Healthcare Private Equity, and Setting the Agenda for the Year Ahead with Holly Buckley of McGuireWoods LLP 12-16-25

Summary

Becker Business Podcast: "Healthcare Private Equity, and Setting the Agenda for the Year Ahead with Holly Buckley of McGuireWoods LLP"

Date: December 16, 2025
Host: Scott Becker
Guest: Holly Buckley, Chair, McGuireWoods Healthcare Department

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Scott Becker is joined by Holly Buckley, a leading attorney at McGuireWoods specializing in the intersection of healthcare and private equity. The discussion centers around the importance and impact of the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, strategies for yearly goal-setting within organizations, and a preview of the upcoming 23rd annual McGuireWoods Healthcare Private Equity Conference. The conversation provides insiders’ perspectives on critical healthcare trends, leadership in turbulent times, and what drives success and growth in the industry.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Significance of the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference

[00:14 – 03:09]

• Industry Kickoff: Holly describes the JP Morgan Conference as “really the kickoff of dealmaking every year…both a painful and wonderful experience.”
• Networking & Deal-Making: Despite challenging weather and crowds, she values the chance to reconnect with industry professionals to “discuss what folks' priorities are, what their observations are about the market, and what their goals are for the year.”
• Team Collaboration: Holly will attend with colleagues from McGuireWoods, discussing hot topics like FDA trends, investment strategies, and emerging sectors (women’s health, men’s health, longevity).
• Notable Quote:

  "It is just a great kickoff to the year and a chance to visit with and get invigorated about the dealmaking environment for the year."
  — Holly Buckley [02:57]

2. Healthcare Sector Issues to Watch in 2026

[03:09 – 04:20]

• Sectoral Diversity: Holly points out the diversity in the healthcare sector, with both struggling and thriving sub-sectors.
• Opportunity Amid Challenge: There’s notable interest in capitalizing on both growth and distress within healthcare.
• Forthcoming Trends: Certain sector “books” will be released at JP Morgan, serving as conversation starters at the conference.
• Deferral of Predictions:

  “My preference is let's put a pin in it and in three weeks let's talk about everything that we've seen and heard.”
  — Holly Buckley [03:57]

3. Organizational Goal Setting for the New Year

[04:20 – 07:45]

• Fluid Goals: Holly stresses that goals should be dynamic—“a window in time”—and adapt to unexpected developments, such as the rapid emergence of AI.
• Collaborative Philosophy: Goals in her department are developed collectively and require buy-in from the team.
• Ownership Culture:

  "It's critical that people have ownership over their own goals and you're not doing that for them."
  — Holly Buckley [07:04]

• Balance of Specificity: Some goals are broad and visionary, while others are precise and measurable.

4. What Inspires Excitement for 2026

[07:45 – 09:16]

• Priority on Growth: Holly is most excited by “growth for the group and recruiting,” targeting a 50% expansion over the next three years.
• Strategic Hires: Recent success in recruitment has created a strong foundation, and she aims to “accelerate that growth next year and onto the next kind of three to five years beyond that.”

5. Preview: 23rd Annual McGuireWoods Healthcare Private Equity Conference

[09:16 – 10:55]

• Industry Comparison: Holly refers to the conference as “kind of a mini JP Morgan conference.”
• Event Details:
  • April 29–30, 2026, at the Ritz Carlton, Chicago
  • Pre-conference workshop on April 28
  • Website: healthcareprivateequity.com
• Attendees: Lenders, investors, operators, investment bankers, and others across healthcare private equity.
• Networking & Substance: “Books are launched at our conference…We have deep dive substantive tracks and really great networking evening events.”
• Notable Quote:

  "It really is just a chance for like-minded health care private equity folks from all facets to get together and talk dealmaking and strategy and socialize and hopefully have some fun."
  — Holly Buckley [10:28]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the JP Morgan Conference:

  “For JP Morgan, it is both a painful and wonderful experience.”
  — Holly Buckley [01:36]

• On Goal-Setting:

  "I think of the goal setting exercise as a window in time..."
  — Holly Buckley [05:36]

• On Growth:

  "We want to grow that by a good 50 plus percent over the next three years with the right types of people in the right types of areas."
  — Holly Buckley [08:34]

• On Conference Energy:

  “People come here to deal make. Books are launched at our conference. It's a really key networking event.”
  — Holly Buckley [10:06]

