From Daughter to COO: Alex Heileman on Leadership, Family Business, and the Future of HTM

What does leadership really look like behind the scenes of a growing HTM company?

In this episode of HTM On The Line, Bryant Hawkins Sr. sits down with Alex Heileman, COO of Elite Biomedical Solutions, to talk about leadership, family business, and building the future of the Healthcare Technology Management industry.

Alex shares her journey from working part-time in her father’s biomedical company as a teenager to helping lead a thriving organization that manufactures replacement parts and supports medical equipment across healthcare systems. She opens up about leadership lessons, overcoming self-doubt, and what it’s like running a business alongside family.

The conversation also dives into culture, motherhood and leadership, and why Alex believes the HTM workforce challenge isn’t a talent shortage, it’s an exposure shortage.

If you care about leadership, building strong teams, and inspiring the next generation of HTM professionals, this is a conversation you don’t want to miss.

Big thanks to our partners: College of Biomedical Equipment Technology, A.M. BICKFORD, INC., UptimeServices, MARS Bio-Med Processes Inc, Innovative Radiology and Sage Services Group. Your support keeps the HTM mission alive!

This podcast was produced by the B-Hawk Network.

Transcript

Meet Alex Heileman And Elite

Bryant Hawkins 0:01

Welcome back to HTML. I'm your host, Brian. Story with my story. Building out building a lot of it. I have a special guest this evening. The name is Ms. Alex Heilerman. How are you doing today, Alex?

Alex Helimen 1:34

I am very good. How are you?

Early Career And Finding Confidence

Bryant Hawkins 1:37

I'm great. I'm so appreciative that you took the moment to come hang out with me. You know, seeing you and all Will first, but I'll leave that for another day. No, I'm just joking. I love my ladies over there. Okay, let's get started. For those who may not know who Alex Heileman is, give us a little background on you.

Alex Helimen 2:03

So, as you mentioned, I'm Alex Heileman. I am the COO at Elite Biomedical Solutions. We are a small family-owned business located in Cincinnati, Ohio. When I say small family-owned, my dad is the CEO, and my cousin is the co-owner and CRO or chief revenue officer in sales. My husband is in the business. I have three other cousins in the business. My sister is in the business. I have an aunt in the business. Essentially, we are like HR's worst nightmare. When it comes to our family dynamics, but somehow we make it work. We manufacture new replacement parts for medical devices right in Cincinnati, Ohio. And that is something that just makes us unique, right? We offer repair services for medical devices, for infusion devices, telemetry devices, and patient monitoring. And those are the devices that we do manufacture new replacement parts for too. So in terms of kind of my history and how I kind of came to be in the HTM industry, it actually kind of started when I was 16. I started working part-time with my dad at the company that he was with prior to starting Elite. So at this previous company, also in the HTM industry. So I started young. This company, they were also in the repair business. They were flipping equipment, outright sales, rentals, things of that nature. He was the COO of that company. And like I said, I kind of worked part-time for him because I've always been like a huge daddy's girl. He'd always joke when I was little that I was his little shadow because everywhere he would go, I would go, like following him around. And so naturally, with my first opportunity to work somewhere part-time, that was a cool opportunity. Most kids my age were, you know, working in restaurants or movie theaters and things like that. So to say that I was working in a biomed shop with medical devices and stuff, that was kind of unheard of for kids our age. So that was kind of cool to brag about.

Bryant Hawkins 5:04

Okay, you mentioned that you're the COO, I'll be leaked. Now, what did your early career teach you that you still lean on today as COO?

What A COO Actually Does

Alex Helimen 5:17

I would say one early lesson that I lean on today, I know you'll find this very surprising, but it actually comes from my dad. But we were having before I was officially named COO, we were having multiple conversations about me being named COO. And he would constantly say, you know, I'm ready to name you as my COO. And I was the one pumping the brakes and saying, I'm glad you're ready, but I'm I'm not ready. And I was the one who was hesitant just because of my own lack of confidence and probably the imposter syndrome and things of that nature, right? And you know, my dad is somebody who not only I admire, but that I feel that a lot of people admire. And he is a very well-respected person in the industry and within our company. And so I've always just kind of worried about filling his shoes. And I told him that in that in that conversation. I said, I don't know how I'm expected to fill your shoes. Like that's the hang up. And he paused and he looked at me and he said, You don't.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

You have your own shoes to fill. And I was like, huh. You're right.

