Sam Hanson Achieves Sustainable Growth

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When Sam Hanson took the position of director of construction and facilities at Everside Health in 2021, his immediate goal was to institute sustainable initiatives across the organization’s existing real estate portfolio and implement new design strategies into its de novo growth plan.

Everside Health has more than 380 healthcare centers throughout 34 states, and Hanson regularly oversees 40 to 60 new healthcare centers annually, plus various expansion and remodel projects for other facilities. He’s also helping to lead the company’s rebrand campaign for all the sites, merging four legacy brands under one umbrella and looking to reduce the company’s carbon footprint.

Being LEED accredited, Hanson has always had a passion for sustainability and working on projects that had an environmental mindset. 

“As a member of Everside’s internal Evergreen Committee, we’ve kicked off 2023 by assessing all of our locations, creating short- and long-term sustainability initiatives to mitigate our impact on the environment,” Hanson says.

His quick success at meeting his goals wasn’t too surprising given that for six years, Hanson worked for Service King Collision in Richardson, Texas, where he achieved measurable, sustainable outcomes through process creation and improvement. 

“At Service King, it was all about reducing our overhead and putting our best foot forward, so we began researching and implementing lighting retrofits, water reducing measures and reclamation, maximizing our mechanical performance, and establishing landscaping programs,” Hanson recalls. “As the climate crisis transpires and investors are thinking about where they are going to put their money, environmentally friendly companies who are looking to reduce their carbon footprint are top of mind.”

Interest in construction and the design field came from Hanson’s grandfather—a painter in New Orleans who worked for the racetrack—whom he often visited and worked with on some of his jobs. 

Then, after serving in the US Marine Corps, Hanson went to college and pursued a degree in construction engineering at the University of Southern Mississippi. Along the way, he started his own landscaping company and joined the rebuilding efforts in the Mississippi Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina hit.

“I became a builder by trade and migrated from residential to multifamily, then ultimately to the commercial side,” he recounts. 

That led him to Service King Collision Repair. Initially hired on as director of construction in 2015, Hanson helped convert the majority of the company’s new acquisitions to Service Kings, handling everything from remodels to rebranding to reconfiguration of the existing shops.

“As the climate crisis transpires and investors are thinking about where they are going to put their money, environmentally friendly companies who are looking to reduce their carbon footprint are top of mind.”

Sam Hanson

“As the rate of larger acquisitions began slowing in our industry, Service King began exploring organic growth as an incremental part of our comprehensive growth strategy that allowed us to infill gaps in market coverage,” Hanson shares.

As a result, Service King started constructing new ground-up developments in places like Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Chicago with their new prototype design, which focused on the maximization of efficiency and capacity.

By being charged with so much growth, Hanson developed a leadership philosophy based on approaching everything with a sense of curiosity. “That has helped me build relationships both internal or external and helps me ask the questions that enable them to reimagine solutions,” he says. 

That has carried over to his leadership at Everside Health, where he was tasked with modernizing the department and creating new teams when he came into the job. The department currently consists of three construction managers, one real estate manager, a facilities manager, and a coordinator. 

Hanson encourages his team to never stop improving. “We have a very young, motivated team overall, and utilizing the creativity of young leaders helps an organization in its transformation from a small company mentality to a larger scalable mindset,” Hanson offers. “I think it helps them learn what some of the challenges are and gives them more visibility as we contribute and add value to the organization.” 

“We have a very young, motivated team overall, and utilizing the creativity of young leaders helps an organization in its transformation from a small company mentality to a larger scalable mindset.”

Sam Hanson

Hanson continues to think about the future and is currently pursuing a master’s in real estate, along with an MBA from Johns Hopkins in his continuing efforts to make a difference. “Ideally, my long-term trajectory would elevate me into a chief real estate office or chief sustainability office role that would allow me to continue my pursuit for carbon reduction and process improvement,” he says. “I love empowering my teams and encouraging them to grow in their careers. I love passing on knowledge and being able to give back to others.”

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