Leadership Team
Dr. Alex Giannini has founded and served as CEO of several dental groups and DSOs. With over 29 years of experience in the clinical, administration, and management of dental practices in over 10 states, including related businesses, as well as real estate development/management.
Dr. Giannini has doubled and quadrupled dental practice revenue and profitability within a year while creating a platform and national prominence. Dr. Giannini was the founder of Comfortable Care Dental Group’s initial office in 1989 which in turn became the first group in Florida as part of the Heartland Dental growth at the turn of century. In 2008, he founded Dynamic Dental Partners Group (DDPG) which in 2014 was listed at #14 on the Inc. 5000 list for the fastest‐growing private companies in America.
Dr. Giannini practiced high‐end fee-for-service dentistry in Florida for 9 years, after which time he co‐owned and managed dental practices in Florida, Arizona, Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. In addition, Dr. Giannini has been featured as a guest speaker at many Practice Management conferences throughout the nation. Dr. Giannini has worked with institutional, private equity, and family‐office Investors. He has turned around 100s of practices including distressed Dental Groups and DSOs.
His role is strategic and includes shaping the philosophy and delivery of quality dental care along with implementing clinical and operational policies, structure, and protocols for his management team to deliver productive and profitable dental offices. He is also involved in doctor recruitment, complete business development, marketing, and strategic planning as a business analyst to oversee the financial operations including the dental systems, forecasting, budgeting, and goal setting of each individual affiliated office and company. Dr. Giannini is currently President of the American Academy of Dental Group Practice (AAGDP, www.aadgp.org) and part of the Association of Dental Support Organizations (ADSO www.threads.org).
Chris co-founded and jointly heads Aligned Dental, providing consulting and advisory services to dental companies throughout North America. Chris leads engagements with DSOs and large group practices to help grow their business, build infrastructure, and facilitate M&A activity. Chris and his team support dental companies throughout their lifecycle while driving EBITDA, reducing costs, and growing enterprise value. He oversees the operations of the firm and manages its team to best support individual client goals.
Chris has supported dentists and their businesses for over a decade and brings extensive experience in both consulting and executive leadership in the dental field. He has served various executive roles including CEO and COO for several client dental groups, including the founding COO for a New York-based dental support organization he started with a dentist investor. Prior to that, he served as the Director of Consulting for the then-largest consultancy to dental practices in the country. In that role, Chris oversaw a team of consultants who worked with hundreds of the country’s top dentists whose focus was to grow practice revenue and increase efficiency.
Chris started his career as a Big 4 Management Consultant where he advised leading Fortune 500 companies and the Department of Defense. His experience includes facilitating mergers and acquisitions, implementing ERP systems as part of major supply chain transformations, and developing and implementing enterprise performance management systems.
Chris has a B.S. from the Pennsylvania State University, Smeal College of Business, and holds various consulting and management certifications. Chris resides in Chagrin Falls, OH with his wife, two young daughters, and a beloved dog. He can be reached at: chris@aligneddentalpartners.com.
John co-founded and jointly heads Aligned Dental, after spending the last decade working directly with 2,000+ dental practices. John focuses on the analytical aspects of each new client and develops customized solutions aligned to the goals of each individual practitioner.
Prior to this role, John served as the Chief Development Officer for a New-York-based DSO which he co-founded with a dentist investor. He handled all aspects of the due diligence and the acquisition and transition phases for affiliated dental offices. John developed a strategic acquisition plan that was used to successfully acquire and assimilate the DSOs practices, and also oversaw dentist recruitment, identifying top tier, high-talent practitioners to provide outstanding patient care.
Prior to co-founding the DSO, John spent 9 years with the nation’s premier dental consultancy. As the Director of Business Development, John oversaw a team of analysts that assessed 1,000s of dental practices, both domestically and internationally, each year. Additionally, John personally performed in-depth analysis for many of the largest and most-premier dental offices in the country.
John is a graduate of the Pennsylvania State University with a degree in business management.
