From Ophthomologist to Chief Medical Officer to President: Dr. Jennifer Welser

About Dr. Jennifer Welser, DVM, DACVO
Dr. Welser is a veterinary ophthalmologist, vice chair of the Veterinary Innovation Council, and president of Arista Advanced Pet Care, a venture bringing a shared ownership model to veterinary specialty and emergency practices. She has previously served as the Global Chief Medical Officer of Mars Veterinary Health. She has been an independent business owner and entrepreneur. She has served on several boards and advisory councils. She is a huge advocate of women's veterinary leadership as well as advancing the industry to serve people and pets.

Resources:
Episode on YouTube
Veterinary Innovation Council
Arista Advanced Pet Care
City Vet
Jennifer Welser on LinkedIn

Transcript

Megan Sprinkle: [00:00:00] Welcome to Vet Life Reimagined. I have an exciting and timely guest for you this week. The week that this episode is being published is the week of the Veterinary Innovation Summit.

Megan Sprinkle: I love this conference. And I have to miss it this year because I'm less than 30 days until my due date. But today I have the Vice Chair of the Veterinary Innovation Council, Dr. Jennifer Welser. I first knew Jen when she was the Global Chief Medical Officer at Mars Veterinary Health. She was also the Chief Strategy Officer at CityVet and is now taking the Shared ownership model from general practice in CityVet to specialty and emergency pet care as president of Arista Advanced Pet Care.

Megan Sprinkle: The first hospital will open in 2025. Dr. Welser has done many different things in veterinary medicine, from being an ophthalmologist to inventing and selling products to industry and innovation councils. She is absolutely incredible. So let's get to [00:01:00] the conversation with Dr. Jennifer Welser.

Megan Sprinkle: When did you know you wanted to get into veterinary medicine? 

Jennifer Welser: , I think like most veterinarians at a very young age, it's, it's a kind of a fascinating thing between us, , that we all have in common and it starts with, you know, you bring anything dead by the roadside home and you're always wanting to sort of save things.

Jennifer Welser: So I knew very, very young, but I wanted to be a veterinarian. I did have a tiny little. journey off when I took a year off between undergrad and veterinary school. And I thought, well, maybe I should go to human medical school for, I don't know, a period of a relatively short time. And then thankfully I was like, no, no, no, no.

Jennifer Welser: I've been meant for veterinary school the whole time. 

Megan Sprinkle: And I liked that you said it was cause you went to work at, I think a dude ranch or something that kind of, I guess I 

Jennifer Welser: told you that. So I was in between undergrad and veterinary school. I went and worked on a dude ranch. And I don't think it was sort of foolish to look back on it, but I took a crate of books and I thought I was going to study for the MCATs.

Jennifer Welser: While I was working on a dude ranch and I never cracked a book. And so there was a little bit of it like, well, you don't have to take the MCATs. [00:02:00] If you go to veterinary school, you can take the GREs. You don't have to study for the GREs. That's more just like what you know, you don't have to like go back and buff up on like organic chemistry or anything.

Jennifer Welser: So it was, it was a bit of a weird way back, but it was all meant to be for sure. 

Megan Sprinkle: And then so you went to vet school and you, this has been a dream. So did you have an idea of what that would look like for you? And did that change throughout vet school? 

Jennifer Welser: Yeah, that I didn't actually, which is, is not so typical.

Jennifer Welser: I think, well, this is an interesting little tidbit. Our midway through veterinary school party, we have like a halfway party and there's just silly awards that are given out. And I was voted least likely to ever practice veterinary medicine by my class. I know my, my, my parents were thrilled. but I, think it was sort of like.

Jennifer Welser: I don't really know what I wanted to do. I thought maybe I'd go get a law degree because patent law sounded interesting with everything kind of happening or was interested in public health and maybe I should get a master's in public health. And, and I think, somehow like there's a, there is a little bit of a pigeonholing that like, well, you're going to go into [00:03:00] practice, you're going to be either a small animal practitioner or, you know, mix food, animal, equine.

Jennifer Welser: And it was very much the vision of practice or that maybe academia. And none of that kind of really, uh, Resonated with me quite so much. So I think that's why I wasn't really all that sure But then I credit a summer job got me interested in ophthalmology in particular. So then I was like, oh, that's what I want I want to be an ophthalmologist 

Megan Sprinkle: And this is a really important story because there was like a connection, yes, 

Jennifer Welser: for sure. , I was in vet school in the mid nineties, and the concept of specialty private practice was sort of just coming out of the universities. For the most part, people would still go to a university setting if they're going to do a referral to a specialist.

Jennifer Welser: And so in the mid nineties, these hospitals that were standalone, multi specialty hospitals were becoming more. popular. And so I had a summer job with Abbott Labs in North Chicago and I, through a connection with my father's, I lived above a veterinary ophthalmology practice. Basically, I got a cheap apartment so I could live above the practice while I was, had my summer job.

Jennifer Welser: And I just had to like do the night treatments, , on the animals [00:04:00] when I was there. This is a small tidbit for everybody, a little younger than me at the time, you know, we didn't have things like Google and you can check stuff. And I was, I was in between my first year.

Jennifer Welser: And I hadn't had any clinic time because the programs are a little more traditional in terms of like, here's your didactics and then you go to clinics. And so I show up there and I go down the first night to like, Oh, what do I, what do I have to do to treat the animal's eyes? And all of a sudden it's like, you know, you know, BID OU SID OS.

Jennifer Welser: And I was like, I don't know what that means. Like, I don't, and I had no way to like. Google it. I couldn't, you know, phone a friend. I ended up, you know, calling them and sort of saying like, I'm really sorry you're gonna regret renting me this apartment, but you have to explain what I'm supposed to be doing here.

Jennifer Welser: But anyway, fast forward. Great summer job. Loved living above it and got more exposed to specialty practice and the ophthalmology world in particular because it was all species. I really liked horses, but didn't really know that I wanted to be an equine vet. , I really liked surgery, but didn't want to not do sort of medical stuff.