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Key Timestamps

• 00:14 — Introduction of Holly Buckley and episode agenda
• 01:27 — Holly discusses the importance and dynamic of the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference
• 03:36 — Anticipated issues and unpredictability in healthcare in 2026
• 04:58 — Approaches to goal setting for the new year
• 06:50 — Granularity and ownership in goal-setting
• 08:18 — Holly shares excitement about group growth and recruiting
• 09:34 — Preview of the McGuireWoods Healthcare Private Equity Conference and its industry role
• 10:55 — Closing remarks and appreciation

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Tone & Takeaways

The conversation is collegial, optimistic, and grounded in the practical realities of healthcare finance. Holly Buckley emphasizes adaptability, collaborative leadership, and the importance of strategic growth and networking events in shaping both the internal culture of her team and the broader healthcare private equity landscape.

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This summary captures the core of the episode, providing valuable insights for listeners interested in healthcare, private equity, or organizational leadership heading into 2026.

Transcript

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[Scott Becker]

Auto Intelligence this is Scott Becker with the Becker Business Podcast. In the Becker Private Equity Podcast, I'm thrilled today to be joined by one of the best leaders I get to visit with. We're joined today by Holly Buckley. And Holly is the chair of the McGuire Woods Healthcare Department, which is one of the largest healthcare departments of its sort in the country. She works at the intersection of healthcare and private equity and also does a lot of work for large, not for profit health systems. We're going to talk to Holly today really about three discrete issues. Coming up is the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, which centers around a lot of the issues that Howie deals with. Second, we're going to talk about goal setting for next year. And finally third, I'm going to ask Holly to give a note and I think what's the 23rd annual McGuire Woods Healthcare Private Equity Conference that's coming up April 29th and April 30th in Chicago? Holly, let me ask you to start with, tell us a little bit about the JP Morgan experience at their healthcare conference and why it's so important to all kinds of people across the healthcare finance spectrum and world.

[Holly Buckley]

Thank you Scott, and as always, thank you for the conversation. So for JP Morgan is really the kickoff of deal making every year and it is both a painful and wonderful experience. Painful because it is San Francisco in January. It is often raining and there are a million people there. But wonderful because there are so many people there who we get the chance to reconnect with and visit with to kick off the year and discuss what folks priorities are, what their observations are about the market and what their goals are for the year. I will be out there with a team from McGuire woods including my good friend and colleague Jeff Cockrell and Trey Andrews and Kevin Madigan. Kevin is a newer partner with us who is on the life sciences side. It'll be his first time at JP Morgan with us and then some of my debt finance partners will also be out there. We will be meeting with folks over the 12th and 13th January and we'll be discussing a number of different topics including key FDA trends, things that folks with provider platform should really be focusing on at this point, just goals around investments and how to utilize capital to solve problems in health care and then also focusing on certain upcoming hot sectors such as women's health, men's Health longevity. And then we'll also be attending a variety of the social events out there. So all in all, it is just a great kickoff to the year and a chance to visit with and get invigorated about the dealmaking environment for the year.

[Scott Becker]

Thank you. And take a moment as you head to JP Morgan. Are there two or three big issues that people are thinking about in the healthcare sector? Where does it depend so much on all the different sectors that are represented? You got everything from major health systems to major healthcare companies to private equity investors in healthcare. Are there a few issues that people are sort of that you expect to be, you know, the conversations to be to revolve around the most.

[Holly Buckley]

Ah, that's a great question. And maybe we can just talk about this in three weeks. I mean, I honestly don't know, Scott, what those would be. I mean, I think that there are a variety of struggling provider sectors. There are a variety of sectors that are not struggling, that are where people want to deploy dollars. There's a lot of folks looking at how they can capitalize on some of the areas that have been struggling. There will be certain books that are getting released at JP Morgan that people will be talking about. And so I think my preference is let's put a pin in it and in three weeks let's talk about everything that we've seen and heard.

[Scott Becker]

Thank you very much. No, I think that's a fair, fair statement. And you've done. I've watched you lead the department at McGuire woods for several years now and you've done this incredible job of it through great in challenging economic times through Covid, through recruiting people, through growing the group. It's really been a masterclass in leadership. When you look at setting goals for a new year, how clearly do you set goals? How do you think about goals? Are there more targets and ideas or goals? How do you think about goal setting for a new year?

