Leading with Purpose - Ken Ortbals (April 2023)

LEADING INTO ITS SEMICENTENNIAL

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

you’re supporting them, whether directly interacting with clients or not. You are playing a role in helping them get better in their lives.”

Ken Ortbals, WestCare’s Chief Executive Officer, shared these words with us recently when he sat down with the Vice President of Marketing and Communication, Gabriela Swartwood, to talk about his journey to –and through – WestCare. His journey has seen him serve in various rewarding and challenging roles and has taken him across the globe to see the extraordinary work done by WestCare programs worldwide.

After growing up in St Louis, Missouri, Ken graduated from Central Missouri State University in 1985 with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration with a dual major in Management Information Systems and Accounting.

Following college, Ken began working for Accenture, a Fortune 500 company specializing in management consulting, outsourcing, and technology services He would serve there for 15 years in various technical and leadership roles before ultimately finding his life’s calling in working for nonprofits.

“While working for Accenture, I was also on the board of a technology nonprofit called Community Resource Network that served other nonprofits in Kansas City In 2002, they needed a new leader, and I was at a point in my career where I didn’t want to travel very much. So, I stepped in as the Interim Executive Director and started my journey in the nonprofit world. Since then, I’ve only worked for nonprofits ”

After serving at Community Resource Network for over six years, he moved to KC CareLink, a nonprofit electronic information exchange linking health care providers in the bi-state Kansas City community. While serving as a Technology Architect there, he helped develop an electronic health record (EHR) platform that led to the creation of a software development business for nonprofit .

F E A T U R E

organizations within First Call The platform aimed to reduce the impact of alcohol, drugs, and addiction by providing technology resources to individuals, families, and the community. He is particularly proud of the work he and his team accomplished there.

“The first thing was figuring out how to make technology work for nonprofit organizations. Technology wasn’t that prevalent when I joined the nonprofit world years ago. So, figuring out how small and even large nonprofit organizations can use technology to grow and develop was challenging. So that’s something I’m proud of.”

While serving as Chief Operating Officer at First Call, he crossed paths with WestCare. “Peggy Quigg from WestCare had visited our company in Missouri because WestCare was in the market for an electronic health record I was later brought to Las Vegas with our CEO to meet Dick Steinberg and the leadership team to present our EHR. After our conversations, I learned that WestCare was considering merging with my company and acquiring our software and that they were looking to hire a Chief Information Officer (CIO) While the merger didn’t happen, I did get offered the CIO role and joined WestCare in October 2015.”

Ken’s first major project as CIO was working with Diane Ludens and others across the organization to enhance WestCare’s certified electronic health record, the Clinical Data System (CDS). The CDS platform has proven to be a transformational technology for WestCare, enabling programs worldwide to have a customized EHR that meets the unique needs of hundreds of behavioral health and human services programs with varying state and funder requirements. While it would typically take a year or longer for a third-party EHR solution to implement, WestCare’s IT Project Management and Software Development teams can now work closely with WestCare’s Chief Clinical Officer, Jason Engel, to have a CDS implementation in place in four to six weeks.

Following Ken’s success as CIO, his prior roles and educational background would allow him to take on additional responsibilities at WestCare “I later got a call from Peggy asking if I would step in as the interim Chief Financial Officer (CFO) while continuing to do the CIO job, and so, I stepped in to do that for a while. The CFO role eventually turned into a full-time job. Then, after Peggy left WestCare, I took on the Executive Vice President position, which eventually led to the CEO job.”

WHATEVER YOUR EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND, THERE'S A place for you here

As CEO, Ken has proven to be a successful, resultsoriented leader with a well-rounded perspective on leading with integrity, transparency, and innovation As a leader who cultivates a high morality and fairness culture, Mr. Ortbals is committed to upholding WestCare’s mission of Uplifting the Human Spirit. His leadership style reflects that commitment.

“I think my leadership style is trusting people to do their jobs and trusting that they will do a good job I support what people do, but I also expect them to do their job. If they have any challenges or need any help, they will come to me. But they’re free to figure out what they need to do daily.”

As illustrated throughout this career, Ken strives to leverage his diverse experiences to help people and communities find the resources they need to be successful. When asked how he defines success personally, Ken said, “I think success for anybody is figuring out how you fit in, how you help, and what makes you happy with yourself personally and professionally. For me, that’s just helping others and trying to see what I can do to help everybody have a better day.”