Jennifer Welser: I liked sort of the exotic zoo animal. And you know, I don't really love the [00:05:00] death component. So ophthalmology was like, Oh, this is ticking all of my boxes. And, and so I ended up that, that particular hospital that I lived above, they built a residency for me. They was like, you know, get yourself an internship and then we'll, build a residency for you.

Jennifer Welser: So I came back to ophthalmology training with them. 

Megan Sprinkle: Very interesting. And didn't, you know, one of the vets, like, wasn't there a connection there too, as well? 

Jennifer Welser: Yes. So, Dr. Gretchen Schmidt, and she's a, you know, ophthalmologist, sort of a renowned ophthalmologist, Sam Venisi, her partner as well. But as a kid, because my dad, I'm a second generation veterinarian, my dad's a veterinarian, and he was in academia for a while, and he was the dean at Michigan State.

Jennifer Welser: So , when I was a kid, we moved before, , I went to Michigan State, we moved across, you know, across to the other side of the, state. But when I was a young kid, Gretchen would ride her horse up like behind our house. And I was, I was waiting and excited to see her. And so I knew her and then my fifth grade science project, thanks to her and support from her, was why do animals [00:06:00] eyes shine at night?

Jennifer Welser: So I clearly like, I didn't even think about it until much later when I was like, wait a minute, now I'm an ophthalmologist training with her. And when I was, call it seven or eight, I was, you know, waiting for her to show up with a horse and hopefully she'd let me ride for a little while. And she helped me with my fifth grade science project.

Jennifer Welser: So all these things clearly kind of, you know, we're all meant to be. 

Megan Sprinkle: Yes, And very cool that you could do the residency there as well. then you went on to work at Angell, which is a ginormous, very well known facility in Boston. So what was it like leaving residency and then getting into Being full ophthalmologist.

Jennifer Welser: Yeah, it was. So I'm super grateful for the residency. Incredibly high case volume, and it was a standalone ophthalmology practice. I actually, it was in partnership a little bit with the University of Illinois, Chicago's human ophthalmology program. So I got to spend some time. , with MDs, you know, that can always go both ways of sometimes they're like, who let the veterinarian in and sometimes like, oh, this is fascinating.

Jennifer Welser: And fortunately, they thought it [00:07:00] was fascinating. So I got exposed to lots of different things through the residency and it was extremely ophthalmology focused, which I loved. But then moving to Angell Memorial in a much bigger setting, you can get the training opportunities with interns and residencies there and a huge multi specialty facility.

Jennifer Welser: really realized that I like the multi specialty environment and I had worked after that in a couple different settings, but really feel like. That whole collegialness and the quality of care that kind of comes with it was great. I mean, it was big. It's navigating, a big, slow beast in some ways.

Jennifer Welser: but it was a great, great experience. 

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. I hadn't really stopped to think about it, but that might've been one of your earlier experiences working with a very large organization, lots of parts. And so I don't, I don't know if you took any observations there forward 

Jennifer Welser: You know, that's funny.

Jennifer Welser: Interesting connection. I don't know that I, that I did. I mean, I certainly saw it. You became much more aware of like departments and, you [00:08:00] know, the medical director and the leadership structure. And so you, you know, I was aware of it, and I was only there about a year before I ended up going to the West coast.

Jennifer Welser: But it is interesting, actually, to think I probably did get some exposure in the leadership component that goes with larger organizations. 

Megan Sprinkle: you said, you moved again, so you've moved a lot. You moved complete other side of the country to California. So, what called you to move and start being more owner side of things.

Jennifer Welser: Well, well, first of all, a guy called me to move. So there's, you know, there's a little bit of that. You throw in a marriage and a divorce, but I've moved to the West coast and it was, interesting cause when I first got out there, I was honestly sort of Relief and as an ophthalmologist to sort of a few other practices and seeing styles and setups of the business types and everything and ended up partnering with a woman, Tina Burling, who has a standalone ophthalmology practice.

Jennifer Welser: And and we had a couple locations. We were supporting and trained a resident and then I ended up moving up to the city that was a little bit more down on the [00:09:00] peninsula, south of San Francisco, and then moved up to the city. And that's when I basically independently contracted ophthalmology services to multi specialty hospital in San Francisco, as well as one in Los Angeles that kind of got thrown in through , when I was at Auburn for my internship, a resident may, or I was an intern, he was a resident, was down in this L.

Jennifer Welser: A. practice and ophthalmologists were in like high demand and so I was able to, you know, do my practice in San Francisco, fly down and to L. A. once a week and manage a facility there. For ophthalmology and it was, it was great. I mean, three years, I did it once a week. It was pretty doable. I mean, this was pre 9- 11 travel was really easy.

Jennifer Welser: I could , take my surgical pack on the plane with me. So it was a bit of a different world in terms of travel, but, , it definitely exposed me to then essentially two main multi specialty 24 seven facilities, San Francisco and in the sort of Glendale Pasadena area in Los Angeles. And I loved that working environment.

Jennifer Welser: And I. You know, [00:10:00] frankly, I didn't really want to partner with the San Francisco group. I really liked the L. A. group. But then, I got recruited to move to New York City to start the ophthalmology department for what would then become Blue Pearl. But at the time, , I would get letters all the time as an ophthalmologist during that, that phase.

Jennifer Welser: I'm sure it still happens. We're just, we were just in high demand. And. So that letter that I got, fortunately, had New York, New York as the return address and I was like, well, that's interesting because if it had, you know, something else in the middle of country, I probably just would have thrown it away.

Jennifer Welser: But I opened it up and started the conversation and I had always wanted to live in New York City. So I put all my ophthalmology equipment on a pallet, shipped it across the country and said, I'm going to start your ophthalmology department for you. So it was a really, really unique time and a great experience.