John has more than 30 years of finance experience in professional services firms including five years with private equity-backed multi-site healthcare/ dental service organizations, seven years in software development and technology services, nine years in the industrial manufacturing and distribution industry, and over four years in the mobile telecommunications vertical. He has led all aspects of finance and accounting, including budgeting, forecasting, cash management, debt management, financial reporting, analysis, contract management, and compliance. John also has extensive experience in risk management and distressed financial and turnaround management. And he has worked extensively with various private equity funds and creditors to facilitate post-acquisition management and platform integration of newly acquired companies.
His lengthy list of accomplishments includes an IPO, two restructurings/bankruptcies, multiple corporate divestitures, two post-acquisition dental platform integrations, various dental practice acquisitions, and de novo site openings and multiple ERP, practice management, and technology system implementations.
As our CFO, John directs the accounting team and oversees the financial activities of the company while forecasting and fostering future growth. He brings a wealth of financial knowledge and DSO experience to ADS, and we’re incredibly fortunate to have him! We will continue to achieve financial growth and operational success with his strategic direction and support.
Brian has more than 40 years of experience in public accounting. Brian is a retired partner of the national public accounting firm Plante Moran where he led the firm’s Financial Services industry group, comprising banking, insurance, and investment companies.
Brian has extensive experience in audit, tax, internal controls, and business combinations. In addition, he has worked with SEC registrants’ clients on their quarterly and annual reporting, including complex regulations, SOX compliance, and internal controls.
Brian has experience in denovo financial institutions, initial public offerings, debt raising, mergers, acquisition, and divestiture transactions.
He recently relocated from southeastern Michigan to Lakewood Ranch, Florida, where he enjoys working on business strategies, fishing, and golfing with his friends and family.
His role at Aligned Dental is to observe and advise executive management on their growth strategies and practice integrations from a financial point of view. He brings a wealth of financial knowledge to the executive team at ADS.
Management Team
Dr. Giannini has had over 24 years of leadership experience from practicing as a Dentist, including all positions in a dental office, to being a Professor in a dental university, to running a dental assistant school, to being the VP of Doctor Development and Recruiting and Vice President of Operations for Inc. Magazine #14 fastest-growing private company and Dental Support Organization.
Dr. Giannini achieved success in complex business models in key leadership roles. As VPO for Dynamic Dental Partners Group, she consistently delivered revenue and EBITDA goals for 34 Dental offices including a company-best 65.5% revenue growth and 285% office EBITDA in 2013 for the Implants Oral Surgery Group.
With over 30 years of HR, operational, compliance, and marketing experience, Lisa’s personal philosophy is rooted in servant leadership. She is passionate about helping Aligned Dental make the most of its resources and talent while helping team members experience maximum support and enhanced quality of life. Her focus from an HR perspective is on the importance and value of the Team members. Lisa joins Dr. Giannini, Dr. Sivers, Dr. Veronica, and the rest of the ADS support team in the collective conviction that if you take care of the employees, they will take care of our patients and the business will thrive. She wholeheartedly believes that to facilitate company growth and the achievement of its goals, the focus should be placed on employee relations and grounded in communication and responsiveness.
Lisa was born in Connecticut but spent most of her informative years in the suburbs of Detroit. While attending USF, she began her career designing cutting-edge, customized selling systems, marketing, and software user interface for a real estate software development company. After obtaining a B.A. in Criminology and Political Science, summa cum laude, she relocated to Boca Raton, Florida to join Cybrant (later Blue Martini Software), an exciting start-up software company that developed e-commerce and CRM solutions that revolutionized complex configuration on the internet in real-time. This is where she developed her niche for wearing several hats as she served the organization both from a marketing standpoint as well as handling HR while managing office and facilities issues.
Lisa entered the dental industry in 2008 as the Chief Administrative Officer for Dynamic Dental Partners Group, alternately and simultaneously managing human resources, legal administration, project management, facilities, compliance/risk management and marketing over the next eight years from an initial two practices with twenty employees to forty practices with over five hundred employees. Under the tutelage and mentorship of Dr. Alex Giannini, she became indoctrinated into the dental industry and learned the art of building DSO infrastructures that are scalable and poised for growth.
