A successful entrepreneur and senior executive. Two founder exits in healthcare technology.
Forty years building, scaling, and exiting healthcare technology businesses. Total Benchmark Solution to Kaufman Hall and Madison Dearborn Partners. The Vizient business intelligence platform into IBM Watson Health. The pattern that ran through the executive work is now formalized in the research below.
Bradley W. Petersen. Founder of Orbis Scientia. Two prior founder exits in healthcare technology.
PhD candidate, Daniels College of Business, University of Denver.
The thesis
AI implementations land in three places. Some deliver real ROI. Most consume budget and produce nothing usable. A small number end the company. The approach, methodology, and architecture decide which.
The work I do helps organizations deliver real ROI. Forty years building, scaling, and exiting healthcare technology businesses produced the pattern recognition. The doctoral research at the Daniels College of Business formalizes it as Petersen's Theory of Innovation Alignment: transformational outcomes require the alignment of multiple necessary conditions, where one weak condition can collapse the outcome regardless of strength elsewhere.
Tech and healthcare CEOs and boards are no longer asking whether to deploy AI. They are asking how to make sure their AI investments deliver. Standard AI platforms work for routine decisions. They break on the high-stakes ones, where being wrong costs patient harm, financial loss, or reputation. Below is what I bring to that question.
“Transformational outcomes require the alignment of multiple necessary conditions. This is not a claim about marginal improvement. It is a claim about the architecture of extraordinary results.”
From Petersen's Theory of Innovation Alignment and Post-IPO Value Creation, dissertation in progress, 2027.
The path here
Ford Motor Company, then Chrysler Corporation. 1977 to 1978.
Engineering training at Ford Motor Company introduced the discipline of nondestructive testing, statistical process control, and the principle that quality must be designed in rather than inspected after the fact. Then to Chrysler as a research and development engineer, where I redesigned the firm's computerized engine control system and became the first engineer at Chrysler to achieve 50 miles per gallon on the EPA highway emission test, working at the boundary of competing regulatory and performance constraints. This is where the orientation toward measurement and weakest-link thinking originated, even if the language came later.
Accenture. 1979 to 1989.
Senior consulting work at Accenture. Senior Manager focused on healthcare profit improvement and the planning, design, and implementation of healthcare information systems. Personally responsible for adding more than four hundred new clients to the firm and for establishing the firm's healthcare business intelligence business unit, including building the business plan and securing funding from the firm's Partner Executive Committee. The healthcare business intelligence platforms architected during this period, including the Cost Quality Management System, the Data Comparison Reporting System, and the Case Mix System, ultimately reached more than four hundred hospitals nationally. The profit improvement methodology developed during this period supported six major financial turnarounds where hospital systems moved from significant operating losses to top-quartile margins, with the underlying methodology deployed across many additional engagements. Authored applied guides on healthcare profit improvement, financial management, revenue cycle optimization and compliance, and healthcare information systems that supported both client engagements and the firm's internal knowledge infrastructure.
Voluntary Hospitals of America, now Vizient. 1989 to 1993.
Vice President at Vizient. Built the healthcare business intelligence business from inception to more than nine hundred hospital clients in four years. The solutions developed during this period, the Data Comparison Reporting System and the Clinical Financial Information System, were acquired into IBM Watson Health.
American Healthcare Solutions, founded 1993. Total Benchmark Solution, sold 2016.
Founded American Healthcare Solutions in 1993, then Total Benchmark Solution as a subsidiary, scaling to more than one thousand hospital and health system clients on the Total Benchmark platform. The quality and patient safety methodology developed during this period was deployed across two hundred hospitals, where systems moved from bottom-quartile to top-decile performance on national quality and safety benchmarks. Sale of Total Benchmark Solution to Kaufman Hall and Madison Dearborn Partners in 2016. Thirty years as founder-CEO deploying analytics systems where the difference between averaging and weakest-link reasoning is the difference between good clinical outcomes and patient harm.
Daniels College of Business, University of Denver. 2024 to present.
Returning to formal scholarship to give the pattern theoretical structure. Petersen's Theory of Innovation Alignment in active development. Research on entrepreneurial success at scale, longitudinal venture databases, AI-augmented analytical methodology, and the architectures of high-stakes decisions. The doctoral work is not a credential pursuit. It is the formalization of a research program that has been running for decades.
Orbis Scientia. Founded 2024.
Founding the company that productizes the thesis. OrbisFramework as the enterprise AI infrastructure for high-stakes workflows. Orbis Scientia as the research platform for AI-augmented scholarship. OrbisScholar as the certificate practicum that teaches researchers to use generative AI with the discipline the framework enforces. Three properties, one thesis, currently shipping.
What I am doing now
Currently leading Orbis Scientia and its three product properties. OrbisFramework is in production with three workflows shipped, available now to enterprise buyers in any industry with focus on high stakes decisions. Orbis Scientia is the research platform behind the framework. OrbisScholar's Gen AI Mastery course is finalizing for launch.
PhD work focused on AI-enabled research methodology, longitudinal entrepreneurial venture analysis, weakest-link and alignment analytical architectures, and AI in higher education. Seven white papers and one working paper released in 2026 working through the unifying thesis. Innovation Alignment Theory in active development.