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. for anyone who's thinking about specializing and interested in ophthalmology, I happen to know a few. Is there any tips or advice that you would potentially give someone in that interest? 

Jennifer Welser: we are so still a pretty small specialty [00:11:00] and, and there's no question that so much of, veterinary medicine in general, and maybe we can talk about this later.

Jennifer Welser: I'm a little passionate about veterinarians being better at networking and understanding like the power of relationships and that stuff matters when you're trying to. You know, get into training programs and get exposed to make sure, you know, is this an area of interest? frankly, also, do you have some of the fine motor skills?

Jennifer Welser: I mean, I've worked with lots of internists that are like, I can, I can hardly put a catheter in . And so there are little things that you need to get exposed to, to make sure like, oh, yeah. This is a good fit for me. That works. And so making the relationships with, ophthalmologists and connections and talking to them and observing and, you know, , trying things on your own is definitely important.

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah, it's a very good point too. And even if you are a high demand specialty where you're getting letters, if you're not networking and putting yourself out there, you may be missing opportunities that you may prefer over, just letting the letters come to you, I guess. 

Jennifer Welser: No, absolutely. Right. Yeah.

Jennifer Welser: Take [00:12:00] charge of it. 

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah, so you were excited about this opportunity to start an ophthalmology department with Blue Pearl. and I think I saw that you started also an intern in residency program. So you were really building up a good service. do you mind sharing a little bit of your experience, what you were learning that kind of also gets you to the next stage?

Jennifer Welser: Yeah, there are definitely pieces of what I'm doing now that I think back to that time in New York that are really, really, really relevant. So, at the time, this was, you know, doors were opening on a large multi specialty, 24 7 ER facility in the middle of New York City, which is a bit unheard of in its own way.

Jennifer Welser: But it also means everybody that came in to start this, we all were taking a chance on this new, exciting project. Many people were from New York, many were not from New York, so, you know, some sort of already had a caseload and, Some knowledge of the general practitioners, but, but we all came in very much with this sense of like ownership and responsibility for the success of what this practice was going to be.

Jennifer Welser: And so the culture of it and the way we treated each other, I mean, [00:13:00] no, no bad eggs were allowed in the environment. And so you just realize how important it is to have The relationship with the people and that you all really invested. we had the opportunity to invest in blue pearl again with the time.

Jennifer Welser: It's called NYC veterinary specialist. But I mean, none of us understood it. And every now and then you get this little distribution check and you're like, oh, that's fun. But we had no. No real understanding of what it was, but I think because we all started together and sort of had this sense of ownership, um, it made a huge difference for us.

Jennifer Welser: and, you know, it was a big hospital and we were growing and I ended up as a co medical director, Tim Rocha, an oncologist who'd been practicing in the city for a long time. And then we started the internship program. And, I don't think that I thought of it as like, Ooh, look at me, I'm on a leadership path.

Jennifer Welser: And that's, what's really filling my bucket. It was more sort of just. The excitement and like the, the opportunity and always sort of being like, well, oh, we should do this. And, you know, we should, we should build this program. And, and then I probably did start to [00:14:00] sort of realize that I like the people part of leadership.

Jennifer Welser: Cause it's its own, I mean, this probably sounds bad, but it's own, it's own sport in its own way. That is similar to if you're a good practitioner, when you go in and you're talking to a client, right? You can just like, what does this client need from me? , how do I need to explain something? Detail, no detail, emotionally connect, keep it logical.

Jennifer Welser: and your goal is, is to sort of get to the best, hopefully the best sort of treatment plan and outcome that you can, that fits, you The situation in front of you. So there's a sport to it where you feel like, how do you make somebody comfortable? And so same thing with the people leadership part, where you feel like, Oh my gosh, this person is like, I don't know, I'll make it up.

Jennifer Welser: Like, maybe they're just churning through technicians. And, they're just like, you know, always like you can't find me a good technician. So there's a technician, a good technician tree out back that we're supposed to just keep, you know, bringing them Instead of like, You know, you play a very large role in the relationship with the technician and they're feeling valued and used for , their skills and like they have [00:15:00] opportunity to grow and develop.

Jennifer Welser: And so I, I liked sort of , the challenge and I still do of helping having people sort of see frankly, the impact of their behavior. , and how it's, you know, nothing is a chance you need to be intentional about everything. 

Megan Sprinkle: Yes. It's so funny that you mentioned this because just last night when I was interviewing another veterinarian, he talked about the example of he's now doing a lot of coaching and he had someone who had gone through three different hospitals and they all had something wrong with them.

Megan Sprinkle: And he was like, well, Maybe stop and think, maybe do you have a part in that self awareness and understanding , our impact on the environment around us is, very important, for everybody, but especially for people of any type of leadership position. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and I also, you know, I'm noticing that as you're like, even back to when you were in Boston at Angell really noticing that you liked working cross functionally, lots of different people.

Megan Sprinkle: And so that [00:16:00] that's also coming in. Also notice you. Worked a lot with interns and residents. So there might be that leadership and teaching interest in you as well. And so Blue Pearl also opens up new opportunities for you. also in the middle, I, I think this is really neat too, cause I'm kind of curious how these different projects come in, but you actually licensed and sold a therapeutic, Item and then end up selling it to a company.

Megan Sprinkle: So that's really unique. How did that go about? It sounds crazy. 

Jennifer Welser: One of my passions we've talked about in preparation for this is that, you know, veterinarians are, I feel like it's such a good education. I love our profession. People are problem solvers.

Jennifer Welser: They're super, super smart. They're learners. And so some of this came from like, how did I end up doing some of these wacky things that I did? I, as an ophthalmologist was always telling people that you should give your cat lysine because it will help. It's a nutritional supplement. It's not like the panacea, but it should help [00:17:00] decrease the recurrence and severity, especially if you have multi cat households, all the cats should be on lysine, blah, blah, blah.

