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Ryan Dienst
Chief Commercial Officer · Mako Medical

The operator who finds
the signal in the noise.

Twenty years building and scaling diagnostic and healthcare services businesses. Available for fractional and full-time executive engagements.

Let's Talk →
EY Entrepreneur of the Year 4× INC 5000 · 3 Years Mako Medical CCO Fractional Executive
The Challenge

Most strategy dies between the boardroom and the front line.

Finance, sales, operations, technology, and people all have their own language — and their own priorities. Without someone who can translate across all of them, strategy becomes noise. Execution stalls. Results don't come.

✕ Without alignment
✕Functions operating in silos, pulling in different directions
✕Strategy that sounds right in the room but never reaches the front line
✕Leaders working hard but not moving together
✕Growth plateaus that nobody can explain
✓ With the right operator
✓Cross-functional team with shared language and aligned priorities
✓Strategy translated into clear operational directives at every level
✓An organization that knows exactly where it is going
✓Momentum you can actually feel inside the business
What I Do

Four ways I work with companies.

Track Record

Built in one of healthcare's hardest operating environments.

Twenty years in diagnostics and healthcare services — declining reimbursement, rising costs, intense compliance. The operators who survive that environment perform in any environment.

20+
Years Operating
4×
EY Entrepreneur of the Year
3×
INC 5000
2,000+
Person Organization
"If I can build a high-performing, aligned culture in a declining-reimbursement, high-compliance clinical laboratory environment — I can build it anywhere."
🏢

Mako Medical

Chief Commercial Officer at one of the nation's fastest-growing independent laboratory companies. Leading commercial strategy, R&D alignment, and national revenue growth.

🔬

Global Medical Imaging

Co-founded and built GMI from zero. Transformed it from a capital equipment distributor into a full technical services company. INC 5000 three years running.

⚡

Blackline

Fractional executive advisory practice for healthcare services, diagnostics, and multi-site operating businesses. Board-level thinking, operator-level execution.

AI Implementation Advisory

Your organization has more data than it knows what to do with. That’s not the same as insight.

Companies are drowning in data and starving for clarity. Finance has its numbers, Operations has its metrics, Sales has its pipeline. And nobody’s looking at the same picture. The technology is rarely the problem. What’s missing is a leader who can cut through the organizational noise, find the signal that actually matters, and get every function making decisions from the same truth.

Why AI Initiatives Stall
✕IT builds a model. The business does not trust or use the output.
✕Data sits in silos. Each function has its own version of the truth.
✕No governance structure, so every function ignores what AI recommends.
✕Models deployed as static tools that decay as the business evolves.
✕Change management overlooked. People resist AI instead of working with it.
What Cross-Functional AI Looks Like
✓A unified data strategy where every function contributes to and trusts a single source of truth.
✓Pipeline architecture designed around business questions, not just data availability.
✓Continuous learning models that improve as your business generates new data.
✓AI governance across Finance, Ops, Sales, IT, and People. Not just an IT committee.
✓Leadership teams that understand AI outputs and make better decisions because of them.
🏗️
AI Readiness & Data Strategy
Assess where your data lives, what it is and is not telling you, and what infrastructure gaps stand between your current state and a functioning AI environment. Includes data lake architecture planning, pipeline mapping, and a cross-functional data governance framework.
🔄
Continuous Learning Implementation
Design and oversee AI implementations built to improve over time. This means building the feedback loops between model output and business outcomes, so your AI gets smarter as your organization learns.
🤝
Cross-Functional AI Adoption
The organizational side of AI is where most initiatives collapse. I build the governance structures, change management plans, and leadership alignment needed to ensure every function engages with AI as a partner rather than a threat.

“The organizations that will win with AI are not the ones with the best models. They are the ones whose leadership teams actually know how to use them.”

Talk to Me About AI Strategy
Get In Touch

Let's find the signal.

