A Legacy of Innovation in Healthcare (ft. Tom Curtin)

Welcome to Digital Voices, where healthcare and life science leaders explore the real work behind transformation. This podcast is about people, leadership, and the conversations that move healthcare forward. Now your host, Ed Marx.

Ed here, and welcome to another edition of Digital Voices. Thank you for listening. We know you have so many different choices, great podcasts out there, but you've chosen to spend time with Tom and I. We're really thankful and we're going to make this worth your while. So I am excited to have Tom Curtin. He's the CEO of Amtelco with us on Digital Voices. Tom, welcome.

Thank you very much, Ed, for having me. Appreciate it.

I'm really excited about this because it's a very American story. And I won't say more than that. I'll just let you tell us a little bit about Amtelco as the time comes. The first time we met in person was actually at the Amtelco annual, I don't think you call it a conference, but you call it a seminar. Yeah. Seminar.

Yep.

It was amazing. First, the people in Amtelco are amazing people. You've done—

Thank you.

You and your team have done a great job of creating this culture and finding just the right talent. And then secondly, the customers I met were amazing and they were doing amazing things and I just thought we need to get out there. We need to talk. We need to have you on, on Ed Talks. And then maybe the kicker was we actually did like a, a run early in the morning of a seminar. Who shows up to that? A lot of people showed up, at least for the photograph.

So that was fun. Very fun.

It was really cool. So I, I'm so happy you're with us, but Tom, the most important question I have during our time is what songs are on your playlist? Like what kind of music do you like to listen to?

Well, that's a really great question. Let's see here. It goes from Elton John to, let's say, Pink Floyd to even way back when, and well, she's still around, Cher.

Yeah.

And I did see Frank Sinatra way back when in concert, so I still love listening to Frank.

Man.

So it goes all over the map. You know, I, I love music. I do love music.

I would have loved, I would have given anything to see Frank Sinatra back in the day. That was, that was pretty awesome. Yeah. And Cher was still kicking it at the Grammys in 2026. I know.

Pretty crazy.

You know, you're onto something special if you withstand the test of time. So tell us your story. Like, who are you? Where did you grow up? Just what was your life like?

Okay.

Yeah.

Great question. Madison, Wisconsin for all my life. Mom and dad had 7 kids, 4 daughters. 3 sons. We lived a pretty darn good life in a nice house that my dad built with a couple of his buddies across from a big park. And it was a great neighborhood, lots of kids in it. So in the summer, all the kids in the neighborhood were kicked out of their houses and sent to the park to play all day long and don't come home until dinner.

Yeah.

In the winter, that park turned into an ice skating rink.

Nice.

And we'd go over there after school, play hockey and play keep away. And that, that's sort of how I got into speed skating. One of the kids who was a speed skater told his dad about me, how good I was at being the last one on the ice to get caught. So I got into speed skating, into short track and long track speed skating for 5 years. And that was a lot of fun, very competitive, a lot of fun. Then, in high school, I did football and quickly damaged a knee, so I couldn't do football any longer. So, I settled into track. And, not like you, Ed, I did very short distances.

Yeah.

I just did the sprints and relays but had a lot of fun doing it. Then, in college, I fell back onto hockey and just did intramural sports and was a goaltender for a hockey team.

Wow.

And, uh, we won the championship a couple years, so it was great. Yeah. Had a lot of fun.

Wow. That sounds like really the idealistic, you know, growing up. I can, as you were sharing all that, I could picture that, including you going around on a short track speed skating. That sounds like, that sounds like so cool. What a great way to grow up.

It was fun.

Tom, was there, was there a moment later on or maybe during your childhood, uh, like a pivotal moment? That fundamentally changed your direction?

Well, I asked my wife about this question and she said, you're looking at her. And I said, well, I was going to say that, honey, of course. And yes, she did. She did change. You know, she was pivotal. My wife, Mary, was pivotal in my life. We have 3 great kids and 4 grandsons. And getting married also helps you focus on your career too, better.

Yeah.

So I was married young in my career and it helped me really to get a laser focus on what I'm doing. So I think it helped a lot.

