Elizabeth Simonson

August 12th 2015

Healthcare is in her blood. She's the grand-daughter of famous physician Elliott Simonson and the daughter of Simon Simonson, who co-founded Simonson-Benson Health Solutions. She rose through the ranks at SB Health to become a senior executive and became one of the company's largest stockholders on her father's passing. Dismayed by the changes being made at her father's company, Elizabeth sold her stock in the company and used that capital as seed money to launch a rival: Sirona. Organized as a public benefit corporation, Sirona's mission was not to satiate hungry shareholders but instead to deliver the best healthcare possible for its patients. We sat down with Elizabeth at her office in Sirona's Cascadian headquarters.

FL: Thank you for making the time to talk with us.

ES: It's my pleasure.

FL: You started Sirona Health just under a year ago with seed money from your shares in SB Health, but while that certainly was a sizable sum it wouldn't have been enough to build a health care company from scratch... So, how did you pull that off?

ES: Really, it's a lot of coincidence. I was invited to a party at the house of the Australian Ambassador and she and I began talking about the healthcare situation throughout the world. How the profit model for healthcare as it stands worldwide pits shareholders against patients against doctors against providers. It's all one nasty circle and the result is that if somebody is doing well somebody else is suffering. Literally in many cases. The Ambassador listened sympathetically and I mentioned casually that I had just sold my stake in SB Health to start a new company. A week later I received a call directly from the Empress.

FL: Clearly the Ambassador was being more than just polite.

ES: Yes, clearly she was. I never expected it. The Empress had been well briefed on our conversation and said that she wanted to help. At that point I knew I was going to use my own money, but I knew it was going to take a lot more than what I had at my disposal. At the end of our conversation, the Empress said that she would invest through the Empire's Sovereign Wealth Fund. She also thought that she could bring in Thunderbird Holdings as an additional investor.

FL: That's a pretty amazing phone call.

ES: Between them they brought in nearly 40 times as much capital as I was able to commit and it made the company immediately viable.

FL: Critics, some from this very magazine, have said that your business model isn't a real business model but is instead a socialist plot to destory an entire industry.

ES: Well, to some extent that's exactly what it is. People all over the world are dying because their healthcare company's are trying to wring every penny they can from people. People are going bankrupt trying to stay alive. We set out to make a company that would make a minimum profit, but would instead benefit humanity in a bigger way. The Empire and Thunderbird don't invest in us for the ROI. They invest in us because they believe in our mission. We're breaking even financially, but the social and human returns are priceless.

 

 

 

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