Alex Helimen 7:23

Um how I viewed myself as a leader, leadership in general. Instead of trying to replicate who he was as a leader and who I thought other people were as leaders, and what I think I should be as a leader, as a COO, I realized that I just need to be myself as a COO and as a leader. And I needed to figure out my own leadership style and what that means to me and how I want to lead. And so that is just kind of the one lesson that's just always stuck in the back of my mind, and that I try to kind of remember and remind myself, you know, daily as I operate as COL.

Bryant Hawkins 8:20

Now there's a saying that, you know, I keep this close to my heart when I'm thinking of a person that came before me. And you know, they always say, Man, you can't feel that person's shoes. But great leaders, they don't um they don't leave shoes for us to fill. They leave paths for us to continue. So that's what your dad wants. He don't he don't he don't want you to fill his shoes, he wants you to continue on that path. His shoes open up a pathway for you. Just follow it, you know. And you're doing a great job, obviously, because your company is doing great. Now what does the CEO role really look like behind the scenes? As I mentioned, your company is growing. So what does their role look like? Can we get behind the curtain a little? You ain't gotta share everything with us, buddy. What's the day in the life of Alex?

The Three KPIs That Matter

Alex Helimen 9:15

Chaotic. No, I'm just kidding. I mean, it is it is chaos. Now, you know, I think that people imagine operations as just like logistics and processes, and it and it is to an extent, but it's also bigger than that. You know, operations is where vision either becomes a reality or where it quietly dies, right? So, like my job is to build systems that make success repeatable, systems for people, systems for processes, for our culture, for our accountability. Because if something only works when one person is pushing it every day, then it's not a system, it's a dependency. So, you know, that's why my dad and I's relationship in particular, as him being CEO and me being the COO works really well hand in hand. And you'll see this in a lot of a lot of companies, right? Where your CEO is typically kind of like your visionary, right? And your COO or the right hand person is typically like the executor. So like he has these big dreams, these big goals, these big visions. And then it's my job to come alongside and figure out, okay, but how do we make these visions come to life? Can we or can't we, or can't we? You know? And you know, there's days where he will just he'll constantly be throwing things, darts at the wall, and some of them stick and some of them don't. And I'll let him know that. You know, we're very candid in those conversations, but you know, we we try to figure that out together, and that's just kind of you know how we roll.

Bryant Hawkins 11:13

KPIs, you know, everybody looks at key performance indicators. What KPI would you say matters the most to you? And how does it drive your decision making if you had to pick one?

SPEAKER_01 11:27

If there's one. Just one. I mean do I have one? Give me two, give me two.

Bryant Hawkins 11:38

Maybe three.

Alex Helimen 11:39

I was gonna say I have three.

Bryant Hawkins 11:41

Okay, great. Go with those three.

Alex Helimen 11:42

You'll allow me.

Bryant Hawkins 11:43

Yes, go ahead.

Alex Helimen 11:44

Okay, operational efficiency, right? Because you have to make sure you're using your resources well, okay. Customer outcomes, especially involve like especially within the HTM industry, healthcare, right? Because that quality and reliability are super important in healthcare, okay? And then leadership development, no matter what industry you're in, leadership development are super important because the depth of our leaders is what determines how far your organization can grow. So operational efficiency, customer outcomes, and the leadership development would be my three.

Bryant Hawkins 12:32

Now, you mentioned a lot of family members as part of the team. Yes. How does that influence the way you lead? I mean, does that make it better? Does that make it more challenging? Dealing with a lot of family is tough on a family level, let alone on a business level. So how does that influence the way you lead when you're working with so many family members?

Leading In A Family Company

Alex Helimen 12:56

It's challenging, you know, it's listen, it's a privilege, but it's also a responsibility, I think is the best way I can put it, right? Like it's it's it's both of those things. It's it's so fun and exciting, but it does, it does come with challenges too. And so for me personally, I just try to be so like as aware as I possibly can. I try to be super understanding, I try to have the emotional intelligence, I try to try to always think business first in the business setting and then and then family first outside of the business, right? Like I try to keep those boundaries in place, right? Like, so when we're when we're in the office, we're talking, we're talking as CEO and COO, or like in my sister's case, she's our chief vision officer. So CBO and then COO, or whatever the dynamic is in our roles, right? Like we try to keep those boundaries as best as we can in the office, and then outside of the office, we're family, and we try to not talk about business at home and at the dinner table or at family events. But again, at the end of the day, we are human and those lines do blur and it can be challenging. And sometimes feelings can get hurt, and sometimes we don't always all agree with each other. But the good thing too is, as I mentioned earlier with like the start of elite and stuff, is we all very much believe that like this is God's company. God is who helped us create elite. We all feel very strongly in our faith of God, and we try to remain, you know, and and keep our eyes on God in those situations and remain faithful in those situations to know that like at the end of the day, like our our family dynamics are important and stuff, and it will all work out the way according to God's plans, right? And so it can be challenging and it can be great. I do get a hug from my dad every morning in the office, so that's one of the perks.