Yeah. How long have you been married?

42 years.

Wow. Congratulations. That's awesome.

We're lucky and blessed.

So you chose history and then Italian as college undergrad. How does that— I get the history part, but tell us about the Italian.

Well, I enjoy history and I was lucky enough to have, you know, kids are pretty influenced by their teachers and I was lucky enough to have a professor who just was so emotionally engaged in the history and expressed it so well. So he got me really, really, you know, piqued as far as my interest in history. Then Italian, I took Spanish in high school and, you know, everybody had to take Spanish in high school and I was like, I don't want to take Spanish again in college. And Italian to me, when I listened to Italian, it sounded so much like a romantic language that I was like, let me in there. So I had fun with that.

That's great. Tell us about your first job ever and then your first job after college.

Well, my first job ever was in the summer and I think my mom or dad signed me up for it. And I don't know what I did wrong, but it was, it was to go out in the farm fields and detassel corn. So it was very hot, sticky, rainy, muddy, but I learned to appreciate agriculture and what, what they go through to, for their crops.

No doubt.

Yeah.

And so after you graduated from college, what was the first job out of there?

Well, during college, I worked for my brother Bill at Curtain Call Communications. It was a radio paging company, a beeper company. And I was a sales guy and I really liked selling and helped establish a team of 4 salespeople there at that company during college. And it was a family company. I did learn a ton about what it takes to be a salesperson and be successful. And, and it, it was, you know, back in the day you had Yellow Pages, right?

Yeah.

So I'd open up Yellow Pages and start calling service companies and call, calling health, healthcare companies like UW-Madison and Dean Clinic and St. Mary's and selling more pagers. So it was good. Wow.

That's pretty interesting. Yeah. So you mentioned healthcare, is that Sort of how you pivoted more into healthcare. How did that come about?

Well, Amtelco was first formed for telephone answering services. So telephone answering service call centers. Our father, my dad, was a great innovator. And back in the early '50s, he invented some systems to replace the phone company systems. And He couldn't really sell any of that. He could make it for his own company, but he couldn't really sell any of that until 1976 when there was the Carter Phone decision, which allowed interconnection of private equipment to the phone company network. 1976 launched Amtelco. For the first 15 years that I worked there, it was in the telephone answering service sales area. And we were always looking for a different vertical. And wouldn't you know it, some hospitals back in the early '90s wanted to give their doctors more privileges. So they started their own telephone answering services inside hospitals. So I was fortunate enough to sell a few of those and my eyes went like, whoa, all the communications that's needed inside healthcare. And that showed us, um, I was able to see the operator services inside the hospital, the consoles that handle all the code calls, all those critical calls, and how expeditiously those operators have to handle those calls and be calm and collected and just help get that critical code out there to the staff to help the patient. So that really was an eye-opener and it really got us started in healthcare.

Yeah. Yeah. And so, Yeah, you mentioned 1976 is sort of that pivotal moment. So you've been with Amtelco over 46 years now. So obviously you've made your way up all the way to CEO. Tell us a little bit about that journey.

Well, that journey, yeah, it took a little bit of time. And, you know, it's a family company. I have brothers and sisters that work there, that used to work there. I still have sisters that own telephone answering services. So I was in sales on the East Coast of the United States, came back. to Wisconsin where our corporate headquarters is and became a sales manager. I managed a few people on the West Coast for selling telephone answering service. And then, like I said, around 15 years later, I saw this vertical healthcare. And at that time we had a CEO, Joe Everly, and he was a very good mentor for me. And he would, you know, he just listened and saw the marketplace and saw the opportunity. And he said, Tom, hire some more salespeople and, and go after this vertical. Let's, let's see what happens. And, and the rest is history. Wow.

Was there anyone in that journey, whether it was this gentleman or perhaps your father? Oh, um, yeah. Who kind of helped see who you could be? Like, we believe in young Tom here that he one day will be the CEO.

