Head of Business Operations

The Company:

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Founded in 2003, the National Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners (“NCCDP”) is the premier provider of dementia care education to the healthcare industry. Specifically, the Company provides training and certification for healthcare professionals working in nursing homes, assisted living, hospice, home healthcare, hospitals, and other related care settings. The Company’s flagship certification is the Certified Dementia Practitioner (“CDP”), with thousands of active CDPs globally.

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Its two co-founders operated NCCDP until January 2023, when Seven Springs Partners and the current NCCDP CEO, Patrick Smith, acquired it. The new ownership group made several key hires, invested in new products and technology, and professionalized sales & marketing efforts, resulting in meaningful growth.

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In addition to the organic growth playbook, NCCDP is now executing on an aggressive acquisition strategy, focusing primarily on training companies in the long-term care space:

• Acquired (October 2024): Community Training Connection, a leading provider of training to long-term care administrators in California.
• Currently Under LOI: Leading provider of administrator training in two other states.
• Pre-LOI Diligence: Numerous conversations with Sellers in categories like CNA / LVN training, online compliance training, and test prep for healthcare exams.

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The Role:

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The ideal candidate will partner directly with the CEO to drive growth across a fast-scaling training and certification platform. This role blends strategy and execution – ideal for a high-performer who thrives on solving problems and turning ideas into measurable processes and outcomes.

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Key Responsibilities:

• Own performance visibility – Aggregate and analyze KPIs across companies and functional areas, including marketing, sales, product volumes, customer feedback, etc. Identify trends, bottlenecks, and opportunities that drive leadership decisions.
• Drive growth initiatives – Partner with the CEO and functional leaders to scope, model, and execute high-leverage growth projects (e.g., process automation, product enhancements, sales, and go-to-market motions) with strong technology implementation/command.
• Launch and scale products – Collaborate with functional leaders to bring new training content/services to market and expand adoption of existing offerings.
• Support M&A integration – Facilitate post-close initiatives with acquired businesses, aligning financial systems, processes, and people to accelerate value creation.
• Translate strategy into execution – Turn high-level goals into project plans with measurable outcomes; manage cross-functional workstreams to ensure follow-through.
• Be the CEO’s problem-solver – Tackle unstructured challenges across the business.

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Candidate Attributes:

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• Business athlete who is equally comfortable in Excel, Figma, or on a whiteboard.
• Ability to quickly identify, assess, and implement technology and artificial intelligence to drive performance.
• Combines consultant-grade analytical thinking with operator-level execution – able to see initiatives through from model/deck to implementation.
• Communicates commercial goals clearly and holds the team accountable.
• Bias for action and intensely curious. Prefers 80% clarity and momentum over 100% certainty and delay; thrives on figuring things out rather than waiting for instructions.
• Humble, low-ego collaborator who values substance over flash, outcomes over optics.
• Energized by mission-driven work that improves education and professional development within eldercare.
• Drawn to high-leverage environments where small teams drive outsized impact.
• Desire to learn, grow, and collaborate at high intensity with proven investors/operators.

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Investor Group Bios:

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Patrick Smith, NCCDP CEO

Before joining NCCDP, Patrick was an executive at Teachers of Tomorrow, a Houston-based training & certification company with over 300 employees across nine states. During his tenure, Patrick led the company’s mergers and acquisitions efforts, developed partnerships with industry counterparts, and supported new product launches. Patrick was also instrumental in the company’s sale, resulting in a successful acquisition by the private equity firm TPG.

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Before joining Teachers of Tomorrow, Patrick worked at Gauge Capital, a Dallas-based private equity firm managing over $2 billion in assets. At Gauge, Patrick evaluated and executed new platform investments and supported existing portfolio companies with financial reporting, board meeting preparation, and targeted strategy & operational projects. Patrick began his career as an Analyst in investment banking at Jefferies in New York City.

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Patrick studied Finance and Accounting at the University of Kansas and has an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

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Seven Springs Partners

Seven Springs is a smaller-scale private equity firm founded by Brandon Kuchta and RJ Price. Brandon started his career in investment banking at Morgan Stanley, then worked in private equity at The Carlyle Group, and, most recently, after business school, acquired 2 companies, serving as CEO at both, ultimately selling them in a successful transaction to another private equity firm in late 2021. Brandon has made numerous other small-business acquisitions since then and seeks to identify and acquire additional small- to mid-sized businesses across the continental United States.

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Before Seven Springs, RJ led direct investments for the Allen & Company partnership across concentrated public equity investments and company-building private platforms. Before Allen, RJ was a Principal at Shumway Capital, similarly straddling public equities, private buyouts, and company building. At Shumway, RJ helped build a microbiome therapeutics company that became Finch Therapeutics (OTC: FNCH). RJ started his career in private equity at TPG and in investment banking at Greenhill.

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Brandon and RJ both studied economics at Yale University and completed MBAs at Harvard Business School.