Jennifer Welser: Easy for me to say. As a dog owner and then I ended up with a cat and I was like good lord You cannot like there's these are like horse pills from human health care for these lysine supplements I was trying to crush it and trying to figure out how to get in this, you know Teeny little cat that we had and and then I felt like first of all, I felt bad that I had been Just been saying this and thinking like, come on, everybody, just give these lysine tablets to your pet.

Jennifer Welser: What's the problem? And then, and then I started feeling like, okay, there's actually a need here. And so I remember I went to Williams Sonoma and I bought a kitchen scale and then I ordered up some raw lysine powder from a chemical company. And just was trying to figure out, well, how, how much can you dilute it into?

Jennifer Welser: Like, can it dissolve easily enough? And then the only thing that my cat at the time liked was the sort of the malty or fishy flavor and hairball gels. And so it was just a process of like, well, actually maybe get the lysine into the gel. Uh, at the time, my, [00:18:00] uh, my husband at the time was, uh, um, well, he still is, but my husband at the time of MBA.

Jennifer Welser: And in my mind, all the things that seemed so hard. Like, well, God, how would you ever like find it? And all that from his standpoint was super easy. The idea that like, I solved a problem and I now have a product would be the harder part. And so very helpful on how do you get , a partner to license it.

Jennifer Welser: And then they do all the prototyping and the marketing testing. And it was really, really, really fascinating, to learn how all of that works, but it ended up being, Enisyl, which is. By the way, I love this one. some big marketing department got together and the product named Enisyl turns out to be lysine spelled backwards, but it was nil.

Jennifer Welser: And originally it was in one of those like dial a dose packages where you know, you like a dewormer kind of thing that we would think for large animal and you would sort of push the plunger and that would be the dose of lysine. And it then since got, you know, simplified and it was just, it's just sort of like a tablespoon or pumps of the gel.

Jennifer Welser: I, it was a [00:19:00] licensed deal. I will also say I learned a lot, about the process and what it is as one individual to kind of have this license and deal. And the, the company, essentially was like, you know, the products doing really well and we're. In this licensed agreement with this person and we're having to pay a royalty that we frankly don't really want to pay anymore.

Jennifer Welser: And so it got a little bit, you know, and, and it was, it was just a situation where like, yeah, I am 1 person. I'm not going to lawyer up and drag this out. But, you know, I had a nice little, a nice little chunk of money that helped me buy, frankly, a down payment on my 1st home, which is, you know, hard to like, save the down payment piece.

Jennifer Welser: So while I. On the one hand can be bitter about like, Oh, I really should have fought that. And that product is doing so well. And the other hand, I had a great time. I learned a ton and, you know, allowed me to buy my first home. 

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. Oh, and my goodness, I'm sure you can pull that into learning all sorts of.

Megan Sprinkle: Business, things, going forward. And I also know [00:20:00] you're, you're part of the veterinary innovation council. So maybe have a heart for other people who are being entrepreneurs and starting things like, like this as well. So, yeah. And, and I think that's just, it's great to empower veterinarians too, that we're fantastic problem solvers.

Megan Sprinkle: And so looking around for needs and you know, that can be you, you could start something like that too. It's very doable. 

Jennifer Welser: Yeah. No, I really, I really encourage people to, to think more about that. And it's not to say we should like patent everything we come up with and try to make a bunch of money on, on products or things, , but it's recognizing that , we have so much knowledge and we are such good problem solvers and they can come into products.

Jennifer Welser: I mean, I, my, my current one that I have a patent on, and I had a couple of license deals, a couple of partners that, you know, , along the way. The license deals have fallen through for various, solid reasons, but it's a little disposable applicator to apply eye medications. And it came from, you know, clients would come in and I'm like, one of a few scenarios would be happening.

Jennifer Welser: I feel like the [00:21:00] pet would be like covered in the eye medication. So clearly it's not going that well. Or the container would be like suspiciously full and and so it's not going well because you know, they're not doing it or like it would be like they lost the top. The container is disgusting as if it's been rolling around in the garden or something.

Jennifer Welser: And so it was like, okay, how do I help solve this problem? Um, and. Take your medication, fill it in this nice little soft silicon single use applicator and be able to take it to the eye. So I'm not over that one. I feel like I need more time and more energy to sort of pick it back up. But it's still, I mean, I'm sure veterinarians on a regular basis have this little like, Oh, this is how I solve for, for that or something in the back of their head feeling like, man, it would be so much better for patients, clients, if we could just figure out X, Y, Z, and I just encourage people to figure out X, Y, Z, you never know, 

Megan Sprinkle: or get with other people who can do the moving parts, like the MBA.

Megan Sprinkle: It was like, oh, yeah, that part's easy. And again, like I [00:22:00] said, you know, getting into the Blue Pearl system really opened up some other avenues as well for you. And you became chief medical officer, of Blue Pearl. And then of course, go on to, all of Mars veterinary health, which is, you know, encompasses a lot in global.

Megan Sprinkle: So I really appreciated your, your explanation of kind of finding these roles, because some of these were brand new roles that you kind of had to define. And so. What was that process of trying to figure out you personally, what you can contribute and, doing a very big role that you kind of had to come in defined and propose.

Jennifer Welser: Yeah, no, there, there are lots of, lots of steps along the way. I would like to think that as a profession, we're further along than we are really, but we kind of aren't, I mean, if I back up to the earlier days of blue pearl. there was, there still is, but the VSPA, the Veterinary Specialty Practice Alliance, and so large multi specialty groups that were not in geographically competing areas [00:23:00] would kind of get together and share best practices.

Jennifer Welser: And, you know, a couple people from each hospital would go and, you know, for so long, The veterinary more medical side or people that were, you know, maybe hospital leaders, but you didn't think of yourself as a business leader, we would attend, but not really feel like it was our right or position to be able to say anything.

