One local power player has landed a new executive-level role only a handful of months after leaving his previous one. Dan Pickett, who’s best known in the area for founding Clifton Park’s nfrastructure—now a multibillion-dollar company owned by California technology firm Zones—has been named president and CEO of aptihealth, a digital platform and app that is looking to streamline the overall patient and physician experience in the behavioral healthcare space. (A detailed feature on the business is set to publish in the Spring 2020 issue of Saratoga Living magazine, out early next week).
Pickett’s business partner at aptihealth, Dr. Alex Marsal, PhD, who has run a Troy area behavioral healthcare clinic for more than two decades, has also been named Chief Clinical and Science Officer.
Pickett was most recently president of Hudson River Capital Holdings, an initial seed investor in the aptihealth platform. Through the end of 2019, Pickett was also the president of Zones, which acquired nfrastructure in 2016. (The company is now worth $2.4 billion.) He’d also served as CEO of Zones nfrastructure, and Chairman and CEO of nfrastructure prior to its acquisition. Pickett was born in Troy, raised in Mechanicville and is a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI).
“The healthcare system today presents endless challenges for people suffering from behavioral health issues,” said Pickett in a prepared statement. “From diagnosis to timely access to effective personalized care, the system is frustrating and confusing to navigate. I’m passionate about addressing these issues and empowering behavioral health specialists, medical providers, and patients with an engagement platform that can change lives. We’re innovating the integrated care model and fast-tracking patients into high-quality, personalized care for results that matter. As a director, I’ve gotten to know the aptihealth team quite well, and I look forward to working with them to make a difference.”
Dr. Marsal is also no stranger to the local tech space either. After working for a decade in hospital management at Troy’s Samaritan Hospital, Dr. Marsal founded Vanguard Behavioral Solutions, a web-based behavioral healthcare treatment/assessment firm, which served as the basis for aptihealth. As Chief Clinical and Science Officer, Dr. Marsal’s will be overseeing aptihealth’s clinical science team, and will focus on research and integrating clinical science with clinical engineering and user-experience to drive innovation.
“I’m thrilled Dan is joining aptihealth and look forward to working with him to help solve the behavioral health crisis,” said Dr. Marsal. “aptihealth is delivering innovation across detection, assessment, treatment, and care coordination. This work is critically important as we address this crisis and help patients quickly access high-quality care.”