Bryant Hawkins 15:30

Oh, that's cool. That's cool. I mean, because you know, today's workplace to try to avoid the F word, you know, don't say family, but you guys can't avoid it because you literally are family. So it's it's it's I guess let me ask you this. I mean, you mentioned that y'all don't really try you try to keep it separated. Yes. You you mentioned how your dad gives you hugs every day. So that's probably one of the biggest advantages, advantages of having family in the building. But what are some other advantages you may say that you have working alongside family?

Alex Helimen 16:09

You know, I would say one of the biggest advantages is how much we trust each other, right? Like because we're family, there's that trust factor too. Like I we trust each other implicitly. So, like at the end of the day, we know that like no matter what, we have each other's backs, we know that it's all hands on deck. And and so that helps too. That you're never alone in the situation. And what's great too is there's so many people in Elite, the culture that we've built, I'll tell you, man, it's just it's incredible. And there's people who aren't necessarily blood and and technically have the Smith name, but they are family. And and it's just it is such a family environment. And it's it's just such a great, a great culture and a great place to be. And I just I trust so many of those people implicitly. And that is that is such a perk, right? Because I know that I can step away, like especially that's so nice as like a COO, right? Because I know that if I need to step away because a child is sick and I need to work from home or pivot my day for whatever reason, like I trust that the team's got it handled at work in the office. I don't need to like call in and check on them or be worried about things dropping or anything like that. Like I trust them implicitly, and that's a huge, huge advantage.

Bryant Hawkins 17:44

Yeah, yeah, because um the key isn't really the word family, but it's the behavior behind it. Right. That's what you're saying, in a sense. Yeah, because your family blood is relatives. I tell people that don't make you family, you're just relatives. You can become families by the behavior, by the actions.

Alex Helimen 18:04

Yeah.

Parenting Lessons That Shape Leadership

Bryant Hawkins 18:05

And just listening to your voice talk about the culture, it's I can feel it through the doggone microphone. It's like you literally, I can see that you really believe that, and you y'all living that, and that's amazing. And it's gotta be comforting too to go to a job where everyone feels like y'all run into the same accord, which is an awesome feeling.

Alex Helimen 18:29

It is.

Bryant Hawkins 18:30

Congratulations on having that.

Alex Helimen 18:32

Thank you. It can be hard too. Like it's got its challenges too, right? Because then it's when things aren't going well, it makes it more difficult, you know. When you're when you're going through harder times or when you have to have harder conversations with people and stuff, it can be challenging then, right? Because because they've because you're so close with those people, and you know, so that it comes with its challenges too. But like I said in the beginning, you know, it's it's a privilege, but it also has you know, comes with the heavy responsibilities too. So that's the best way I can put it.

Bryant Hawkins 19:10

Yeah, I guess working with that Travis guy probably is a big challenge, I'm sure.

Alex Helimen 19:15

T Pain, we love T Pain. Oh, I call him T Pain. Yay!

Bryant Hawkins 19:21

I didn't know that. Oh, I like that. I'm like, what's up, Travis? Give me a shout out.

Alex Helimen 19:26

Yes, he's a good guy. So love that.

Bryant Hawkins 19:30

T Pain, I love it. Now, we talked about your work family and which is your real family. So do you have an extended family at the house? I know your husband works with you, but are there any little ones?

Alex Helimen 19:44

My little ones are too little, they don't work with me, but they come into the office often. And I love that because they they get they love coming to work, which is so funny, right? If they have an opportunity to come in because they have a day off, or you know, they're home because they're sick or something, they're like, Can we go to work? And I'm like, I guess. So my daughter was homesick today, actually, and I was working from home to hang out with her, and she was feeling better, so she's good. But I had to run in real quick for a meeting, and she was like, Well, I want to go in. And I was like, Are you sure you're feeling up to it? And she said, Yeah, because she just loves seeing everybody. And it's not even like saying hi to her dad, obviously my husband, or even seeing like my dad or her grandpa. Like she loves seeing everybody, like everybody she wants to say hi to, and they love seeing her. And she'll like go hang out with the customer service ladies in the service department and help them box things up or help with the bubble wrap. Like, she they love, they love to do like help out, which is kind of fun. And I love that, right? I love that they love coming in.

Bryant Hawkins 21:01

Now, your daughter, how old is your daughter?

Alex Helimen 21:06

She is eight, she will be nine in May.