[Holly Buckley]

Thank you. And you are too kind in your words. But I think it is really important to set goals and also recognize that your goals are living and breathing and will change throughout the year. For example, at this time last year, I didn't have a full appreciation for the impact that AI would have had during 2025. It was still a lot more conceptual at the end of 2024 and now it is very, very real. And so I think of the goal setting exercise as a window in time as we get toward the end of the year and kick off the new year with kind of this phase being the formulation phase. And I'm happy to share some of my initial thoughts on goals. And then the beginning of the year really being the time that I communicate those goals with those around me and help get them invigorated to join me in terms of pursuing doing them. Because as a department chair, the goals are never just for me to go out and do. It's for us as a community and a collaborative to go out and work on. So really it's a window in time where we focus on what the next year will likely bring with giving ourselves some flexibility to modify over time.

[Scott Becker]

Thank you very, very much. And are there sort of like you think about things, do you set goals? I agree with you 100% that goals end up getting adjusted and changed and pivoted, but you sort of start, hey, here's some of the cores of what I'm trying to do next year. How do you think about them? Do you think about them as granularly as for each partner in each colleague or more as a group? When you look at the department and where it's going, how do you think about that?

[Holly Buckley]

I think of it more as a group. I don't get down to the granular level of individuals because I think it's really, really important that partners set their own goals. And that goes for everyone from kind of my long term partners to the newest partners we bring in. And I don't go set for other people because it's critical that people have ownership over their own goals and you're not doing that for them. So I think of these goals as personal goals and group goals and getting us on the pathway of where we want to be in the next three to five years. And so I, and I think of some of them as more, I guess, big picture and not necessarily smart goals and others are more smart goals where we are looking to actually measure them and achieve certain metrics. And so I think of them as group, individual and also some specific and some non specific.

[Scott Becker]

Thank you. When you look at this next year coming up, Holly, I mean and you kick the year off with the JP Morgan conference. We get into April with the McGuire Woods Healthcare Private Equity Conference. I think it's its 23rd year now. As you get started for a new year, what are you most excited about? What sort of gets you going and being like, I'm excited to go and I know you've got a lot of responsibilities early in the year but but what gets your sort of juices going where you're this is what I'm excited about for next year.

[Holly Buckley]

The biggest Thing for me is honestly growth for the group and recruiting and so yes, client wise, work wise, all of that, sure. But in terms of what I'm most excited about, it's really growth for the group. We have such a great, amazing platform and foundation that we've built that you've built the collectively we've built over the last, you know, 40 plus years and we really want to grow that by a good 50 plus percent over the next three years with the right types of people in the right types of areas. And we've done a really nice job over the last couple of years of making some really great strategic hires on our platform that have been really, really accretive and I want to continue that and really look to accelerate that growth next year and onto the next kind of three to five years beyond that.

[Scott Becker]

Thank you and take a second, give people a feel for the McGuire Woods Health Care Private Equity Conference. I know it's at the Ritz Carlton in April in Chicago. Talk a bit about who gathers there, what the thesis is, just a little bit about that meeting.

[Holly Buckley]

Yeah. So it's interesting and it's appropriate to talk about this kind of along with JP Morgan because really people do refer to our conference in a lot of ways it's kind of a mini J.P. morgan conference. The website for the conference actually went live today so this is super timely. It is healthcare privateequity.com the conference is April 29th and 30th as you said at the Ritz Carlton in Chicago. It's a two day event with the 28th the day before the conference we will have a pre conference workshop day. People come here to deal make books are launched at our conference. It's a really key networking event. We have lenders, we have investors, we have operators all in attendance as well as investment bankers and others who orbit around the industry. We have deep dive substantive tracks for those who are interested in them and then we have really great networking evening events as well. And so it really is just a chance for like minded health care private equity folks generically from all facets to get together and talk dealmaking and strategy and and socialize and hopefully have some fun.

[Scott Becker]

No, thank you very very much. I been attending for a long time. Love the chance to interact with people and see different professionals and investors and leaders from companies in the whole ecosystem of healthcare private equity. I know that between you and several other leaders, Amber, Jeff and others, it has turned into a premier, premier event again. Holly Buckley, what a pleasure to visit with you on the Becker business and the Becker Private Equity Podcast. Thank you so much for joining us.

[Holly Buckley]

Thank you, Scott.

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