Robert Q. Kreider

As President and Chief Executive Officer of the behavioral health nonprofit Devereux, Bob Kreider leads the provision of life-changing behavioral health services to tens of thousands of individuals and their families, and diagnostic, training and curricular materials impacting the social and emotional health of millions of individuals across the world. In an early role with Devereux as a financial consultant, Mr. Kreider developed a turnaround plan that included a complete recapitalization. At the Board’s request, he left his successful consulting and investment management practice to officially join the organization as CFO and execute his recommended plan. Within a year, the recapitalization was completed through simultaneous tax-exempt financings in four states, a new bank line of credit, a “AAA” rating on the debt through a novel bond insurance strategy, a reduction in bank borrowing using a novel financial derivatives strategy to maintain endowment returns but use endowment assets to reduce bank borrowing. These transactions reduced Devereux’s average cost of capital from 9% to 5%, saving more than $2 million per year, and were recognized as the corporate finance deal of the year for 1995 by the National Association of Corporate Treasurers and Treasury and Risk Management magazine. When Mr. Kreider joined Devereux, he repositioned the organization to serve the vast majority of consumers with mental health needs in community-based services – therapeutic foster care, wrap-around services, outpatient, case management and group homes – which best practices indicated warranted a larger role, growing this segment from less than $10 million to more than $150 million annually. Campus beds were then focused on consumers with more intensive needs, such as the medically fragile, sexually exploited children, and individuals with multiple diagnoses. This has created the broadest continuum of services available for individuals with the highest need. Under Mr. Kreider’s leadership, Devereux has further diversified through acquisition, including extending into the Colorado market by acquiring Cleo Wallace ($20 million in annual revenue), and entering the child welfare managed care market through two start-ups to implement privatization contracts in different regions of Florida, managing over $70 million of services annually. The start-ups are not consolidated with Devereux for financial reporting purposes but are integrated through management contracts. In addition to the contributions Mr. Kreider has made to the organization’s financial prospects, he has also been a driving force in leading Devereux forward in its role in the behavioral healthcare industry. Prior to his tenure, women represented 10 percent of the senior officers and less than a third of the business unit heads. Today, they represent more than fifty percent of each group. With his guidance, Devereux has also adopted innovative approaches to Social-Emotional Learning, incorporating a focus on resilience, Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports and a shift toward “brain” health into Devereux’s industry-leading services and programs. Prior to joining Devereux Mr. Kreider was co-president of Fairmount Capital Advisors, a member of the Health and Higher Education Finance Group of Kidder, Peabody (an investment banking firm owned by GE) and a bond lawyer with Saul, Ewing, Remick and Saul. In each of these roles Mr. Kreider worked on a range of financing, tax, investment and balance sheet management issues for a broad range of healthcare organizations.