Lisa’s next venture was spending three years as VP of Operations, HR, and Compliance for a local DSO with eight locations on the Gulf Coast of Florida. With the formation of Aligned Dental, Lisa is thrilled to once again join forces with Dr. Giannini and the team and feels as though she has come home!
Lisa holds professional certifications in Human Resources as an SPHR (Senior Professional in Human Resources) and holds the OSHA designation of PCG (Professional Certificate for General Industry). She is also certified as an OSHA and HIPAA Trainer.
When Lisa is not supporting ADS, she spends her time creating. She has two grown children, a daughter and a son, who are 6th generation circus performers, musicians, and artists, and three treasured grandchildren. She enjoys reading, painting, and any activity that involves nature and the outdoors. She believes that life is all about continually learning and growing.
Christine is the Director of Clinical Operations for Aligned Dental. She assists our teams with creating clinical policies and procedures, builds groups’ procurement departments by analyzing their supply chain and optimizing vendor relations. She has worked with various DSOs and Group Practices to drastically reduce the Cost of Goods Sold by creating formularies for dental supplies, labs, office supplies, and all areas of procurement for dental companies. She creates streamlined procurement processes for the company to reduce costs and maximize efficiency. Christine also assists with collection of data across several departments, advises and develops strategic plans, and assists with implementation.
Christine hails from Pennsylvania and is a detail-oriented, highly motivated team member with over 26 years of dental experience. She has taught as a dental professor for seven years and served as the Director of Education for a DSO. She enjoys passing on her passion for dentistry to those eager to learn in the dental field. She has held a variety of roles in a DSO that supported 30 dental offices in three states. She worked her way up quickly through the ranks of that company, showing she has what it takes to succeed and learn all aspects of a DSO and dental group. Working in multiple departments allowed Christine to develop and evaluate goals, and in turn, execute a prescription that will guarantee success for her team. She leverages her strong background in results-oriented management to instrument positive change, continuous improvement, and innovative solutions in all Procurement activities.
Christine has an Associate’s Degree in Electronic Healthcare Records/Healthcare Management and is a CDA and an EFDA in the state of Pennsylvania. When Christine isn’t focused on dentistry, she is focused on her 10-year-old daughter. She loves taking trips and creating memories with her family and friends at their family cabin.
Christine can be reached at Christine.Manndel
@adentalpartners.com
Molly Forte has dedicated most of her career to Human Resources, Operations, and IT. She earned a BS in Public Administration from Northwest Missouri State University and an MS in Human Relations from the University of Oklahoma. After moving to Florida in 2001, she began her professional career at Sarasota Memorial Hospital (SMH) where she was an Administrative Manager to the Medical Director and Radiology Group for 12 years. Not only did she manage the Radiology Group practice, but also helped the Doctors start a teleradiology business back before telemedicine was common. This is where her interest in IT was piqued and cultivated an interest in AI. Molly successfully marketed and negotiated with clients from all around the world to include many large military bases stateside and overseas, several Caribbean hospitals, as well as hospitals all over Florida.
Later promoted to Chief Operating Officer, she became responsible for all Contracting, Credentialing, Billing Oversight, Human Resources, and Compliance. Subsequently, she transitioned into a consulting role as an Executive Director for the Teleradiology company. In this role, she was responsible for Marketing all new business, Billing, Customer Service, IT, and Compliance. She was able to help drive the business towards a major capital event.
Molly’s next role as Director of Operations with a small Prosthetics Company in St. Petersburg, where she was responsible for Operations, Human Resources, and IT Departments as well as Supervisor for all Front Office Staff. She successfully helped the company grow from 5 centers in Florida to 30 in four states. She was instrumental in helping the company grow both externally and internally by creating new departments and building the infrastructure to support the expansion. After nine years, the company is now the largest privately owned Prosthetic Company in the state of Florida and ranks 5% nationally with the American Orthotic and Prosthetic Association.
As well as in radiology and prosthetics, Molly had a brief stent in the Chiropractic and Pain Management field with a growing Chiropractic group. This group grew from 1 to 9 centers within a short period of time. Molly was brought in to help build out their Human Resources Department by introducing a HRIS system, hiring and training the HR team, creating SOP’s, Policies & Procedures, team building, and improving the company culture.
