legacy
- We promise to never rebrand your practice or tarnish the reputation that you’ve built
- You and your team remain the voice at your practice, driving day-to-day decisions
- Keep complete autonomy over the way you practice medicine
Lauren Gates
VP of Business Development
Lauren has over 14 years of experience in healthcare acquisitions, business development and sales. Most recently, she served as the Vice President of Business Development within the Direct Investments division at Leon Capital Group. In this role, her primary responsibilities included the identification of add-on acquisition opportunities, crafting transaction structures, conducting due diligence, and seeking new ways to achieve organic and inorganic growth. Preceding her tenure at Leon Capital, Lauren was instrumental in establishing and leading the Business Development team at PetWell Partners, a veterinary owner and operator. She developed and set the teams strategic priorities resulting in the creation of valuable partnerships and seamless integrations. Lauren received her Executive MBA from Rice University and her BBA in Accounting from Texas Tech University.
Michael Rubey
Director of Business Development
Michael has almost 30 years of veterinary sales and leadership experience. He has built and led national sales teams for IDEXX, HESKA and BioMerieux, three of the largest veterinary laboratory service providers in the world. He has sold veterinary equipment and solutions and helped hundreds of practices, throughout the United States, enhance their diagnostic capabilities. Throughout his time in veterinary sales, Michael has received numerous awards for both customer satisfaction and high performance. Michael has been married for 25 years and currently has three children in college. He holds a BA from San Diego State University.
Lindsay O’Grady
Director of Business Development
Lindsay has more than 20 years of experience in the veterinary industry. Most recently, Lindsay held leadership roles in development, recruiting, and regional operations for VetCor, a leading group veterinary hospital support organization with over 300 hospitals nationwide. Prior to VetCor, Lindsay served as a practice manager of two small animal practices in addition to a large specialty animal hospital center. She began her career working in reception for her hometown veterinarian and over her career has held positions in nearly every area of a veterinary hospital. Lindsay attended Bentley University and holds a master’s degree from the University of New Hampshire. She continues to maintain her veterinary technician license and membership in veterinary community organizations.
Drake Carlson
Director of Business Development
As Director of Business Development, Drake loves connecting great veterinary practice partners with WVP. He has over 15 years of business development experience with the last eight years in animal health. Prior to joining WVP, he spent six years with Patterson Veterinary Supply as a Territory Manager while also fulfilling additional leadership roles within the organization.
Drake resides in Omaha, NE with his wife Jillian, 3 kids (Quincy and Olivia who are twins, and youngest son Kyler) and a golden retriever (Jack). The Carlson family are avid Cornhusker Fans! When he is not working, you will find him spending time with family, cheering on the Huskers, and trying to squeeze in a round of golf now and then.
Drake played college baseball and received his BA in Business Administration from Morningside University (Iowa).
Jen Abram
Director of Business Development
Jen has spent the last decade in animal health providing medical and business solutions to veterinarians and their staff. As a Strategic Account Manager with Zoetis, Jen’s role was to educate and partner with veterinary practices to better the health of their patients, practice and team. In this role, she developed training tools and an accredited leadership certificate program for the industry.
As a Regional Sales Manager with KindredBio, Jen pursued her passion around people and their development by mentoring and coaching a multi-state sales team. Jen has also served on various industry boards, including Project VETS–a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the health and welfare of animals around the world.
Prior to animal health, Jen spent ten years on the human health side with Johnson & Johnson and Abbott Laboratories in technical sales and recruiting. Jen holds a BA in Journalism and Business from Indiana University.
Amy Fedon
Director of Business Development
Amy joins WVP as a Director of Business Development, where she will help our expansion efforts into the Midwest states. Prior to joining WVP, Amy spent 15+ years working in animal health with Zoetis in various sales and leadership roles including Senior Strategic Account Manager. She joins WVP with extensive relationships across the veterinary care profession and is looking forward to helping build and scale our expansion efforts. Amy and her husband Jeremy live in Rochester Hills, MI with their daughter Hunter and son Maxwell. They have a Labrador that (as Amy says) barks at the wind.
Vance Toole
Vice President of Corporate Development
Vance has over 5 years of investment banking and private equity experience. Most recently, he served as a Senior Associate for The Cosine Group providing strategic M&A advisory and investment banking services for early and growth stage companies. Prior to working with The Cosine Group, he was an Associate with Pamlico Capital, a lower middle market private equity group based in Charlotte, NC focused on growth buyouts in healthcare, business technology, and software. Vance was raised in Southeast Missouri and received degrees in Economics and Spanish from Vanderbilt University.