Exclusive: Fast-growing Cincinnati medical firm adds to C-suite

Health Carousel, a rapidly growing Cincinnati firm that staffs medical centers nationwide on a contract basis, has hired John Penote as CFO and Jon Kukulski as general counsel and vice president of business development. Health Carousel, which has a staff of 82 at its East Walnut Hills headquarters, employs 541 health care workers in 38 states. I broke the news in November that Health Carousel had acquired competitor Next Medical Staffing, which has a staff of 26 in Dayton.

The hiring of Penote and Kukulski will help Health Carousel accomplish an ambitious expansion plan. Their skills and expertise are precisely what Health Carousel needs as we continue to grow. - Bill DeVille, Health Carousel CEO

Penote previously was chief financial officer of FSI Group Inc., a downtown Cincinnati investment advisory firm. He supervised all aspects of the finance, operations and administrative functions at FSI, including the modeling, structuring and settlement of various securities transactions. Penote, who received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Xavier University in 1995, has been a CPA in Ohio since 2000.Lair Kennedy, who had been CFO and was a co-founder of Health Carousel, is now chairman of the board of the privately held company.

Kukulski previously was associate general counsel of Omnicare Inc., which was a Fortune 500 company based downtown before it was acquired by CVS Health Corp. last year in a deal valued at $12.9 billion. Kukulski’s responsibilities included general corporate legal matters, corporate governance and all legal aspects of mergers and acquisitions. He played a leading role in Omnicare’s acquisition, which resulted in downsizing the Cincinnati office. Before joining Omnicare, Kukulski was an associate in the mergers and acquisitions group at Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP in New York. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Kentucky and a law degree from the University of Richmond.

In addition to the executive hires at Health Carousel, recent promotions include naming Ty Nelson as president, Andrew Simon as vice president of marketing and corporate development, Jessica Griffith as director of human resources and Beau Lewis as IT manager. Read the: full-story here