Flight Paramedic to Supply Chain Executive to Business Owner: Why I Do This Work
People sometimes ask why someone with a background in emergency medicine and in operations, procurement, and supply chain across healthcare and federally funded research and graduate education ends up helping professionals think through business ownership and helping companies fix operating problems. The short answer: I have made that move myself, from flight paramedic to business owner.
It started in the back of an ambulance
My career began in emergency medicine. Over 15 years I worked my way up from EMT to paramedic, flight paramedic, and instructor. That work teaches you to assess quickly, stabilize what matters, and make decisions with incomplete information, because waiting for perfect information is its own decision.
Then an accident ended that career. The path I had planned was no longer available, and I had to decide what came next.
From patient care to operations
That change led into hospital administration and then 15 years of operations, procurement, and supply chain work, including strategic sourcing, contracting, and vendor management, in healthcare and federally funded research and graduate education. These were regulated environments, and I was often brought in to stabilize operations and build the processes, systems, and controls they needed. Along the way I earned a business degree in supply chain operations and, later, an MBA.
Operations work taught a lesson that carries into everything I do now: a problem that looks like staffing may actually be process. A vendor problem may be rooted in specifications, contracting, or internal accountability. Solving the wrong problem efficiently is still solving the wrong problem.
Director, executive, interim, fractional, owner
My roles grew into Director, Vice President, and President-level positions, then interim and fractional leadership, consulting, and business ownership. Each transition involved the same questions many of my clients face: What do I actually want the next chapter to look like? What am I willing to risk? What role do I want to play?
I learned that being self-employed is not just doing your old job without a boss. And I learned that there is rarely only one path forward.
Why that matters to the people I work with
Plan B and C has two practices.
Corporate Refugee helps experienced professionals move into self-employment of any kind: consulting or going solo, starting a business, buying one, a franchise, or deciding not to buy anything.
Strategic Advisory helps owners and organizations work through operating problems in process, procurement, systems, growth, and leadership capacity.
The common thread is the approach I learned in emergency medicine and refined in operations: Assess, Identify Options, Implement, Move Forward. It works the same way for a business that needs rescuing and for a corporate professional deciding what comes next. Clarity before activity. Start with the person, not the product. Start with the operating reality, not a package.
The goal is for you to make an informed decision.
If you are deciding what comes next
I am based on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and I work with clients across the country, mostly virtually. More of my background is on the About Matt Agnese page. If you are weighing a change, start with the Ownership Profile Questionnaire or book a conversation.
Because Plan B Isn’t Always Enough.™