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led him into healthcare administration.

After a stint in the U.S. Navy, he transitioned back into civilian life, needing employment.

“When I got out I was looking for a job and I started talking to a guy at a restaurant one day who happened to work at a hospital,” Countryman related. “He asked me what I was wanting to do. I said I just needed to get a job and start going to college,” he continued. “He offered me an opportunity there as the nighttime admitting clerk which is about as low as you can get in a hospital.”

That opportunity was all Countryman needed to slingshot into his career.

“I started working there and developed an understanding of the importance of building relationships with people,” he said. “I made some relationships with doctors and different folks and became an integral part of the hospital. “

As he worked his way up the corporate ladder, he

got an education, earning his bachelor of science at Dallas Baptist University, then, getting his master’s in business administration from the University of Texas – Permian Basin.

His education boosted him into a job with Price Waterhouse and Coopers, where he lent his growing healthcare administration skills to various facilities. “I traveled the countryside there consulting for different hospitals,” he said. “I was hired away by one of my clients. Went to work in Odessa in 2004. That was my frst administrative job in healthcare and I loved it. I moved up a position or two over the next couple of years and I got to be a CEO.” Countryman came into his current position in Weatherford just a year ago. He had served there fve years ago as the hospital’s Chief Operations Offcer, then took on the CEO mantle at a Houston facility before returning to North Texas to be nearer his family in Kaufman.