Open to senior leadership roles, full-time or fractional, at technology and healthcare organizations where the strategic question is AI in a high-stakes environment. CEO, Chief AI Officer, Chief Strategy Officer, and similar C-suite seats are all in scope. Available for consulting on AI strategy and implementation in the same industries. Right fit matters more than the title.
Proven track record across four areas
Forty years across consulting, founding, leading, and now scholarship compound into depth in four areas. Most senior executive candidates can claim depth in one or two. Few have all four at the level this work requires. The combination is what makes the consulting offer and the senior-leadership candidacy rare.
Technology and AI Infrastructure
Engineering training at Ford and Chrysler, including the first 50-mpg result on the EPA highway test at Chrysler. Architect of five healthcare technology platforms: Cost Quality Management System, Data Comparison Reporting System, Case Mix System, Clinical Financial Information System, and Total Benchmark. Currently the founder of Orbis Scientia, shipping OrbisFramework as the production enterprise AI infrastructure layer with 100+ AI models, per-step engine selection, live data integration, audit and compliance trail, and air-gapped deployment for defense, intelligence, and healthcare. Most senior candidates with AI strategy credibility do not have production platforms behind them. The platform is the proof.
Sales and Revenue
Personally responsible for adding more than 400 new clients to Accenture during the healthcare business intelligence era. Scaled the Vizient business intelligence business from inception to 900+ hospital clients in four years, an enterprise acquisition pace of more than 225 clients per year. Scaled Total Benchmark Solution to 1,000+ hospital and health system clients before the 2016 sale to Kaufman Hall and Madison Dearborn Partners. The Vizient platform was acquired into IBM Watson Health. Currently selling OrbisFramework to enterprise buyers in tech and healthcare. Most C-suite candidates have led sales organizations. Few have personally built three of them from zero to enterprise scale.
Leadership
CEO of three healthcare technology companies across more than thirty years: American Healthcare Solutions, Total Benchmark Solution, and now Orbis Scientia. Vice President at Vizient running the business intelligence P&L. Senior Manager at Accenture leading consulting teams and client engagements. Business units built from zero to enterprise scale four separate times. The leadership work is not advisory. It is having actually run organizations through growth, scale, exit, and now the next chapter.
Strategy
Forty years of strategic decisions in healthcare technology, including the business plans for new business units at Accenture and the strategic positioning behind two exits. The intellectual layer is current and active: an architectural argument in The High Stakes Decision, a synthesis prescription in High Stakes Reasoning, a methodological argument in Beyond the Average, and a doctoral research program at the Daniels College of Business advancing Petersen's Theory of Innovation Alignment. Strategy is not just past practice. It is published thinking the buyer can read before the engagement starts.
Background
Background. Resume below.
Current Appointments
- Founder and CEO, Orbis Scientia
- PhD Candidate, Daniels College of Business, University of Denver
Select Prior Roles
- Founder and Chairman, Total Benchmark Solution (acquired by Kaufman Hall and Madison Dearborn Partners, 2016)
- Vice President, Vizient (business intelligence business acquired into IBM Watson Health)
- Senior Manager, Accenture
- Research and Development Engineer, Chrysler Corporation
- Research Engineer, Ford Motor Company
Education
- Doctor of Philosophy in Business, University of Denver, Daniels College of Business (expected 2027)
- Master of Science in Engineering, University of Michigan
- Bachelor of Science in Engineering, University of Michigan, Summa Cum Laude
Peer-Reviewed Conference Proceedings
- Petersen, B. W. (2026). Signaling Market Readiness: Early-Stage Startup Behavior and Venture Funding Progression. Proceedings of the Western Economic Association International Annual Conference, July 2026.
- Petersen, B. W. (2026). Organizing for Growth: How Market-Facing Department Formation Drives Early Startup Success. Proceedings of the American Marketing Association Summer Conference, 2026.
Peer-Reviewed Publications
- Petersen, B. W. (2002). Compliance with the final HIPAA privacy rules. Topics in Health Information Management, 22(3), 43–60.
- Broccolo, B. M., & Petersen, B. W. (2001). Final HIPAA privacy rules: How do we get started? Journal of Health Care Finance, 27(4), 7–23.
- Papadakis, E. P., & Petersen, B. W. (1979). Ultrasonic velocity as a predictor of density in sintered powder metal parts. Materials Evaluation, 37(5), 76–80.
Books and Monographs
- Petersen, B. W. (Accenture). Medical Records and DRGs: Applications for Financial Management, Auditing, Financial Reporting, Compliance, and Healthcare Information Systems under DRGs.
- Petersen, B. W. (Accenture). Comprehensive Guide to Profit Improvement in the Healthcare Industry.
- Petersen, B. W. (American Healthcare Solutions). Guidebook for Best Demonstrated Practices in Quality and Patient Safety.
Honors
- Vice President, Pi Tau Sigma, National Mechanical Engineering Honor Society
- Tau Beta Pi, National Engineering Honor Society
- Summa Cum Laude, University of Michigan
- Chairman, Society of Automotive Engineers, University of Michigan
Location
Steamboat Springs, Colorado
“Three businesses built. Two exits. Three product properties shipping. One research program at Daniels. The combination is what I bring next.”
Bradley W. Petersen
Let's talk.
Tell me what you are working on. Consulting engagement, full-time role, fractional seat, or a question that does not fit any of those yet. We will figure out the fit on the call.