By Lois Thomson, South Florida Hospital News, for ACHE of South Florida

Neil Mayo remembers the day he made the decision to go into healthcare as a career. As he explained, "When I graduated college with my bachelor's degree I was discussing with my advisor if I wanted to get my masters. We talked healthcare, and I knew healthcare was never going to go away. At the time, pharmaceutical sales was in its heyday, but something inside of me said, 'I don't want to do that, but I want to be in healthcare.'"

Mayo earned both his undergraduate and his masters in healthcare administration from the University of New Haven in Connecticut, then came back to Florida to start his career. He initially worked in IT staffing and recruiting until he got his first opportunity in healthcare, and then he said, "I knew my calling was dealing with seniors." Mayo has been in the private duty sector for 15 years, and when it was time for a change he pointed out, "Senior Nannies had immense upside so that's why I chose them."

Senior Nannies Care Service has been in business for more than 30 years, and according to Mayo, "We do a lot of things that revolve around seniors - sending caregivers into the home for seniors who need extra help, or sending nurses into homes for those who may need more skilled care. Placing seniors into assisted living, independent living - it's all based around caregivers helping people."

Mayo is vice president of sales for Senior Nannies and oversees the state of Florida. His day-to-day responsibilities include communicating with representatives in the field, building the business, helping with assisted living/independent living facilities, getting contracts for hospitals. "It's a lot of work, but I'm very passionate about it so it doesn't seem like work. Having a client for 10 years and knowing their quality of life was better because of us, there's no price you can put on that."

An organization that is playing an important role in helping to shape Mayo's career is ACHE - the American College of Healthcare Executives. In explaining how he learned about it, Mayo admitted, "I stumbled upon it." He said he attended an ACHE dinner a couple of years ago, even though he had no idea what the organization was all about. "I was with my boss and other reps from my company, and I didn't think I was going to know anybody, but I started recognizing people, and then more people. My eyes lit up like Christmas morning. I'm thinking, 'this is what I want to be involved in, from a business standpoint and a professional growth standpoint.' I love networking, and from that point on I was thinking, 'how can I get more involved.'"

Having joined ACHE two years ago, Mayo said he has benefitted by being given access to people who are very tough to get access to otherwise. "The quality of people at these meetings is incredible - the people you meet, their stories, their roles, how they see healthcare evolving in the next five, 10, or 20 years."

Mayo attends networking events and said he believes he will be able to contribute considerably more once he starts to get involved with the board and membership. "I believe that's where I can make the most impact, by making people aware of this organization, bringing people into this organization."