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Aligning
Tradition &
Innovation

Ulrich Brechbuhl ’82

Counselor, U.S. Department of State

Ulrich currently serves as Counselor to the U.S. Department of State. Prior to joining the U.S. Department of State, Mr. Brechbuhl was President of Appenzeller Point, LLC, a family investing and consulting business.

From 2012 through 2014 Ulrich served as the Executive Vice-President Provider Services (EVP-PS) for Emdeon, as well as the CEO of Chamberlin Edmonds and Associates. As EVP-PS, he was responsible for combining the multiple Emdeon provider side acquisitions done in the 2009-2011 time-frame into a multi-faceted, coordinated and fully integrated business unit, providing a full suite of Revenue Cycle Solutions (technology and services) and a single face to the domestic provider market place. Over this time-frame, and while helping the company transition from a public company to a private one controlled by Blackstone, he and his team successfully accomplished that mission and took a combined provider business of more than $300M in revenue and well over 2000 employees, that had been growing revenue and EBITDA in the low single digits annually, and accelerated revenue growth to over ten percent and EBITDA growth to in excess of seventeen percent.

Ulrich was brought to Chamberlin Edmonds in June of 2004 by the founder and a private equity investor group who were seeking to turn around Chamberlin Edmonds and take advantage of a perceived market opportunity for rapid revenue and disproportionate earnings growth. Working closely with the founder, investors and a team of talented executives, most of which he helped recruit, Ulrich delivered significant results growing revenue at an average annual rate over 20% and earnings at a rate in excess of 50% per year from 2004 through 2010. This performance led to the successful sale of the business in May of 2008, to a new set of private equity owners led by the Charterhouse Group. In October 2010 the business was sold again, this time to Emdeon, resulting in an internal rate of return well in excess of 40% for the ownership group.

For almost ten years before coming to Chamberlin Edmonds Ulrich worked in rapid growth and turnaround environments with both middle market as well as large cap companies. Most notably he served as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and then as the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MigraTEC, Inc. a publicly traded software business. Prior to that, he was a founder and CFO of Thayer Aerospace, a leading provider of structural components and assemblies to the aerospace and defense industries which grew from a start-up to having over $70 million in revenue in a little over two years.

From 1994-1998, Ulrich was a consultant and manager with Bain & Company, a strategic management consulting firm. During his time at Bain, he led teams in a variety of industries (including high tech, aerospace and defense, construction etc.) that developed business unit as well as corporate level growth strategies, valued new business opportunities, designed and implemented reorganizations, and led cost cutting and profit enhancement projects.

Having been born in Switzerland, Ulrich hails from Garden City, New York and is fluent in four languages. He attended the Waldorf School of Garden City from Nursery through Grade 12. Upon reflecting on his years at Waldorf, he writes, “The variety of people I met and experiences I had during my formative years at Waldorf helped prepare me for the extremely disparate situations I have found myself in, both in the military as well as in civilian life.” He then attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, earning a Bachelor of Science degree with distinction in 1986. During his six and one-half years of active duty service as a cavalry officer, Ulrich experienced a myriad of assignments from leading troops patrolling the Iron Curtain with the Second Calvary, to serving as a general’s aide, to working as an operations officer during the Persian Gulf War with 1-7 Cavalry, First Cavalry Division. Ulrich’s service culminated with the successful command of an armored cavalry troop at Fort Hood, Texas.

Ulrich left the military in 1992 to attend Harvard Business School, from which he received his MBA in 1994. He currently serves on the Board of Alcentra Capital Corporation, a publicly traded business development company, and is an active member of the Rotary Club of Atlanta, the West Point Society of Atlanta, of which he is a past president, and the HBS Club of Atlanta.   He and his wife, Michelle, have three sons, Hans (17), Jacob (16) and Pirmin (14) and are very active in their church, the North Atlanta Church of Christ. He is also involved in a number of other civic organizations including serving on the Greater Atlanta Christian School Foundation Board, serving as an assistant scoutmaster with Boy Scout Troop 379, Atlanta Area Council, and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Atlanta Area Council, BSA.