I think it was, well, Joe Everly, who was the CEO. And then also we had a consultant, her name was Christina Collins, and she had worked for a telephone answering service, but then went into healthcare. And so she knew what our solutions did and how they helped with the patient experience, helped with the calls. And she saw that I had started to sell some hospitals our solutions and she really Really just gave me a lot of confidence and we had great conversations about healthcare and what's needed in healthcare. And she was, she's just really lifted me. Yeah.

Yeah, that's cool. Yeah. You never meet a successful person who didn't have someone like her, you know, in their life or your CEO before you. So what's daily life like as a CEO of AmTelco? I think a lot of people, I think one of the reasons we have such a broad listenership and so many people that listen and put us in the top 10 globally is people want to know, hey, what's it like to be CEO? So what's your daily life like?

Well, let's see here. I attend meetings. We have development and implementation specialists and solutions architects, system engineers. So I attend meetings, but also on those meetings, we have beta site meetings where we have customers that are testing out software for us. I attend those meetings and listen to their feedback on how our features are working. But most of the time I'm just listening to our leaders and their teams and how they're doing. You know, I know that, you know, when I was selling and I actually had, I was a manager for my sister. And it's sort of tough to do to be a manager for another family member at times. But she, she bought me a painting, which is of a very colorful painting of a Navajo Native American woman out in the desert with a beautiful jar of water on her head that she's carrying. I think it's called, I looked it up and it's called an olla. So that was a beautiful gift. And basically that's, I think what I do best as a CEO is bring the water to the troops. So whatever that water is, you know, if they need more resources, if they need, you know, to expand their budget, you know, my job is to make them successful.

Yeah. Love it.

Yeah.

That's great. I like that. And that's a great visual as well. Tell us one or two things about Amtelco that most people may not know.

Okay. One thing for sure, at Thanksgiving, a few days before Thanksgiving, we give a frozen turkey to each employee. So that's a tradition from the very start. And I don't know if that's what you're getting at, Ed, if it's that off-the-wall kind of thing, but—

No, no, that's good too. That goes back to the culture. And, you know, I was going to mention, Earlier, I saw you interact during a social time with all these customers. Everyone knew you. You're so approachable. You're so kind. You're in there. You're not like some CEOs who may separate themselves and stay separated, and they want to do that and they want to be that way. But you're not that type of leader. You're more of the people's people, if you will. But yeah, I think People know Amtelco, you know, they may only know Amtelco as hospital operators, as an example, but you're much more than that. Can you talk a little bit about maybe what else Amtelco represents and, and importantly, where do you think we're headed generally with communications and capabilities?

Right. Well, we've gotten into AI with our intelligent virtual agent that we call Ellie. And, you know, the IVA that we have, Ellie, you know, and where we're going, you know, AI and the future, it's so fascinating. So very fascinating. But you have to really take a step back and go, okay, we're dealing with people, patients, families, and operators. And you put that all together and you still need to have the human-to-human element.

Yeah.

And you need to just have that available. So Ellie, our IVA, is there to help. Those operators with the mundane calls that are just, you know, I need to cancel my appointment.

Yeah.

Sure. Cancel your appointment. So the operators are free to handle those code calls, those critical calls, and just have that more, you know, that human element that's needed for patient information calls. You know, I need you to just transfer me to my son's room. And so, but those repetitive calls IVAs are great for, and we need to keep those other calls going to humans. Yeah. To get that personal touch. Yeah. So it's this balance, Ed, of mixing in technology and that's how it has always been with us with the call center business. Um, you know, we always know that We're in business because of those operators handling calls and doing them, handling those calls so well. But we need to always take a look at technology and when is the right time to give a balance of that technology within with that human element. So it is a fascinating time.

Yeah.

And, uh, you know, people ask, you know, what's your 5-year plan? You know, and Yes, we have a great roadmap, but we have to be very nimble too at all times. Yeah.

No, that's great insight. Yeah, I was just smiling because I've heard those sort of questions before and you're right. Anyone who thinks they can predict 5 years from now is kind of probably not going to be close. But what's important is to have these principles that you are espousing and that it's the human first and you use AI to augment some of the work. And, and so that those are good principles to have, but you're right. 'Cause the tech is rapidly advancing, changing all the time. And so you've got to be agile and nimble to work with it. And at the same time, the heart and soul of humanity and who you are as a, as a company. So I think that's very sage insights. So Tom, you've had this stellar growth. And so I know our listeners will be curious, like, What are one or two skills that have enabled your growth? So you became, you started as a salesperson and you're now you're the CEO. Certainly there's a couple of skills that probably were common along the way that helped you become the leader you are.

