Mony Iyer, COO of Banfield Pet Hospital

Want to know how many pets have been adopted since the pandemic???? Check out the kickoff episode of Season 3 of Cresa Portland's Think Beyond Space I The PDX Insider Podcast.  On the season premiere, Blake interviews Banfield Pet Hospital's Chief Operating Officer, Mony Iyer.

In this episode, Blake and Mony cover ALL things pets, emotional well-being, leadership, career journey, innovation and TONS of other great topics.  Mony is an incredible and engaging leader who is fueled by the mission of Banfield; Creating A Better World for Pets.

Listen the podcast HERE or find the Think Beyond Space I The PDX Insider Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify.  Enjoy!

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How Banfield Pet Hospital is Innovating to Deliver a Better World for Pets

Mony Iyer, Chief Operating Officer for Banfield Pet Hospital, joins host Blake St. Onge, Managing Principal for Cresa Portland, to discuss how Banfield is leading the way in pet care innovation.

We use an AI transcription service and please disregard any errors.

 

Blake St. Onge  01:05

Welcome to Think Beyond Space | The PDX Workplace Insider podcast. I'm your host Blake St. Onge Principal for the Portland office of Cresa, a global corporate real estate firm. From the people, the culture and their thoughts on the future of work, we sit down with leaders from Portland's most respected companies to learn about what makes their workplaces tick. subscribe at Cresa.com/Portland or wherever you find your podcasts.

 

Hey, everyone, welcome back to Think Beyond Space we are embarking on and starting season three, and I'm super excited to have the COO of Banfield Pet Hospital with me, Mony Iyer.

 

Mony Iyer  01:40

Blake. Great to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me.

 

Blake St. Onge  01:43

I so appreciate you saying yes. And I know that we're talking, you know, about 3000 miles away from each other and look forward to seeing you at some point here in the next few months. But as we jump in, before we get started, we'd love to sort of learn more about who you are. Learn more about Banfield how you got to Banfield. Why you got to Banfield, and we'll just start the conversation there and lead flow.

 

Mony Iyer  02:06

Absolutely, Blake. So I'm the Chief Operating Officer of Banfield Pet Hospital. We're the nation's leading provider of preventive veterinary medicine, and I've been here for about 14 months now just a little bit over a year. And I bring about 15 years of experience driving strategy and operational effectiveness and leading the field and operations across, you know, multiple other industries, particularly in human health care. You know, I joined Banfield as CEO at the height of the pandemic, which I gotta tell you is an incredibly interesting experience. It was fascinating. And what really brought me to Banfield are two things. Number one is really the opportunity of the veterinary care space, there are a lot of pets out there that that need care. And if you look at veterinary medicine overall, I think the opportunity for growth is absolutely tremendous. And in many ways, I think Banfield is at the forefront of leading a lot of what is crucial for pet's health, which is you know, really run preventive medicine innovation to drive that care at the convenience of the client and making sure that the pet receives the care that they need, when and where they need it. And you know, Banfield I think has done a tremendous job in leading that over the last several years. And I'm excited to be part of the team, I'm privileged to be part of a great group of leaders here, play get. So this is this is very exciting.

 

Blake St. Onge  03:25

So we'll get into the fact that there's 19,000 employees and 1000 hospitals across and founded you know, 55, six, well, maybe 70 years ago now. But before we do that, let's back up to you. Where did you get your start? You know, did you Oh, did you go to school for something specific? You know, where were you? Like, just walk us through a little bit of how you became, you know, the CEO of Banfield and I'm sure there's a there's a maybe not so linear journey in that and would just love to sort of hear how that how that progression happened.

 

Mony Iyer  03:59

Oh, absolutely. I'm a little bit of an odd bird I came to veterinary from human health, as I mentioned, but originally I'm from Cleveland, Ohio, born and raised. And when I was 14 years old, my dad moved me and my brothers to India to put some of the old country in his voice. And so I lived in India for seven years was fascinating that high school and my undergraduate degree there in engineering. So I was an engineer by training. Oh, came back entered the human health field. I started working on a PhD in Clinical microbiology at Duke University Medical Center, ultimately graduated from Duke with a master's in electrical engineering and ended up working in technology for about five years before going back to Duke for my MBA and then entering the business world and I've been in in human health for the last about I'm going to say 10 years about and you know mostly specialty healthcare services, human health care, optical dental and hearing prior to coming to the Banfield. I was at Walmart running specialty healthcare services optical ventilation Hearing did some really exciting work there. And then before that, you know, spent some time in services, retail and CPG Consulting and a number of other areas. So been bouncing around a little bit. But especially as I think about services, human health care, veterinary care, there are a lot of commonalities, especially when you see how the human animal bond is developing. And we certainly see that at Banfield, right? You see how people take care of their health, their kids health, and now you see how people take care of their pets’ health. And you see the evolution of that care, mirroring a lot of what we've seen in human health care over the last several decades. And so I think veterinary medicine is poised to follow that growth trajectory. And I think about the innovation that's taken place in human healthcare over the last 10-15 years. You know, Blake, in many ways, that's the North Star, what we will see in veterinary medicine, you know, that focus on technology that focus on innovation that is going to drive the client experience, the pet healthcare experience, and in order to deliver on our purpose, a better world. For pets, I think we need to embrace that very strongly. And you see some of the things Banfield is doing now around vet chat, making sure that we have telehealth services offered to our clients so that they can talk to a veterinarian when and where they need to. We've had over 300,000 of those visits over the last year or so. And it's been it's been absolutely tremendous to see how much of what we see taking place in human health care is applicable in veterinary as well. I think Banfield in many ways is embracing that very strongly. And that's something I have a great deal of passion for.

