Click Here To Listen Nashville Business 100 Leading Persons In Professional Services James Aylward
Mr. Aylward is the President & CEO of Preferral and has 25+ years of experience in health care. Prior to joining Preferral, he was President & CEO of MedCenterDisplay, LLC and successfully grew and sold the company to PatientPoint in November 2016.
Prior to joining MedCenterDisplay, he was the Chairman, President & CEO of Sy.Med Development, Inc. a HealthStream, Inc. (NASDAQ: HSTM) company. He joined Sy.Med in February 1997 as VP, Sales & Marketing and was named Chairman of the Board, President, and CEO in May 1997. Aylward remained in that position until the sale of Sy.Med to HealthStream in October 2012. Under his leadership, Sy.Med won numerous business awards, including the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America three years in a row. Additionally, Sy.Med became an MGMA AdminiServe® Partner and a Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner. Additionally, Mr. Aylward has received numerous personal awards including the Nashville Business Journal 2012 Health Care Hero Award and the 2012 Business Leader Top 50 Entrepreneurs.
Prior to joining Sy.Med, Mr. Aylward held sales and marketing management positions with three Tennessee HMOs: Complete Health, HealthWise of America and American Medical Security. He was an integral part of the senior management startup team at each of these companies and was responsible for growing the health plan membership from zero members to thousands of members in two years.
Mr. Aylward began his business career at Caterpillar Financial Services Corporation. Over a seven-year period, he held various positions, including Territory Manager and was responsible for all sales and marketing activities in Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee.
He earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.