Jonathan Bush

Jonathan Bush is CEO, president and chairman of the board of directors of athenahealth, Inc. He co-founded the company in 1997 and took it public in 2007 in the most successful initial public offering that year. Today, athenahealth remains one of the health care information technology industry's fastest growing companies.

Bush's views on health care and the idea for athenahealth were born from failures with the earliest iteration of its business model. Bush co-founded and operated a birthing clinic with the idea of franchising a network of clinics that viewed pregnancy holistically. Bush would soon realize that his birthing clinic vision was challenged by his business' own inability to track outstanding claims to insurers and get paid in a reasonable timeframe. This challenge would shape the formation of athenahealth as it is known today. As a result of the challenges with the clinics, Bush and his partners set about designing a solution to address the costly administrative inefficiencies that plagued their business. In doing so, they came to realize their circumstance was more typical than unique and that the solution they architected had great application and utility for the broader health delivery system. Given his vision for an information infrastructure that makes health care work as it should, Bush is focused on creating a true, win-win marketplace that enables a broad and efficient exchange of health information.

Bush's passion for health care extends beyond the evolution of athenahealth. Previously, Bush served on the frontlines of health care as an EMT for the City of New Orleans, was trained as a medic in the U.S. Army, and worked as a management consultant in the health care practice of Booz Allen & Hamilton.

Bush is an active commentator on all things health care and a believer in free market economics. A well-recognized innovator and disruptor, Bush's vision has been chronicled in publications from the Wall Street Journal and Fast Company to National Public Radio and captured on the stage at events from Fortune Brainstorm Tech to The Economist's Ideas Economy.

Bush obtained a Bachelor of Arts in the College of Social Studies from Wesleyan University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.