“We’re unique because we do so many different things and are open and willing to do whatever our community needs. It isn’t a model from a central office that says you will do these five types of things. We’re going to do whatever we think fits that community. So, in some locations, we focus more on community development and prevention. In others, we are more education oriented. Others are more oriented toward substance use disorder treatment and behavioral health. So, I think that’s one key piece that makes us unique.”

Today, hundreds of programs in sixteen U S States, four U S territories, and two foreign nations are all supported by WestCare Foundation’s dedicated and talented group of professionals, allowing program staff to focus on their primary mission of helping those

“I enjoy all the different programs, all the people that work at WestCare, and how they help so many different people in our communities. It is so great how varied and unique we are in each community we work in.”

in need Ken shared, “We are a large family of nonprofits connected with back-office support with accounting, finance, information technology, marketing, and all of the other functions we can provide a community. WestCare Foundation can provide a significant amount of capacity to small nonprofits and expertise that a nonprofit organization wouldn’t have access to. I think that is one of the key things for WestCare; through that, we can touch more lives.”

When Ken looks to the future and thinks about how WestCare can grow its impact and continue uplifting even more people in need, he has a vision for continuing to invest in information technology and marketing to expand the reach of our services.

“Anyone should be able to get services from WestCare from wherever they are in the world through our technology and marketing efforts That’s the goal We currently help a lot of people because they get referred to us. A huge segment of the world population still needs our help, but without marketing, they may never know we exist. Many people who need our services now or in the future have grown up using social media and smartphones To connect with that population, we need to meet them where they are and provide services using the technologies they are comfortable with.”

During his tenure with WestCare, Ken has had the privilege of visiting almost all WestCare’s facilities and meeting and speaking with hundreds of dedicated staff. When we asked Ken if there were any common threads underlying those programs, he said, “People take pride in our facilities For the clients who are in our residential programs, that’s their homes When you look at our outpatient facilities, you can see the care there, with our people trying to make it a great space to get care.”

“Another commonality for our staff is that they are happy to be where they’re at and want to make a difference in their community. They’re different geographically and culturally, so understanding what the culture is like in that community and how and how the work we do fits into that culture is a key part of it. Traveling around Kentucky differs greatly from traveling around California, Guam, or St. Croix.”

Ken and his wife, Becky, have been married for 38 years and have two children. Their son, Taylor, is 30, and married Jessica in July 2022 They recently purchased their first home in Olathe, Kansas Ken and Becky's daughter, Hayley, is 26 and lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In his spare time, Ken enjoys a diverse array of hobbies. “I like sports and am a Kansas City Chiefs fan. I like playing golf, but I don’t get to do it very often Becky and I enjoy traveling, so that’s been a fun byproduct of my job at WestCare I also like reading a lot.”

As our interview concluded, we asked Ken if he had any final words we wanted to share with our prospective employees, current employees, and board members.

“We have over 1600 individuals that work for us all around the world, and we do all kinds of different work, but it’s all centered around our motto of “Uplifting the Human Spirit” which means to me that we’re offering hope to people. For those who might be thinking about joining our company, we need you; we need your help, your energy, and your drive In our field, unfortunately, we never run out of customers, and people around the world always need help. So, whatever your experience and educational background, there’s a place for you here at WestCare. ”

“For those WestCare employees who are currently here, I can’t thank you enough for all the work you do and how you help people every single day, no matter what your job is Every job we have at WestCare is related to helping people, and you’re supporting them, whether directly interacting with clients or not. You are playing a role in assisting them to get better in their lives. You’re also helping their family. So, for any person you’re helping, every person touches many other people. And if you’re helping one person, you’re helping many others Over your career, you’ll help many people, and I can’t thank you enough for being here “

“For our board members and our community action council members, thank you very much for the time you give us, for the leadership you give us, for how much you care about the communities you live in, and for supporting WestCare and enabling us to do the work that we do Without your leadership, it would be much more difficult for us to understand the community’s needs and figure out how we can help. Your guidance, energy, and giving help us Uplift the Human Spirit, and we can’t thank you enough for all the support you provide us.”

Ken Ortbals, CEO WestCare @KOrtbals @KenOrtbals

Ken Ortbals