Jennifer Welser: Cause we didn't really understand the business side of it. And so we keep ourselves in this whole like, well, veterinarians aren't good business people, or, or like, I don't have the degree that then says that I have the knowledge that I should be sharing. So a little bit along the way was, It probably took way too long to realize, like, I do have something to say.

Jennifer Welser: I very well know how this business works. I'm really good with the people part , and motivating and sort of seeing the way things come together. So learning to sort of speak up , was a big part of it. And so then the role, the change, the step into blue pearl. And I think, you know, people ask, as if I was like super ambitious and that was my goal.

Jennifer Welser: I mean, the job didn't exist at the time and it was no more of a process other than [00:24:00] the two founders, the brothers, Darryl and Neil Shaw, literally one of these VISPA meetings came to me, it was Daryl first. And he said, Hey Jen, you know, how would you feel about being the chief medical officer for Blue Pearl?

Jennifer Welser: And I was like, I mean, isn't that kind of what Neil's doing? What are you, what are you asking me? And then he's like, yeah, Neil's ready to do something else. We need, to like, get this role going and build this function. And he's like, talk to Neil. And I talked to Neil and Neil's like, well, what did Darryl say?

Jennifer Welser: And I said, he said to talk to you. And he's like, well, do you want to do it? And so that's it. And then about the biggest thing, I think everybody at the time I was living in New York City and my colleagues were like, she's not going to move to Florida. She loves New York City too much, but it was such an opportunity.

Jennifer Welser: So, of course, I moved to Florida and took this and then realized that the learning from the founders and what that is and the risks that they took to build Blue Pearl was amazing. But then also, like, there isn't any structure. There's nothing that exists. And it was very clear. We got to have a medical voice here.

Jennifer Welser: I mean, you can build the operation side and, there's these hospitals for the most part that we're emerging in [00:25:00] with. Blue Pearl had long, successful histories, but, you know, we have to build a medical voice and how do we support, anything from training programs or people who want to, you know, do clinical studies and, we can't just, say we practice high quality medicine.

Jennifer Welser: How do we make sure that we're practicing high quality medicine? So all of that kind of came into play. And I, was fortunate to have, you know, great people, along the way that I was working with, but it was still a slog. I literally think back on the times like, my God, did I even say anything when I was in that board meeting?

Jennifer Welser: And I'm sure my thought bubble was quite active and frankly, full of really valuable things that I should have been saying, but I always felt like, well, it's not really my position. And I, you know, You throw in the female part and it's even worse, right? You're a female veterinarian in a room full of men, most likely, and for a long period of time.

Jennifer Welser: still feel it, but sometimes I'll, you know, you should only speak if you really have something really important to say. And while that is true. You really have to kind of push yourself to, step into the role.

Jennifer Welser: But it gave me the opportunity in Blue Pearl to really kind of say, all right, [00:26:00] like this is a bit of a blank slate and just phenomenally smart people in the, in the hospitals and, and groups and what we were trying to build and do. So , I enjoyed it very much. , and then, the Mars acquisition came along, and I really didn't know anything about Mars.

Jennifer Welser: I guess maybe I knew they did pet food. I didn't really know or understand the relationship with Banfield at the time, and they had been very soon after becoming full owners of Banfield, but, I'm very grateful. Mars as a company in general, separate from obviously , their history has been more in consumer packaged goods and the whole , veterinary healthcare space , was new and a big portion of my job, at least initially was like internally helping understand for the Mars people, like just what exactly this whole veterinary business is, especially the, in the multi specialty ER side.

Jennifer Welser: But the focus that Mars has on development, people development, leadership development, and, it's sort of tail end of my, time at, Blue Pearl before I transferred to the Mars role. Uh, actually Jeff Klausner, who was the, who had been Banfield's chief medical [00:27:00] officer. He had sort of encouraged me for this one particular leadership program, leadership at the peak offered by TCL, the Center for Creative Leadership.

Jennifer Welser: , there are a couple different locations, but in Colorado. And I was supported then by, you know, Mars and Blue Pearl to go to this program. And that was really somehow the first time I realized like, holy cow, like there's so much that goes into leadership and developing as a person. And it's not just all the books that I've been trying to read and hope that like I'm absorbing them or I'm like, , wait, did that work?

Jennifer Welser: Did I try that? So it was formal leadership training. And then you realize how deeply personal. A lot of it is like, you really have to, dig deep and reflect and, be so intentional about leadership and what you're doing and your style and an executive coach of science. That was my first experience with an executive coach.

Jennifer Welser: And I mean, that's, amazing experience. You know, you find the right fit. And I've had. three more major coaches and you know, that, that first one was incredibly influential. And then there's another one, a gentleman I worked with [00:28:00] for a long period of time, super, super influential for me. So, so I, just was exposed to super cool to build these roles and I'm excited.

Jennifer Welser: And as a veterinarian, you think you're supposed to just figure things out. And so I would go to a book and try to figure things out and try to learn and realize like, actually. Networking and people and learning and feeling like you were not supposed to just know this necessarily like you can learn it and you can trial and error a little bit on it.

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. Was there something that you learned about yourself that kind of surprised you during that? Um, I mean, 

Jennifer Welser: lots of little things. And some of it is, with my one really influential coach, Burke Miller, I went and we had sort of a, like, Two, two and a half day, like, you know, more of a deeper dive and really kind of dug in on like, you know, what do I feel like my, purpose is and, , what really kind of makes me, makes me tick and like, you know, come up with the sentences and the things that, and I have a piece of paper.

Jennifer Welser: I mean, it's, it's literally always with me in my, in [00:29:00] my folder that I will like open it up and read it occasionally. And it's all of these, the journey that I kind of went on and. Learning some of the like, Oh, I mean, I really do like to be liked and being liked can probably get in the way.