If you are navigating a transition, a growth plateau, a post-acquisition integration, or a leadership gap — reach out directly.

ryan.dienst@gmail.com
Ryan Dienst
Portfolio Operator · Healthcare & Diagnostics

The operator you need
after the deal closes.

Twenty years building and scaling healthcare services businesses through acquisitions, turnarounds, and high-growth phases. Available as a dedicated operator or portfolio advisor.

Let's Talk →
EY Entrepreneur of the Year 4× INC 5000 · 3 Years Post-Acquisition Experience EBITDA Operator
The PE Challenge

You can acquire a great business. You need the operator who can run it.

Most PE-backed healthcare businesses have the capital and the thesis. What limits value creation is operational execution — the ability to align the organization, build accountability, and translate strategy into results that show up in EBITDA.

✕ Common post-acquisition problems
✕Leadership team not aligned on the new operating model
✕Strategy clear at the board level, invisible at the operational level
✕Revenue and margin improvements identified but not executed
✕Culture friction slowing integration and performance
✓ What a proven operator delivers
✓Clear operating model with accountable leadership at every level
✓EBITDA improvements translated from thesis to execution
✓Commercial infrastructure that supports revenue growth
✓A culture built for performance and retention — not just compliance
Engagement Models

Four ways I work with PE firms and portfolio companies.

Operating Track Record

Real operating experience. Not a consultant who studied it.

Built, scaled, and exited businesses in healthcare services. Operated at senior executive level in a 2,000+ person organization with direct leadership of a 300+ person cross-functional team — in one of healthcare's most margin-pressured environments.

20+
Years Operating
4×
EY Entrepreneur of the Year
3×
INC 5000
8%
Turnover Reduction at GMI
"I have done the hard version of this work — building high-performing organizations in declining-reimbursement, high-compliance healthcare environments. That scar tissue performs in better-funded situations."
📈

Revenue Model Transformation

Shifted GMI's revenue balance from 60/40 to 70/30 through a three-year transformation from capital equipment distribution to full technical services — while growing the business onto the INC 5000.

🏢

Acquisition Integration

Orchestrated the acquisition of Texas-based Trident Imaging Services — including integration of operations, teams, and commercial infrastructure — while maintaining service quality and client retention.

🎯

Culture & Team Architecture

Built a culture of fanatical customer service that reduced employee turnover 8% and drove three consecutive INC 5000 appearances. Culture is not a values statement — it is the operating system.

AI Implementation Advisory

Most portfolio companies have tried AI. The technology isn’t the problem. The organization is.

Finance, Sales, Ops, and IT are each running their own version of reality, and nobody has built the organizational layer to find the shared signal. The AI graveyard in most portfolio companies isn’t a technology failure. It’s a leadership and alignment failure. I help PE-backed businesses cut through that: define the right use cases, align leadership around a common data strategy, and turn AI investment into real operational leverage.

Why AI Stalls in Portfolio Companies
✕IT builds a model. The business does not trust or use the output.
✕Data sits in silos. Each function has its own version of the truth.
✕No governance structure, so every function ignores what AI recommends.
✕Models decay as the business evolves. No feedback loop to keep them current.
✕Leadership cannot articulate the AI ROI story to the board or investors.
What I Build Instead
✓A unified data strategy where Finance, Ops, Sales, and IT trust the same source of truth.
✓AI use cases prioritized by EBITDA impact, not technical complexity.
✓Continuous learning models built to improve as the portfolio company scales.
✓Cross-functional AI governance that drives adoption rather than resistance.
✓A board-ready narrative connecting AI investment to operational leverage and exit value.

“The organizations that will win with AI are not the ones with the best models. They are the ones whose leadership teams actually know how to use them.”

Talk to Me About AI in Your Portfolio
Work Together

Let's find the signal.

Whether you need a dedicated operator, pre-acquisition assessment, or portfolio advisory — reach out directly to start the conversation.

ryan.dienst@gmail.com