Michael Willoughby is a seasoned veteran in the laboratory sector. He started his career as a Laboratory Tech and Histologist in Nacogdoches Texas where he double majored in Nursing and Medical Technology at Stephen F. Austin. Before and during college Michael served in the armed forces as an Army Combat Medic.
After college Michael moved to Houston in 1991. There he established a small placement firm of Histologists throughout the Texas Medical Center (TMC). While building relationships in the TMC, Michael formed a solid foundation of healthcare knowledge through partnerships with the likes of MD Anderson, The DeBakey Heart Center, Baylor College of Medicine, and both Methodist and Memorial Healthcare systems.
In 1994 Michael was approached by the senior leadership team of Clinical Pathology Laboratories to help scale the company beyond the Austin borders. To make a long story short, he spent the first 10 years building business units throughout the Southwest and the second ten years as CPL’s Senior Vice President overseeing Operations and Commercial Services from the corporate offices in Austin Texas. During that time, he was successful in creating high throughput service units, created a very successful sales division, presented multiple acquisition opportunities, and lead a key role in fostering the culture of what was set by the founders of the company. CPL was ultimately purchased by Sonic Healthcare and is still one of the great success stories in the laboratory sector today.
Although many thanks were given to the folks at CPL, now Sonic Healthcare, Michael chose to leave the company in 2014 to explore global opportunities beyond the Southwest area of the country. Over the past 36 months, Michael has consulted for several laboratory companies such as Cardio Vascular Biomarker Labs, Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing Labs, and private labs looking to reorganize or develop a commercial sales force. Not to mention co-founding a new patient access service called Iggbo (an Uber like blood drawing service). All along he knew his next stop would be with a company that was innovative, service related, and had the opportunity to make a difference in people’s health.