ServICeS
Christopher Szybbo CBI Health Group
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hristopher Szybbo didn’t start the Canadian Back Institute (CBI), but he became employed with the company as a physiotherapist in 1990. The owners must have seen something special in Chris, as they promoted him to the role of clinic manager in 1991. There he took over a clinic that had been failing financially for the past five years. Chris couldn’t fall back on his business training to help him – he didn’t have any. Instead he began looking at the clinic from the eyes of the patients and customers. Within two years he had transformed the clinic into the highest grossing and most profitable CBI physiotherapy clinic in the country. “I am strategic, decisive and highly focused on what counts. Throughout my career I have been able to relate to those around me and help create alignment and motivation to our goals,” Chris says. Chris rose through the ranks of CBI, becoming chief operations officer by 1998. That same year the company was sold to an American health-care provider. Within a year Chris was promoted to president. For the next six years Chris focused on building scalable infrastructure, standardizing systems and ensuring quality health care was reproduced at clinics throughout the CBI network. By 2006, the direction of the parent company had changed slightly and Chris felt an independent company would help CBI grow quicker as the leaders of the company could be more closely engaged in the operations. It wasn’t easy, but after five months of negotiations, Chris, sponsored by private equity and together with his management team, took ownership of the company he had been with for so many years. Now, 21 years later, CBI is a leading national provider of rehabilitation and community health-care services, with over 150 sites and 4400 staff. “I am proud that CBI can remain a growth company and deliver solid commercial results and maintain our commitments to core values and high standards for care delivery,” he says.
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Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2012