On a personal note, Molly, a Midwestern girl at heart, was born and raised in a small town in Illinois outside the St. Louis area, but now lives in Sarasota, Florida with her cherished dog named Sally who is a 16-year-old Boston Terrier. Because Sally is blind and deaf, Molly has a passion to work with elderly disabled dogs towards adoption or fostering. Molly is a music enthusiast enjoying all genres, particularly live music, and she is always on the hunt for great musicians at concerts and music festivals. Another passion of Molly’s is travel and feels fortunate to have experienced living in Germany for two years and having had the opportunity to travel all over Europe. Now living in Florida, she has been bitten by the cruise bug, and enjoys several cruises throughout the year to relax and rejuvenate! Lastly, Molly frequents boot camps, bike riding excursions and group fitness classes.
Molly always remains ecstatic to apply her extensive experience in support of Partners. She is always looking for improvement, efficiency, and creating a pleasant experience for all employees. One of Molly’s favorite quotes is, “Whenever you find the whole world against you, just turn around and lead the world.” ~ Rishov Ghosh.
George has a strong foundation of ethics, knowledge, and skill and brings much accounting experience to Aligned Dental (26 years!). He earned his bachelor’s degree in management at the University of National and World Economy in Sophia, Bulgaria. George embarked on an accounting career that garnered him robust opportunities for growth and development in his field. After becoming certified in accounting operations in the US, he worked for a contracting company for 15 years (until COVID). He did all end-to-end accounting for the organization, including project management for development projects, permit procurement, bid negotiations, annual budgeting and forecasting, and payroll and tax work. George’s strengths in organization and attention to detail enabled him to wear many hats – which is a must at ADS!
We are very fortunate to have George on the team. Very quickly, he has demonstrated a tremendous work ethic, commitment, and expertise that will bring much value to our team.
On a personal note, George is from Sophia, Bulgaria, and came to the US almost 20 years ago. When he is not working, he enjoys spending time with his wife and two children.
Paula Salgado is a Marketing Manager at Aligned Dental. With over 30 years in Marketing, she provides hands on experience to implement customized marketing solutions for dental practices, dental groups and dental support organizations that attract more patients and track the return on their investment. Paula works diligently to support the impact of the current marketing efforts and customized marketing growth plans. In this role she effectively manages a variety of tasks, projects, and negotiations and she has a passion for data analysis and crafting predictable, repeatable outcomes, along with expert knowledge in developing and executing consultative solutions for our clients.
After going to UCONN where she majored in Marketing, Paula spent seven years living in Coro, Venezuela, as the owner and operator of retail/wholesale bakery and grocery store. She then returned to the US to begin her career in marketing. That included more than 25 years in multimedia sales, from newspaper ads to billboards, direct mail, radio, and cable TV. Paula went on to help launch huge online pioneers such as cars.com, space.com, and match.com while working at FloridaToday (Gannett Publishing). By 2015, Paula worked her way up to Director of Sales Operations for The New York Times Regional Media Group. Prior to her current role, she transitioned to the hospitality vertical as Director of Sales and Marketing for Aimbridge Hospitality. Her main objective was to build the hotel’s reputation through direct and indirect marketing initiatives.
Tanya has over five years of experience in accounts payable and an additional fifteen years in various roles, predominately as an executive assistant and office manager. Most recently, Tanya was with Aviva where she was very successful integrating and managing bill.com and AP, plus she managed payroll and several other staff accounting responsibilities.
On a personal note, Tanya is originally from western Massachusetts. She is the mother of three sons, and 1 granddaughter. Her eldest is 26 and recently graduated from the Aviation Academy in Tampa, after serving 7 years in the Navy. Her middle son is 22 and attending college in Nebraska working towards a degree in Business finance while her youngest is 14 and currently attends Sarasota Military Prep, he plays lacrosse and is on the Archery team. When not working or maternally managing the life of a teenager, Tanya spends all of her free time at sports games, or meets with her son and spoiling her granddaughter.