Bryant Hawkins 21:10

So you had your daughter before you became in this leadership role you're in right now, currently.

Alex Helimen 21:16

Yes, I had her when I was still teaching. I had her when I was teaching, and then I had my son Jace, who actually shout out to him, he turns seven this Friday. I had him, um I was on maternity leave with him actually, right when I made the decision to leave teaching and come back to Elite.

Bryant Hawkins 21:41

Oh wow. So has motherhood changed the way you would say you would lead your team as the kids growing and you in the position that you're in. Does that change anyway?

Alex Helimen 21:55

Oh, absolutely. Yeah, motherhood has completely Shaped like who I am as a person, but also like my leadership style, you know, because the thing about motherhood is it have it like holds that mirror up to who you are as a person, right? Whether it's motherhood or fatherhood or whatever, just parenthood, right? It holds that mirror up to us and it says and it shows us who we are as people because kids have this incredible ability, blessing or curse, right? They have this incredible ability to expose our strengths and weaknesses because they see everything, right? They see our patience, they see our reactions, they see how we handle stress and they absorb it all. And so every day my three teach me something about myself. And sometimes it's good things, right? Sometimes it's good things that I didn't realize about my own capacity for love or my own patience, and sometimes it's areas where I realize that I might still have some work to do on myself, like my patience. But that kind of self-awareness definitely carries into leadership too. Because if we want to lead people well, we need to constantly be learning about ourselves. We need to be learning about our reactions, our blind spots, and our impact on others. And so they've taught me that leadership isn't just about having everything figured out, right? It's about growing continuously. And though they might still be very young and small, they are some of the greatest teachers I have ever had.

Bryant Hawkins 24:07

I have to ask this question.

unknown 24:09

Yeah.

Bryant Hawkins 24:10

Let's look outside the A building now.

HTM Shortage Or Exposure Gap

SPEAKER_01 24:14

Yeah.

Bryant Hawkins 24:14

How serious is the HTML workforce shortage? In your opinion.

Alex Helimen 24:24

You know, I don't think I would classify the HTM shortage as necessarily a talent shortage. I would say that we have an exposure shortage. And I know you would agree with that, right?

Bryant Hawkins 24:43

A little. A thousand percent.

Alex Helimen 24:48

So it's very serious, right? Students don't know about the career, schools are rarely introducing it, guidance counselors don't necessarily understand it, and so they're not going to be able to pursue something that they aren't being introduced to.

Bryant Hawkins 25:15

No, what responsibility do companies like I'm not trying to put elite on the spot, but like elite, biomedical have in building this next generation. Do y'all take some responsibility in that?

Alex Helimen 25:30

Absolutely. We can't sit back and expect schools to solve this workforce problem for us. So we have to participate in building this pipeline, whether it's through mentorship, internships, exposure. And so for us as a company, what we've done is we do have partnerships with a lot of the local schools, both at college levels and the high school levels. So for example, we have partnerships with UC in Miami. And with those partnerships, we do offer co-op opportunities for students to come in, whether it's job shadowing or actual paid co-op opportunities to work with us in our departments. And you say UC in Miami, you're talking about University of Cincinnati and then Miami University of Ohio.

Bryant Hawkins 26:30

Oh, okay. I'm thinking South Florida.

Alex Helimen 26:33

Sorry, I keep forgetting you're not from Ohio. So I just assume everybody knows what I'm talking about, Brian.

Bryant Hawkins 26:39

Okay, okay. I'm about to say, um, why y'all way in Miami? I mean, I thought you were up in Ohio. Okay.

Alex Helimen 26:44

Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.

Bryant Hawkins 26:47

Okay. Continue.

Building The Talent Pipeline

Alex Helimen 26:52

And then we also do partnership with a lot of the local high schools, too. And again, that's something that I'm just passionate about, right? Like I'm I came from the education background. So here I am thinking, like after I left education and coming back to the business world that, you know, I was leaving all of that behind, but nah, baby, nah. I'm not if anything, I'm just getting started, right? Like I have such a passion for the young mind. So I love getting involved with the young, young, younger generation and building the pipeline. So, like, this is my wheelhouse, you know. And so we we do offer tours and things like that. We actually have a high school, a local high school coming in in a couple of weeks. They've got 25 students that will be joining us for a few hours. And what they'll do is we offer a guided tour. And so they'll tour our whole facility. And we do we introduce them to all of our departments, and we'll do like a breakdown of all of the different job opportunities and career pathways within our company so they can kind of get a feel and be introduced to all of the different jobs and careers within a company like Elite. And then we have a career panel. So we'll have people from every department come and sit on a panel so that they can give them kind of an idea of their own experiences and how they've come to Elite and where they've worked and what their history has been in terms of schooling and non-schooling or certifications and accreditations. And then the kids will have opportunities to kind of mix and mingle and ask questions. And we've had really good turnouts and success with those those opportunities too. And a lot of students will come back asking, can I bring my parents? Can I come back to job shadow? And that's been that's been really exciting.