Jennifer Welser: But what's more important to me than being liked is being respected. And so how do I reframe? And so , one of the things that I run through personally all the time is strong, fair, liked or not respected. And so if I, if I'm stressed going to a big meeting or something's going on, I will say that to myself.

Jennifer Welser: Like, okay, be strong back to my version of , don't think you don't have anything to say. It is your place to speak up. Be fair. Always be fair. It's not about me. It's not about any one thing. Be fair. It's nice to be liked, but it's an or not, you might not, but ultimately then you leave feeling like, but it was respected.

Jennifer Welser: I 

Megan Sprinkle: think that's really important because, you know, what we were talking about is I so believe that we need [00:30:00] veterinarians in places All over because we do bring this really unique perspective, especially when it comes to animal health. Right. And so I want people to feel like they can speak up and, also there is that opportunity to constantly learn and, and not necessarily say, well, this is my lane.

Megan Sprinkle: I'm just going to stay here. The example that I always think of, and I shared this with you earlier is Dr. Brent Mayabb who. connected us as well he came in as the veterinary voice on this, C suite leadership team at Royal Canin U. S. And when he first came in, he's like, Oh, you know, I thought I just do my veterinary thing and found out.

Megan Sprinkle: Nope. I have to understand a little bit about each part of these. So. moving parts within a business so that I can actually bring my value in the best way possible. So there's still those opportunities to constantly learn and not put yourself in a bubble and only speak if [00:31:00] it comes up with something that it, what you think is like veterinary medical or something like that.

Megan Sprinkle: So, yeah. 

Jennifer Welser: Yeah. You know, there's a lot that, is a bit lingo related, right? , and it also took me a long time to realize, like, again, as a good veterinarian, you're very good at , what lingo are you using in a certain situation? So I use very different lingo when I'm with my ophthalmology friends, like I'm using all my big ophthalmology words.

Jennifer Welser: If I'm with another colleague in a multi special setting, I'm not using dummy downwards, but that's not all of my big ophtho words was very medically focused. And then I'm talking to a client and I'm going to use. Okay, what's more and more of my plain language and plain language with clients can be incredibly variable depending on their background and what they need.

Jennifer Welser: And so , it's a huge skill that we have. Then you show up in a, in a boardroom or in a room around the table, where you've got somebody marketing and finance and whatever they're in, they haven't spent as much time in their career thinking about, like, what's the lingo and the language I should be using for the audience in front of me.

Jennifer Welser: And so we feel like. Well, crap. I don't [00:32:00] understand what they're saying necessarily. And so then therefore I shouldn't be here instead of like, can you repeat that in plain language? Cause I'm not a dumb person. And if you lay it out in plain language, you're like, okay, got it. But like the acronyms and the lingo, like that's your world.

Jennifer Welser: So let's all decide that if we're going to , move something forward to the best that we can, we all have to speak language that one another, understand. 

Megan Sprinkle: Back to when you had to learn what OU and SID meant, it just takes time. And, the other thing I also wanted to just highlight and maybe offer or let you offer some support is around getting more, Women in these positions as well. this is something else I shared with you as I was preparing to go meet this business. And so I was researching this business and looked at their leadership team.

Megan Sprinkle: And there was one vet and like three women and like eight, 10 men. And it was, veterinary related. So I was [00:33:00] like, Hmm, that's a shame. So, Being female, I hate to generalize or, you know, I really, really want us to empower each other, especially because we are such a female dominated profession.

Megan Sprinkle: And so I want people to feel strong and respected and, empowered to be in these seats and, and, you know, You know, make a difference here. So maybe from your personal experience and what you would like to encourage other female, hopeful leaders, what would you give them? 

Jennifer Welser: Yeah, there's a lot there that I, um, I mean, there are so many, Statements that you kind of hear that turn out to be incredibly true that like a guy might read something and be like, I got a couple of those those traits. I'm going to just go ahead and show my interest or apply or raise my hand and a woman might diligently look at and like, I don't really have all the skills that they're listing here.

Jennifer Welser: So I'm probably not qualified. I'm not even going to inquire or suggest that I might be interested in something because, you know, I wouldn't want to like, Have it be ridiculous that like, why would I think I was so we absolutely [00:34:00] are our own first problem by not just saying, Hey, I saw this. This is interesting.

Jennifer Welser: I don't, I don't know that I fit all the qualifications, but I'm curious. , and that's all you have to do, but, but we don't. And so meanwhile, the guys are like this and we're wondering like, , how are they just keep moving along because they raised their hand. So , from an individual side, We have to figure out how, maybe you don't have to be like me, me, me, but what's a comfortable way to kind of raise your hand in something and not be intimidated.

Jennifer Welser: If you're going to be hiring, or you're trying to like, you know, have it not be all, , white non veterinarian men sitting around a table, then, A little more effort for, Hey, did you see this? Would you be interested or, or talk to other people and say, do you know other, people and certainly including women that might be interested in recognize that just because someone doesn't, officially put a name in the hat doesn't mean they're not interested or they're not really qualified.

Jennifer Welser: And then it does take a little bit more. Encouragement , and I know you can do it and I have like probably some of the most rewarding relationships. I have along the way as a female [00:35:00] leader have been sort of the behind closed doors with other female women. And then where we're talking about, like, okay, what's the strategy? How are we going to do this? And like, , let's kind of plan this out. And, , the push we need to give each other to really, really, you know, make sure that. Yeah. There are voices are heard around the table and, , I mean, we have to get out of our own way on it.

Jennifer Welser: In so many ways, but, and networking is a huge piece of this. I kind of cringed like, to me, networking just felt so salesy and so artificial and so much like, I don't know. I just had this image of like, there's a local community networking thing. You're just going to get a hundred business cards handed to you.

Jennifer Welser: And somebody wants to sell you insurance. And someone wants you instead of like. No, it's relationship building and networking is is learning. We're good learners and networking is sharing. We share. We teach. We talk to people about what's going on . So if we reframe it is like, I'm going to go to a learning and sharing event instead of like a.

