Bill Borne is the chief executive officer and chairman of the board of Amedisys, a leading provider of home health care and hospice service across the United States, which he founded in 1982. Amedisys’ purpose is to assist patients in maintaining and improving their quality of life.
A native of Reserve, Louisiana, Mr. Borne transferred from Nicholls State University in 1976 and graduated as a registered nurse from Charity Hospital School of Nursing in New Orleans in 1979. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Borne worked as a prison medic in the Crescent City and later at a hospital where he became the director of Nursing at age 23.
Mr. Borne’s professional career has indeed been one of entrepreneurship. From the selling of Cambridge Diet products and beginning a cleaning service to starting a consultancy to teach hospitals how to be more fiscally responsible, his experiences ultimately led to the establishment of a nurse staffing business. Amedisys was listed in Inc. magazine's fastest growing companies in 1989 and 1990. Eager to expand from nurse staffing, Mr. Borne took Amedisys public in December 1993 through a reverse merger with M&N Capital Corporation. He then acquired several surgery centers and physician-management practices.
In 1997, Mr. Borne completely revamped Amedisys with a new board of directors and the idea of concentrating solely on home nursing for Medicare recipients-a risky proposition considering Medicare's proposed and soon-to-be implemented reimbursement plan. After weathering a few storms, and investing $8 million in technology upgrades from 2000-2004 to link every Amedisys site together, the company continued to expand aggressively and today offers hospice services in 18 states and has home health care sites in 36 states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico.
Amedisys was listed on Investors Business Daily’s Top 100 as the number one investment recommendation in 2004 and, that same year, was ranked fourth out of the Top 200 small companies in the United States by Forbes magazine. The following year, Amedisys was ranked the fourth best stock of the decade by CNBC. Accolades continued to be heaped on the company in the years that followed. Forbes magazine has repeatedly listed it in its Top 200 Small Companies; Fortune magazine ranked it seventh on its list of 100 Fastest-Growing Companies in 2006, and BusinessWeek placed it at sixty-fifth on its list of 100 Hot Growth Companies in 2007. Just last year, TheStreet.com named Amedisys as a Top Five fast-growth stock, and the Louisiana State Nurses Association Foundation proclaimed the company the Outstanding Employer or Facility of the Year other than a hospital.
Mr. Borne was named The Greater Baton Rouge Business Report's 1990 Young Businessperson of the Year and Entrepreneur of the Year, Forbes magazine’s 2004 Entrepreneur of the Year, and received the 2004 Guardian Angel Award from the Caring Institute.
Besides his service to Amedisys, Mr. Borne serves on the boards of the Our Lady of the Lake Foundation, Business First Bank of Baton Rouge, and the Cardiovascular Research Foundation of Louisiana. As a respected member of the capital city business community, Mr. Borne graciously appeared as a panelist in 2007 at the LSU Flores MBA Alumni Association event Louisiana Looking Up.
Mr. Borne and his wife, Wendy, have three daughters and one son.
Personal Reflections
LSU has brought credibility to our great state of Louisiana. Through its outstanding academic contributions, as well as its athletic programs, LSU has improved our state’s reputation in the eyes of the nation. LSU has made Louisiana a better state, and I am proud and honored to have my daughter Hanna in attendance as a freshman. I also truly enjoy the beautiful campus. Although I am not an alumnus of the University, I consider it a great honor to be inducted into the Hall of Distinction. I have been all over the country and visited many campuses but none have the LSU Spirit. Institutions such as LSU make me proud to be part of this state.