Bryant Hawkins 28:52

Man, if you can see my face, man. I mean, oh, it's amazing. God, man, you man, you got man, y'all doing it over there. Awesome. It's amazing. We find over my word hard. I know. Oh man, that is beautiful, man. Yeah, that's a quiet secret y'all keeping, man. That's amazing.

Alex Helimen 29:13

We're not trying to keep it quiet. We just, you know.

Bryant Hawkins 29:16

That's an awesome example for any business that's listening. I mean, 25 kids, you don't if you get one. I know. That's a that's a major accomplishment. Oh man.

Alex Helimen 29:27

Yeah.

Bryant Hawkins 29:28

I love it. I love it.

Alex Helimen 29:29

I'm trying to think of how many. I guess I should start keeping track of how many boys and students we have coming through.

Bryant Hawkins 29:35

Take a group picture, each one that comes through.

Alex Helimen 29:38

Yeah, we need to do that. I think we had two or three high schools come through last year, and I know we took a few pictures, so I need to start doing a better job tracking.

Bryant Hawkins 29:49

Um, I'll help you.

Alex Helimen 29:51

Okay. I'll help you with promoting the I'm so focused on the day of and just like keeping them in and like let's do this, let's talk about that. I don't really think about like, okay, let's track this, let's take pictures, let's post about that. But right, I could be better at that.

Bryant Hawkins 30:10

Have you have you ever had one kid say they heard of the HTM ministry?

Alex Helimen 30:16

Of the ministries?

Bryant Hawkins 30:17

Of the HTM industry.

Alex Helimen 30:19

Oh, oh, uh like after or before coming to us before not yet.

Bryant Hawkins 30:25

Yeah, so wow. Um I had one kid that knew about it because her mom had a friend that was a biomed.

Alex Helimen 30:34

Really?

Bryant Hawkins 30:34

Other than that, nobody. I mean, I'm talking teachers, not just the kids, teachers either. So nobody. You might find that one kid, and it might be because his kid came, he came to you as a kid. Yeah, he grew up, but that's amazing. I love that. And keep doing that. That's thank you. Everyone needs to know that, and everyone should be doing that.

Alex Helimen 30:57

Yes, I agree.

Bryant Hawkins 30:58

This is a bonus question for you.

Alex Helimen 31:00

Okay.

Bryant Hawkins 31:02

If you have to give advice to someone who is new in the industry, what advice would you give them?

Advice For Newcomers And Women Leaders

Alex Helimen 31:14

To not be afraid to challenge things within the industry. Okay, and what I mean by that is we can't keep doing the things the way we've always done them. We need new technicians, we need new leaders, we need new people willing to introduce this field to the next generation. So for those newbies coming in as as new BMATs to this industry, uh don't be afraid to challenge things and make a difference and and shake things up the way this industry hasn't seen it before.

Bryant Hawkins 32:03

Right? Yeah, right. Now, uh normally would ask you to give advice to someone that's been in the industry for a while, but I'm gonna change it up a little bit. I want you to give advice to a young female beam who is aspiring to obtain a leadership role. What type of encouragement would you give her?

Alex Helimen 32:29

You don't need permission to lead. You just need to invest it, be willing to invest in yourself and build your confidence and don't wait to be invited to the table. Pull up your chair and take a seat.

Bryant Hawkins 33:03

Thank you again, Alex. I appreciate your time and I love your passion. I love your charisma, you're very charismatic. Don't use that. That's a great talent to have, and you welcome back anytime. Anytime, you're always welcome. You're now part of the family of HTM On the Line, and I appreciate you.

Alex Helimen 33:24

Thank you. Really enjoyed speaking with you tonight, too. Looking forward to many more conversations.

Closing Reflections And Challenge

Bryant Hawkins 33:30

Great, great. One of the most powerful things Alex said in this conversation is that the HTM Workforce Challenge isn't a talent shortage, it's an exposure shortage. There are students out there right now who could thrive in this field. They just haven't been introduced to it yet. That's why the work companies like Elite Biomedical are doing opening their doors, bringing students in, showing them what's possible matters so much. If you're listening today and you're part of the HTM community, remember that don't just do the work. Show someone else the work. Because the future of this end of the Twitter, end of it, and then you can see that.