Chandler, Arizona-based Embark Behavioral Health is undergoing a leadership transition.
On Wednesday, the private equity-backed child and young adult behavioral health provider announced that Alex Stavros, its CEO of 13 years, will step away from daily management and into a board member role. Embark Behavioral Health named Scott Filion as its new CEO, effective September 10.
“Scott’s experience leading and growing health and technology organizations will bring substantial value to Embark clients, staff and the communities we serve,” Dr. Russell Petrella, executive chairman of the board for Embark Behavioral Health, said in a news release.
Embark Behavioral Health operates an expanding footprint of outpatient and residential mental health treatment programs. The company has been undergoing a transformation of late from an organization that focused on residential treatment in remote locations as well as wilderness therapy to one that operates more facilities closer to home. It has also expanded its telehealth offerings.
The company currently lists 38 locations on its website. Program specialties include intensive outpatient programs (IOPs), partial care programs (PCPs), residential treatment, therapeutic boarding schools and transitional living programs.
Filion presently lists his role on LinkedIn as executive in residence for Peterson Partners, a Salt Lake City, Utah-based private equity and venture capital firm. His previous executive roles include CEO of the revenue cycle management and electronic health record company Rev360, president of digital patient engagement platform GetWellNetwork and general manager of health care for EMC, now a part of Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL).
“Embark is well positioned to continue to expand its national footprint as a strong network of mental health programs with its emphasis on providing a continuum of care while increasing accessibility for families,” Filion said in the release. “I am ready to join the mission to achieve long-lasting, sustainable outcomes for our clients and strengthen the mental health of teens and young adults across the country.”
The work to find a new CEO at Embark Behavioral Health has been ongoing since 2023, when Stavros informed the board of his desire to depart the role.
Filion steps into a company that is well into its latest evolution. In February 2023, Behavioral Health Business reported that Consonance Capital Partners had acquired a majority stake in Embark Behavioral Health. The equity sale was valued at approximately $400 million with a multiple range of 12- to 15-times EBITDA, several sources said at the time.
“Our company expanded from serving forty-eight students annually, with ninety-five employees in one state in 2011, to becoming a national leader in youth-specialized care, serving thousands of youths a year, with over 1,600 professionals, and thirty-eight programs across twenty states, leading to a 40-fold increase in revenue,” Stavros wrote in a blog about the CEO transition.
A few months later, the company announced several senior executive positions had been filled at the company, beefing up its management team to better handle the company as it continued its expansion and evolution.
Part of that evolution is the jettisoning of its wilderness therapy division. In February 2024, Behavioral Health Business reported that two of its then-three wilderness therapy entities would close while the other sought to convert to a residential treatment facility. It marked the departure of a noted entity from a troubled industry.
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