Mr. Brent Cherne, age 45, CFO of Initiatives Healthcare, Inc., is a founding member of IHI and recognized the need for a single firm that could conceptualize, evaluate, plan, build and operate general hospitals.  Mr. Cherne was CEO of Surgical Development Group, Inc. (SDG), a company that developed and managed ambulatory surgery centers, imaging centers and physician practices, and has an extensive background in the healthcare and finance fields.  Mr. Cherne worked for over a decade for the largest Protestant not-for-profit hospital chain in the United States, Adventist Health System.  During that tenure he served in four of its hospitals and in various positions including VP of Finance, Chief Financial Officer, and Interim Administrator.  His experience and understanding of hospital systems enabled Mr. Cherne to serve as co-chair of a corporate committee for redesigning the complete accounting system and policies for all the Adventist System’s hospitals.  Mr. Cherne also has served on the Board of Directors of various hospitals, chaired several hospital committees, organized fund-raising galas for the not-for-profit hospitals, and was an integral part of physician recruitment in each of the hospitals where he has served. 

His hospital system background has given him experience in negotiating and contracting with physicians, administrators, vendors and insurance companies and developing the close community relations important to the furtherance of hospital interests.  A direct application of these skills has also been instrumental in the success of SDG developed, managed and consulted for healthcare facilities, especially ambulatory surgery centers (ASC) and imaging centers, which have similar policies and procedures, redundancy of systems, training required of employees, credentialing of physicians, as for a general hospital.

Since 1994 SDG has worked with eleven successful projects from feasibility studies up through complete turn-key projects of several million dollars.  The physicians, surgeons and directors involved have given high recommendations to Mr. Cherne and he has become a sought after healthcare consultant and administrator.

Mr. Cherne’s finance experience includes work for a regional CPA firm in its tax and healthcare divisions and Controller of a manufacturing corporation.  His interest in the hospital, surgery center and imaging center areas of healthcare is further driven by his father, a general surgeon, and his brothers, an ophthalmologist and a radiologist.  Mr. Cherne is a Certified Public Accountant and a Fellow in the Healthcare Financial Management Association.  Mr. Cherne received his BS in accounting from Southern College in Tennessee.