Jennifer Welser: Kind of cheesy painful sounding networking event. It's easier and [00:36:00] it doesn't have to be like a you know A totally random one in your community that's not vet focused but every single veterinary meeting you go to if you really really look at the entire agenda and Instead of like, oh i'm going to pick up this ce course i'm going to go to you know Pick up that there are so many opportunities and and people just need to do it And I'm not an introvert.

Jennifer Welser: . I'm very social and I need connection and I'm extroverted, but I'm not actually, you know, crazy extroverted. It doesn't mean I'm going to walk into a room. I know some people like see a big room of people they don't know. And they're like, Oh yeah, I'm on fire for this.

Jennifer Welser: That is not me. And I think some people would find that surprising. I'm like, okay, you can do this. You know, and just start in on the conversations and, most people feel a little bit awkward about it, but it never is bad, even if you meet somebody and I'll never talk to that person again or, or whatever, you're like, you know, nice to meet you.

Jennifer Welser: And it's learning and the curiosity that we all have to be veterinarians in the first place applied in a slightly different manner. 

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. And I love the [00:37:00] supportive environment that you keep talking about. Like you were working with other female leaders to get encouragement cause I also have heard that because there seems to be so few seats at the leadership table for women, it can be more competition than actually encouraging. And I don't think that that's a good approach at all. And. I, I like to feel that in veterinary medicine, we tend to be a really good collegiate. Group that, you know, if you hear someone is a veterinarian or vet tech, you, you just have this instant bond of like, Oh, family.

Megan Sprinkle: And so I think that's also something to highlight is that support network that also comes from building relationships. That's huge , whether you want to be. A C suite or if you want your next job, , those relationships are really what help you in your career, but also is the rewarding part as well is the people that we remember.

Jennifer Welser: Yeah, very much [00:38:00] so. And, , you might not even know what you're looking for in your career. You might not, you know, some people might like, oh, I'm on this. And I recognize that, you know, there aren't that many roles and so I won't be the only person , but there's also the, like, I just love my profession or my career and people.

Jennifer Welser: And then you have a conversation and, and suddenly like a new door opens and a new opportunity opens or you find something you're really interested in. And like, for example, Brent Mayabb, who you mentioned, who I adore, he has always had a bit of a passion about personal finance and helping veterinarians now sort of like recognizing.

Jennifer Welser: , you can have a conversation like, Oh, , I kind of like personal finance. And a lot of veterinarians are like, Ooh, not at all. Do I like that? And I, and it's probably because we feel like we don't really understand it. We don't have a degree in it. So therefore how could we possibly, you know, but Brent kind of parlaying his interest and having more conversations with veterinarians and constantly being encouraged to be like, Oh my gosh, there's such a need here.

Jennifer Welser: Please like, you know, bring this, your passion and your knowledge in a different area into the veterinary space, even more for us. 

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah, and back to what I said is that, you know, we hear somebody else is a [00:39:00] veterinarian and there's just this natural, you know, openness and fondness, but also that works with trust to.

Megan Sprinkle: So, like, if Dr Mayabb comes and talks about finances, people are probably a lot quicker to listen and want to hear what he has to say versus someone who's from more the financial field where it feels salesy and you're just like, you know, so you can bring so much value by bringing those unique skill sets, I believe, into the veterinary environment.

Megan Sprinkle: Well, before I forget, because this is the other thing that I would really like you to explain. If you had to explain what a CMO or a CVO does, how in the world do you put that into words? 

Jennifer Welser: Well, I'll start with the long version that like nobody has done a really good job of it. But I am happy that I'm part of the founding board of the.

Jennifer Welser: BCVMO, the board of chief veterinary medical [00:40:00] officers. And it started with some of us in these jobs, literally like standing around chatting over a cocktail at one of the big veterinary events. And then it kind of grew and grew and grew and grew. And then we realized like there is a need for all of us , in these senior medical leader roles, whatever the, if it's a CVO, a CMO, , whatever it is to get together.

Jennifer Welser: Some of it is for sure the networking piece of it and how valuable that is. Some of it is the, like, learn to have a voice because so many people like, I'm not really invited to some of these meetings. Like you should be invited to the big meetings and have your voice. So there's encouragement , that goes along with it.

Jennifer Welser: Finding topics that we feel like. we should be the ones that are leading the discussion on this and how do we, how do we kind of organize ourselves to do it? I mean, there's no question that there's to be a good veterinarian and in the medical world I think the constant like triage and multitasking that kind of happens Is necessary when you're in clinics.

Jennifer Welser: And sometimes it's not our best friend when we're trying to like, okay, this is what we're going to organize ourselves on. This is, this [00:41:00] is how we're going to lay out what our goals are, but coming together as a group , that helps because in general, I think the role is, it's extremely important for , all of the medical people in, in whatever your group is to see a medical leader, just to see themselves.

Jennifer Welser: Like I know that person understands me. And has my back on things and will represent what is in my best interest as well as sort of the company. So a visible medical leader is a key piece of it. And then the aspects that I think we all think about, but are not very good at that sort of measuring would be.

Jennifer Welser: Well, are we practicing quality medicine? Are we doing the right thing? , we don't ever want to feel like we're, , losing ourselves and, a lot of this is, is corporations have gotten bigger and it's, you sort of feel like you have less control, but like representing like, well, we have to practice quality medicine.

Jennifer Welser: We are here From the clinical side, obviously no different in some of the other, , aspects of the industry, but from the clinical delivery side, we are here to serve clients , and their [00:42:00] pets or their, you know, it's food animal equine, you know, whatever it may be. So the, the concept of visible medical leader care about quality of medicine and doing the right thing and very much like keeping people engaged and interested in the profession and, , Keep the pipeline going and , have it look attractive to, younger generations and, and to your, whatever your business, if you're trying to attract people to your business, but overall for the profession.

