Ian McNickle, MBA
Critical Elements to Understanding DSO Landscape - How to Evaluate DSOs, Key Considerations and Pitfalls to Avoid
Lecture up to 1.5 hours
Practice Management & Human Relations, AGD Subject Code 550
DSO’s have often earned a negative reputation, and in most cases this is deserved. The rapid migration of professional investors into the dental industry has created significant misalignment of incentives between investors and doctors. In this program, the vast majority of issues and problems created by this business model, and elegant solutions for how these problems can be solved will be explored.
Mr McNickle will take a deep dive into the world of DSO’s. He will cover industry information, key criteria for evaluating DSO’s, as well as legal and financial considerations. He will explain key elements such as how to maximize your practice valuation, and key negotiating points to leverage. You will gain a massive amount of information about the business side of group dentistry, and how to take advantage of this growing trend.
Upon completion of this session, the attendees should be able to:
- Understand how to maximize the financial value of your practice.
- Understand the legal and financial pitfalls to avoid when dealing with DSO’s.
Mr McNickle is a shareholder in ICON Dental Partners.
Ian McNickle is an experienced entrepreneur and CEO with extensive experience building companies in the dental industry. Ian is the Co-founder and CEO of Icon Dental Partners (www.icondentalpartners.com), a uniquely developed DSO with locations in nine states throughout the western and central regions. Icon’s executive team is composed of award-winning executives, highly experienced DSO veterans, and industry-leading KOLs and consultants. Icon has grown quite rapidly due to a very favorable business model for doctors.
Prior to co-founding Icon, Ian joined Dr Jeromy Dixson in 2018 as a Partner and President at The DSO Project (www.dsoproject.com). The company was originally founded to help dentists build, scale, optimize, fund, and exit their dental group. After several years of consulting, Ian and Dr Dixson decided to pursue building their own DSO (i.e., Icon) which allowed them to utilize their deep dental experience to create a truly unique and innovative DSO model.
In 2009, Ian co-founded WEO Media (www.weomedia.com), an award-winning dental marketing agency providing a full suite of digital marketing services to general dentists and specialists alike. Under his leadership WEO Media quickly grew to become one of the largest and most widely respected dental marketing firms in the country, and garnered an impressive list of industry endorsements. WEO Media is a 4X Cellerant “Best of Class” Award winner for Websites and Online Marketing.
Ian has been named a Top CE Leader and Consultant by Dentistry Today for five consecutive years. He writes articles for numerous industry publications, and recently published his first book “Mastering Practice Growth – The Definitive Guide to Growing Your Dental Practice or Group”. Ian frequently lectures at major dental conferences and study clubs all over North America.
Ian has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Washington State University where he was also a graduate of the University Honors Program. In addition, he graduated Cum Laude with an MBA from the University of Washington.
