Rod Windley has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in the healthcare industry. His story is one of building companies and fighting to bring care to some of the most vulnerable and medically fragile patients in the world.
Mr. Windley currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Aveanna Healthcare. Prior to the formation of Aveanna in 2017, Mr. Windley served as Executive Chairman of PSA Healthcare.
Mr. Windley's career started with Ernst & Young, working in their healthcare group, where he remained until moving to BlueCross of Florida. From there, he went on to create R.D. Windley and Associates, a healthcare consulting firm working with hospitals and homecare programs throughout the United States. In the 1980s, he was co-founder of Central Health Services, where he served as President until it was eventually sold to Columbia HCA. At the time, Central Health Services was one of the largest home health providers in the United States, with 29 locations in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and Tennessee.
In 1989, Mr. Windley founded The Healthfield Group, where he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Healthfield grew its revenues to become a dominant southeastern company until it eventually merged with Gentiva Health Services (GTIV) in 2009, creating the largest homecare company in America. Mr. Windley served as Vice Chairman and later Executive Chairman of Gentiva. Under his leadership, the combined companies grew to more than $2 billion in annual revenue. In early 2015, he helped guide Gentiva through its merger with Kindred Healthcare in what would become the largest sale of homecare assets in the nation's history.
Mr. Windley is a founding member of the National Association for Home Care and Hospice (NAHC), serving on the board for two terms and then rejoining the board in 2017 for an additional term. During this time, he also served on the Finance, Executive, and Strategic Planning Committees and chaired the association's PAC Committee. With NAHC, he pushed for the acquisition of the former home of the great civil rights leader Frederick Douglass in order to create the Caring Hall of Fame and the Caring Institute, on which he continues to serve on the board today.
Mr. Windley has supported numerous charities, including NAHC's Foundation for Hospice and Homecare, the March of Dimes, the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America, and the T.J. Martell Foundation. He also created the Foundation for Medically Fragile Children, which today is called FOCUS + Fragile Kids.
Mr. Windley has been recognized as the recipient of many awards, and in 2012 he was inducted into the Home Care and Hospice Hall of Fame alongside such notables as Mother Teresa, President Bill Clinton, Congressman Claude Pepper, and Senators Frank E. Moss, Susan Collins, and Ted Kennedy. He is a graduate of the University of West Florida with degrees in finance and accounting.