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. That sounds really fun. Um, I'm sure there's a lot of hard things and the job that can be very, quite stressful as well. Cause you are, there's. A lot that goes with leadership. I'm sure there's some lonely moments because you kind of feel like you're the only one at the time and just the responsibility.

Megan Sprinkle: But for those who are interested and. Maybe getting higher up in leadership roles. We've talked about, the importance of building relationships. , you've also mentioned that you were, you just stayed curious and open to new opportunities that came up. Is there [00:43:00] anything else that you might encourage people to do work on that would help them get into a better place to be a more senior leader?

Jennifer Welser: Yeah, I think , , what's your individual passion, right? Like, again, back to the problem solver, you might, you might have some, like, Oh, I organized this the way we, , do this in our service. Or I started this , group in our hospital because everybody had this shared interest.

Jennifer Welser: , to visibly take something that you're passionate about No matter how small it is and do something with it. And don't be afraid to say, you know, Hey, I actually, you know, we fixed this process in the way , we run our service because we found like it was really challenging for X, Y, Z, obviously making all this up, , or again, when this group that we brought together, it turns out like now we're sharing and these best practices, or we're sharing, you know, our knowledge in something.

Jennifer Welser: And it, shows initiative , and that you're not afraid to just try something and bring people, together. There's an example of a woman who is now a, I might get the title [00:44:00] wrong, but she veterinarian was in practice and then was with Banfield and was certainly an area, um, medical, and then kind of tried to make the switch into operations.

Jennifer Welser: And now she's leading one of the countries in AniCura. She moved her family, But one of the things she did was she really liked the business side. So she's like, I'm going to just see at one of our big meetings, if anybody will come, if I post like, Hey, over lunch, do you want them to come talk about the business side?

Jennifer Welser: And there was no plan. And like, fast forward, for sure that played a role in why she's now leading one of the countries for AniCura. So, tiny little things that you're interested in , you don't have to make it super complicated. Just do it, start it and don't be afraid to have there be visibility around it.

Megan Sprinkle: Yeah. Take action where you are. It sounds like, it is a good place to start. And I know we're running out of time and you have . A new, I hate to call project, but there's another thing that you're working on right now, which is fun. And I think the first hospital is opening in 2025, I think is what I read.

Megan Sprinkle: So I know that [00:45:00] is occupying a lot of what you do, but maybe a final a couple questions for you. Is there anything on your bucket list that you would like to do? 

Jennifer Welser: I, the professional bucket list, , with this new project, which is essentially a sister company to city vet, which is a shared ownership model for general practitioners.

Jennifer Welser: now the president of Arista Advanced Pet Care, and it's a shared ownership for multi specialty and emergency. so there is a little bit this, the, the professional bucket list would be, you know, I went from. I mean, arguably the biggest medical leadership role, you know, one could be in to becoming a president.

Jennifer Welser: I, by the way, did never take my own advice. I wasn't like me, me, me, make me president. I fortunately had a lot of people around me that were like all of these things are coming together. The people, the timing, the whole thing. so the professional bucket list to sort of go from this medical role, into a, a president role where you see the path to presidents, like, why wouldn't it be veterinarian all the time in the veterinary industry?

Jennifer Welser: And instead [00:46:00] it, you know, comes up from typically operations. And so , that's a big piece of , like I'm in it right now. I mean, I better do a good job because part of my bucket list. And part and parcel with it is , there are a few sort of operational things that I think we just need to change and, replace the focus on, outcomes and value.

Jennifer Welser: And so I, I have a professional bucket list need to make sure that like, not only can I show that I can be successful, you know, transferring from veterinary leadership as a female into the president role, but also have an impact , on the way we are delivering care and the outcomes. So that's a big piece personally, you know, with lots of my, you know, , female leader friends and the various things we talk about.

Jennifer Welser: And like, I, I do love like entrepreneurial little businesses and maybe not something as complex as what I've got going on right now, but like, I got a whole list of things that like, you know, , once I feel like I've done everything that I can for what I'm currently in starting little companies, bringing together women and leadership retreats and groups, I've got a, A project I'm [00:47:00] building out a space on the Washington coast that will hopefully be for retreats and leadership events.

Jennifer Welser: And so , there's, you know, bucket listy things there. A lot of it is also just, you know, travel and connecting with people. So. Yeah, 

Megan Sprinkle: I think it's so important to have those, that's always in your mind. It keeps you really excited about, the future. And so I'm glad to hear that you're doing that and sounds like those are going to be some really fun things.

Megan Sprinkle: . And then finally, what is something you are most grateful for? 

Jennifer Welser: Oh my gosh, there are a lot of things I'm grateful for and I'm, very much a believer in, everyone just take the time and be grateful. Like if it's your morning routine, if it's a random timeframe, but I am really, really grateful for all of my incredibly tight friend networks.

Jennifer Welser: , I don't have children, you know, my life has, has rolled out a little bit differently in that way, but man, am I grateful for all my, incredibly good friends. Many, many, many, many are female. I'm not like anti guy friends. I have lots of great guy friends, but , I draw strength all the time from my incredible crowd of female friends.

Megan Sprinkle: I [00:48:00] hope you enjoyed this fascinating veterinary story. We can make an impact in so many places. Check out the show notes for lots of resources. Please make sure you are subscribed on your podcast app, subscribe on the YouTube channel and follow me on LinkedIn, where I hang out the most. You can contact me on LinkedIn, on the website at vetlifereimagined.

Megan Sprinkle: com. And brand new is that you can text me to send me a text message. Find the link at the top of the show notes below that says, send us a text message. I want to thank our longtime sponsors, fire consulting, and we'll use who support the podcast over on our hosting platform. Buzzsprout. You can support the podcast to just check out the show notes for a link.

Megan Sprinkle: And I hope to see you next time on that life reimagined.