Christina Deeney is a Procurement Specialist for Aligned Dental (ADS). Areas of spend activity include the sourcing and purchasing of dental equipment and supplies, office equipment, contracted vendor services and other facility and operational supplies and maintenance to support ADS and its affiliates and clients.
Christina brings 28+ years of clinical experience and passion for her craft to ADS with experience with Orthodontics, Neuromuscular Dentistry, Oral Surgery and Restorative Dentistry. Christina shares that her personal favorite was and is Cosmetic Dentistry and the fulfillment that comes with seeing a Patient look at their beautiful smile makeover for the first time and the inevitable increase in personal confidence and quality of life for that Patient! She is a certified EFDA Dental Assistant is both Virginia and Florida and has management experience in clinical processes and compliance. She has worked all aspects and roles in dental from Front Office Management, Clinical Administration, Treatment Coordination, Trainer and Lead Dental Assistant.
Christina began her tenure with ADS as a Revenue Assurance Manager, where her primary role was to implement End-of-Day (EOD) processes while monitoring daily collections and mitigating exceptions. With the rapid growth of ADS, Christina’s strong, clinical background poised her perfectly for promotion to the more critically important role in the procurement department. Christina’s years of expertise provide well-rounded support and service to our partners and clients.
On a personal note, Christina was born in Okinawa, Japan on an Army base. Although she mainly grew up in Northern Virginia, she spent a few years in Zweibrucken, Germany where she was exposed to and learned a great deal about different cultures and religions. Christina attended Northern Virginia Community College where she initially began a program to earn a Nursing degree before accidently falling into Dentistry in 1995.
She relocated to Sarasota, Florida in 2008. She is most proud of her family that includes her husband, three sons and a granddaughter (who is the light of her life!). When not working, she enjoys spending quality time with her family doing various activities like swimming, boating, fishing and cheering for the Florida Gators. She also enjoys martial arts and currently holds a high red belt in Tae Kwon DO and a Blue belt in Jiu Jitsu.
Christina can be reached at Christina.Deeney@adentalpartners.com.
April has over twenty years of experience that she leverages performing complex administrative tasks and providing organizational support to the executive team and to the Human Resources department. Most of her career has been spent in Accounting and Finance, but she has found her niche in Executive Support roles where she feels she can leverage her diverse skillset to add maximum value and make an impact. In the realm of Administrative Office Support, she has held varying roles in Accounting, Executive Assisting and Business Office Management where she has cultivated an extremely organized and methodical approach to project management to improve efficiencies in both the Accounting and Human Resources departments—contributions that she is passionate about.
April is an East Tennessee native but spent 11 years living in Northern California with her husband and two children before relocating to Florida. When not working, April spends most of her time as a sports mom to her 10 year-old son and 9 year-old daughter. Her son currently plays flag football—so that’s where you’d find her most Friday nights! Her daughter is a competitive cheerleader and requires many weekends booked out of town during competition season. April loves to attend live sporting events and concerts with her husband. She is a Tennessee Vols and Atlanta Braves fan and enjoys all types of music.
Sean brings over seven years of dental experience to our team. He has worked both in high volume dental practice and revenue cycle. Sean is proficient with payment posting, chart audits, and navigating the day to day within Revenue Cycle.
The Revenue Cycle Specialist is a vital position for the financial health of our practices. Sean is a great addition to our Revenue Cycle team due to his vast experience working with patients and insurance companies to ensure a healthy Accounts Receivable. He is proficient in using dental practice management software to maintain patient records, run and monitor weekly and monthly reports to verify submitted claims, insurance payments received, and uploading and updating patients’ electronic files. He is adept at working closely with teams, communicating any insurance issues and concerns, and managing any insurance disputes. He strives for excellent customer service / patient care, and establishes a professional relationship with insurance companies to ensure success in providing accurate service that builds trust with our patients.
On a personal note, Sean moved to Florida from New York seven years ago and is married with three children. Some of Sean’s favorite things are cheering on his children with their local swim team, playing golf, and playing soccer. He is a massive Liverpool F.C. supporter!