5 Enhabit Top Execs To Depart From Company Following Kinderhook Acquisition

Five of Enhabit’s six top executive leaders are departing, two months after the company’s acquisition by Kinderhook Industries. Newly appointed CEO Dale Clift will remain.

Enhabit confirmed to Home Health Care News that five leaders are set to depart in the coming weeks: Chief Financial Officer Ryan Solomon, Executive Vice President of Home Health Julie Jolley, Executive Vice President of Hospice Jeanna Kalvaitis, Chief Human Resources Officer Tanya Marion and General Counsel and Secretary Dylan Black.

“Prior to the transaction with Kinderhook, Enhabit’s board put in place a customary change-in-control benefits plan for the executive team,” Enhabit told HHCN in a statement. “Over the past several weeks, the five current executive team members — Ryan Solomon, Julie Jolley, Jeanne Kalvaitis, Tanya Marion and Dylan Black — have each chosen to exercise their rights under that plan.”

Acquisition details

The departures come two months after private equity firm Kinderhook Industries closed on its acquisition of the Dallas-based home health and hospice provider in an approximately $1.1 billion deal.

Days after Kinderhook closed the deal, the firm announced that it had appointed Clift as Enhabit’s CEO, bringing him out of retirement to succeed former CEO Barb Jacobsmeyer. Clift, a veteran healthcare executive, has previously held the CEO role at two Kinderhook investment companies: Nurse on Call and Trilogy Home Healthcare.

The CEO told HHCN that his top priority for the company is to grow its business, aiming for double-digit growth.

Future plans

Kinderhook’s vision for Enhabit’s new chapter as a privately held company includes strengthening clinical quality, improving data and analytics capabilities and enabling thoughtful market expansion, Chris Michalik, managing director with Kinderhook, previously told HHCN in an email.

“Most importantly, we understand that none of this is possible without also investing in Enhabit’s workforce and preserving its patient-centric culture,” Michalik said.

New York City-based Kinderhook is a middle-market private equity firm with investments in the health care, environmental and industrial services and light manufacturing and automotive industries. Enhabit operates 249 home health and 117 hospice locations across 34 states.

“We thank each of them for their contribution to Enhabit and wish them well,” Enhabit said in its statement regarding its departing executives.

Morgan Gonzales is an award-winning reporter and associate editor of Home Health Care News. She received her bachelor's degree from the University of South Carolina and her master's from the University of Georgia. Her work has appeared in Behavioral Health Business, KFF Health News, Dallas Morning News and U.S. News and World Report. When not reporting, Morgan is usually on a trail, doing yoga, or cuddling with her cats, Ellen and Ocho.