Oh, that's a great question too. Yeah. Um, skills. Number one is, is recognizing that you're not going to be successful unless your customers are successful. And, and that means working with your customers and really, I think, listening, you know, very intensely to what your customers need to have.

Yeah.

Those are very simple things, but it, you know, we've had for the most part, 90% organic growth, which we're very proud of.

Yeah.

And that, that comes from listening to our customers. Our customers know what we should be doing. A lot better than we do. So we just, we like to listen and then like we just brought up, be nimble. Every one of our customers does something a little bit different. And so we don't do custom software. We just integrate what they do into our software. So everybody has that same opportunity.

Yeah, no, I like that. Yeah. And you're right. What makes those examples or key skills for leadership so nice is it doesn't require a PhD. It's just common sense, right? Listening to people and having their best interest in mind for their success as an organization. But sometimes for whatever reason, we forget it. Tom, certainly along the way, not everything has gone perfectly. Can you talk about a time that you learned something the hard way?

Well, even in healthcare, there's been ups and downs economically. So a couple of times over the last 46 years, there's been downturns in healthcare. And, you know, it taught us that, you know, we have to learn from those lessons.

Yeah.

That you always have to be prepared for a downturn in the economy too. So we're a solid company and we've managed to, you know, be a good profitable company, which our customers want. And if there is a rainy day, we're prepared for it, but we're so blessed that through all these times, we've, you know, our average tenure is about 15 years with our employees. So even though we went through a couple tough times along with healthcare, we've managed to keep that knowledge base within the company, which is huge.

Yeah, no, that's really good. All right. What about, you know, you described the idyllic Growing up, but surely there was something that your parents maybe forced you to do and maybe you did an eye roll or something like, oh my gosh. But looking back, you're glad they made you do it.

All right. Great question. One thing that I'm sure a lot of kids had to do was eat their peas on their plate, which was, but just all kidding aside, a very, a very good thing that I did with my parents was Um, near Christmas time, our, our customers with the telephone answering service, we would go out and deliver presents to a lot of our customers. So we'd jump in that station wagon and drive around the city and deliver, deliver packages. And we'd also drop off toys to the children's hospital too, right around Christmas time. So that was, that was very meaningful.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's great. Yeah. It teaches you something to be very thankful for the things that you have and you're thankful for your health and seeing other people's situations just reminds you sometimes to be grateful for what you have. So Tom, this has been super insightful. You've built an amazing company along with other people and your family legacy, just really all about the culture. We talked about a lot of things. You're my first guest that ever said they saw Frank Sinatra live. So that's awesome. And then I love the pivotal moment in life was marrying your wife. That's good and very honorable. And you've been married 42+ years. It's pretty amazing. We talk a lot about your career and how you started working every type of job. So ultimately when you became CEO, you could relate to everyone in your organization and know what they were like. And we did talk more about Amtelco and some of the great things that you're doing specifically in healthcare and sort of where you're headed to next. So what did we miss or is there anything you want to double down on? I'll give you the last word.

All right. I like doubling down on our staff, our leaders that we have. They, our staff, are just so important to, you know, our customers and they relate so well to our customers and they do such a Fantastic. Just an amazing job. So I want to double down on giving them credit for everything, period. Yeah.

Like I said in the very beginning, and I just say this as a friend, and I was there at your seminar to speak and run, but yeah, you have amazing people with a 15-year tenure or some there as long as you have been there. And they're just fabulous. Just fun, Fun, fun people. So Tom, thank you so much for sharing your story and the Amtelco story on Digital Voices.

Thank you for having me, Ed. Thank you.

Thank you for listening to Digital Voices. We hope today's conversation sparked ideas, reflection, and connection. Subscribe on YouTube, Apple, and Spotify Podcasts so you don't miss an episode.