Michael Bronfein is a serial entrepreneur and investor with a specific focus on innovation and competitive advantage in healthcare services, healthcare technologies, software, and distribution. A visionary known for assembling excellent management teams resulting in market leading high growth organizations with clear brand propositions and strong financial returns, Michael has founded or co-founded and rapidly grown, as either CEO, Director, or investor, a number of market leading innovative companies in healthcare services and technology.
Consistent with his focus on innovation in healthcare, Michael, as the CEO of
Curio Wellness (www.Curowellness.com) is leading a team of scientist, pharmacologists, physician, horticulturists, and agronomists in developing new medicines derived from the Cannabis plant.
Curio Wellness aspires to be a national leader in creating medicinal products and herbal supplements in traditional dosage forms such as pills, capsules, ointments, liquids and transdermal patches derived from the cannabis plant utilizing modern pharmaceutical discovery and development methods and techniques. Commencing in Maryland, the Company has raised $30 million in equity capital, purchased a 56,000-square foot manufacturing plant, completed its design and construction, and provided the first shipments of medicinal cannabis to patients in the State of Maryland from its FDA compliant facility. Moreover, in less than 2 years Curio Wellness has distinguish itself as the market leading brand of medicinal cannabis products in Maryland.
Michael served as Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of Remedi SeniorCare. Remedi SeniorCare (
www.remedirx.com) has grown from a start up to the 5
th largest Long-Term Care Pharmacy in the US serving approximately 80,000 nursing home and assisted living residents in 19 states. Michael initiated this investment while leading healthcare investing for Sterling Partners and migrated to an operating role in 2010. Remedi’s rapid growth and success has been driven by its proprietary disruptive technology Paxit. Paxit is the world’s first and only fully automated high output robotic medication packaging system. Michael led the envisioning, development and deployment of the Paxit System and the construction of five regional Paxit distribution centers serving the mid Atlantic and Mid- West. The Paxit system is revolutionizing the long-term care pharmacy industry by reducing drug costs 15% and increasing nursing productivity 30% while achieving a 100% accuracy rate in dispensing.
Prior to joining Remedi, Michael was Co-founder and Senior Managing Director of Sterling Partners with responsibility for leading healthcare investing. Sterling Partners is a growth capital private equity Fund with a focus on education, healthcare services and technologies and business Services. Michael and his partners grew the company from a start up to over $4 Billion in assets under management. During his tenure at Sterling Michael led investments in Remedi Senior Care and VISICU and VOCUS both of which resulted in IPOs for the companies.
Prior to founding Sterling Partners, Michael was Co-founder, Chairman & CEO of NeighborCare. Started as a traditional drugstore in Baltimore, NeighborCare became the second largest Long Term and Managed Care Pharmacy in the US servicing 250,000 long term care residents and 300,000 managed care patients daily. NeighborCare pioneered the integrated pharmacy services model and enjoy rapid growth due to its ability to delight customers while improving clinical outcomes and reducing cost to the payers. Michael received the Ernst & Young
Entrepreneur of the Year award in 1994 for the business model and concept for NeighborCare.
Prior to founding NeighborCare Michael was a Senior Vice President and led commercial finance lending for Signet Bank and also held various management positions in the retail food industry.
Michael served as the inaugural Chairman of the Senior Care Pharmacy Coalition a Washington, DC based advocacy group whose sole focus is the financial viability and health of the long-term care pharmacy industry. Michael along with 8 other long term care pharmacy operators formally founded the SCPC in 2014. In its first year of existence the SCPC was successful in achieving a number of positive policy changes including the prohibition of “Daily Dispensing Fees”. A change that will assure the recognition of professional services provide by member pharmacist and their related reimbursement.
In addition to his focus on building great companies, Michael is actively involved in the community. He has previously served on the advisory board of the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University and the Harvard Medical School.
Michael is also the past Chairman of the Board of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra where he led a turnaround of the institution. Having been recruited to Chair the board due a severe financial crisis, Michael was able to reconstitute the board, recruit a new CEO, create a strategic turnaround plan and achieve labor piece resulting in the liquidation of $22,000,000 in debt and five straight years of balanced budgets. He was also responsible for raising the funding for the BSO’s renowned inner city after school program known as “Orchkids”. Working in concert with Music Director Marin Alsop, Michael was able to raise over $1,000,000 to assure this program, addressing high risk children, could anchor itself and build a sustainable foundation of donors to assure its current existence almost 10 years later.
Michael is a graduate of the University of Baltimore with a BS in Accounting (76) and is a Certified Public Accountant (non-practicing).
Michael resides in Owings Mills, Maryland with his wife of 43 years Jessica and is the proud father of three adult children and three grandchildren.