Ulrich Brechbuhl '82

Law, Politics, & GovernmentSymposium Panelist 2016
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Ulrich Brechbuhl '82

Law, Politics, & GovernmentSymposium Panelist 2016

Counselor, U.S. Department of State

Ulrich currently serves as Counselor to the U.S. Department of State. Prior to joining the U.S. Department of State, Mr. Brechbuhl was President of Appenzeller Point, LLC, a family investing and consulting business.

From 2012 through 2014 Ulrich served as the Executive Vice-President Provider Services (EVP-PS) for Emdeon, as well as the CEO of Chamberlin Edmonds and Associates. As EVP-PS, he was responsible for combining the multiple Emdeon provider side acquisitions done in the 2009-2011 time-frame into a multi-faceted, coordinated and fully integrated business unit, providing a full suite of Revenue Cycle Solutions (technology and services) and a single face to the domestic provider market place. Over this time-frame, and while helping the company transition from a public company to a private one controlled by Blackstone, he and his team successfully accomplished that mission and took a combined provider business of more than $300M in revenue and well over 2000 employees, that had been growing revenue and EBITDA in the low single digits annually, and accelerated revenue growth to over ten percent and EBITDA growth to in excess of seventeen percent.

Ulrich was brought to Chamberlin Edmonds in June of 2004 by the founder and a private equity investor group who were seeking to turn around Chamberlin Edmonds and take advantage of a perceived market opportunity for rapid revenue and disproportionate earnings growth. Working closely with the founder, investors and a team of talented executives, most of which he helped recruit, Ulrich delivered significant results growing revenue at an average annual rate over 20% and earnings at a rate in excess of 50% per year from 2004 through 2010. This performance led to the successful sale of the business in May of 2008, to a new set of private equity owners led by the Charterhouse Group. In October 2010 the business was sold again, this time to Emdeon, resulting in an internal rate of return well in excess of 40% for the ownership group.

For almost ten years before coming to Chamberlin Edmonds Ulrich worked in rapid growth and turnaround environments with both middle market as well as large cap companies. Most notably he served as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and then as the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MigraTEC, Inc. a publicly traded software business. Prior to that, he was a founder and CFO of Thayer Aerospace, a leading provider of structural components and assemblies to the aerospace and defense industries which grew from a start-up to having over $70 million in revenue in a little over two years.

From 1994-1998, Ulrich was a consultant and manager with Bain & Company, a strategic management consulting firm. During his time at Bain, he led teams in a variety of industries (including high tech, aerospace and defense, construction etc.) that developed business unit as well as corporate level growth strategies, valued new business opportunities, designed and implemented reorganizations, and led cost cutting and profit enhancement projects.

Having been born in Switzerland, Ulrich hails from Garden City, New York and is fluent in four languages. He attended the Waldorf School of Garden City from Nursery through Grade 12. Upon reflecting on his years at Waldorf, he writes, “The variety of people I met and experiences I had during my formative years at Waldorf helped prepare me for the extremely disparate situations I have found myself in, both in the military as well as in civilian life.” He then attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, earning a Bachelor of Science degree with distinction in 1986. During his six and one-half years of active duty service as a cavalry officer, Ulrich experienced a myriad of assignments from leading troops patrolling the Iron Curtain with the Second Calvary, to serving as a general’s aide, to working as an operations officer during the Persian Gulf War with 1-7 Cavalry, First Cavalry Division. Ulrich’s service culminated with the successful command of an armored cavalry troop at Fort Hood, Texas.

Ulrich left the military in 1992 to attend Harvard Business School, from which he received his MBA in 1994. He currently serves on the Board of Alcentra Capital Corporation, a publicly traded business development company, and is an active member of the Rotary Club of Atlanta, the West Point Society of Atlanta, of which he is a past president, and the HBS Club of Atlanta.   He and his wife, Michelle, have three sons, Hans (17), Jacob (16) and Pirmin (14) and are very active in their church, the North Atlanta Church of Christ. He is also involved in a number of other civic organizations including serving on the Greater Atlanta Christian School Foundation Board, serving as an assistant scoutmaster with Boy Scout Troop 379, Atlanta Area Council, and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Atlanta Area Council, BSA.