 

Blake St. Onge  06:37

Well, I can see that. I mean, I can I can feel that in the conversation. So from human health to veterinary health, how do you make that transition? And why did you make that transition? You know, 14 months ago in the middle of a pandemic?

 

Mony Iyer  06:49

Oh, so when I when I got called by the recruiter for the role for Banfield, it was a tremendously exciting opportunity. Right? Like, you know, like I said, you know, all the opportunity is really driven by the fact that, you know, the latest data from the ASPCA, you know, shows that Americans have welcomed astounding 23 million additional pets during pandemic, right. So when you ask, Why do you join at the height of the that's where we're at? Right, in many ways, 43 million new pets. And we've certainly seen that at Banfield, right? We've seen the demands on our veterinarians on our hospital teams for care. And, you know, I'd say everybody's noticed, I think there was an insurance commercial I saw some time ago in which they joked about the fact that the only dog available for adoption from the shelter was an iguana. Right? And so when other people are noticing it as well, you know, that it's, it's kind of hitting the consciousness, right?  But for us, certainly, we've seen that. And so what made that transition from human health to veterinary health was that opportunity. And additionally, I think that, you know, our ethos Banfield ethos is really, you know, grounded in preventive health. And I am a tremendous believer that, right, we see that in in human health as well, how many better outcomes are driven by preventive health and then taking action based on the findings from preventive health visits? The same is true for veterinary as well, Blake, right. And that's what Banfield does. Right? Our business is based on providing good preventive health, great quality health services to our hospitals. And that really does drive better outcomes right if I were to give you know, a personal example right, my I have a giant hairy shedding German Shepherd Dog, Max, who's the apple of my daughter's eye. And you know, we took them into Banfield for a for preventive health service, right, basically comprehensive exam. And they found Paul Titus and his bottom right, canine and the doctor basically said, Listen, I don't know how deep the politest is going. But you really got to give him a root canal. He's probably in pain, you probably don't know it, but he's probably in pain. Or if he's not in pain, now. He's going to be in pain real soon, as soon as that starts spreading. So you should get him in now. And so we took him into a surgeon, we got him a root canal, we saved to the tooth, right? He still has that that canine he's still able to use it because of a preventive health service.  And so when we talk about better outcomes for pets, better quality of life, strengthening the human animal bond, that's a tangible real example of how these preventive health exams can really drive better outcomes for our pets.

 

Blake St. Onge  09:31

I think that that connection between human health and that, I mean, candidly, I've never thought about it that way. I mean, we have, you know, we have an eight year old black lab, we actually just got her second knee replaced, you know, and the second one and so, but you know, better in our lives a lot of time and I think if you translate that to human health, I think the last two years in terms of preventative mental health has been a huge a huge part of that too, right? I mean, we think about okay, what are the risks? triggers that maybe that you, they're not so deep yet, but you know that there's something there and to go and get the help you need. And I think what, you know, obviously dogs aren't receiving mental health necessarily when maybe they might, you know, but there are certainly things that preventative piece Mony, I think it really is really interesting. And absolutely,

 

Mony Iyer  10:18

you know, it's, you talk about your black lab having two knees replaced, right, one of the things we found is 40 44% of pet owners admit that their pet has seen the doctor more often than they have. You know, and that's probably true for a lot of people, you know, and I think about, you know, going back to that human animal bond that we were talking about earlier, you know, at the end of the day, this is a testament to how people think about their pets as members of their family.  And putting the health of their pets first their family members first, I know that my kids have probably gone to the doctor a lot more than my wife and I have right and it's, it's a little bit of the same thing, right?  People and their pets. And in many ways, what, you know, when you when you talk about mental health, that's I think, in many ways, what's driving the adoption of all these pets? Right, the pandemic has isolated a lot of people. And they look to form that emotional connection, that emotional bond and pets provide that, like they provide that in ways that many people are discovering now is, is really important for their own health and well being their own mental health and well being. Right, they're investing in the relationship that's so important to them, which is the health of their pet.

 

Blake St. Onge  11:33

 , and getting them out and walking. And now, there's so many so many things. So we could probably have a podcast for I don't know, two hours about this sort of thing. But so you joined 14 months ago, and I would say the heart of the first part of the pandemic, and, you know, 2021, sort of the return of the pandemic, it felt like it was gonna be gone and out. So what's it been like for you as a as a leader? What did you What have you guys done? And your team, the executive leadership team done at Banfield to sort of keep I mean, you don't have 19 employees? You have 19,000? associates that are with the group spread across the country? 1000 locations? What in the hell did? I mean? How did you keep? I don't know, I'm sort of speeches about how do you keep these sort of the team together? And how did you communicate? And what was that like sort of coming in and Medius rest of what's going on?

 

Mony Iyer  12:21

It's, it's fascinating, right? Because this is the first time I've ever done something like this. I'm sure it's the first time for a lot. Right. Well, that  , during the pandemic, but I, you know, I started with, with Banfield actually, now that I do the math, it was 16 months ago, time flies when you're having fun, but it was in October of 2020. I didn't meet a single member of the senior leadership team of Banfield in person until June, you know, and we were traveling, we weren't visiting hospitals, we were doing a lot of virtual visits. That was I think, something that I had to very intentionally work on, on overcoming How do you form the bonds that you can form in person at an office that you form? Meeting people face to face? How do you form those bonds when you're in a virtual environment. And some of that is intentionally trying to find ways to have the quote, watercooler conversations or have the hallway conversations in a way that, you know, you can only do in person, but finding a way to bring that forward even in virtual environment. For me what that meant was very intentionally calling people and talking to them. You know, whenever the thought struck me, right, typically, you don't do that. You want to give people their space, you're like, oh, they might be busy. But you know what, if I was in an office, I might walk by and just tap on the glass, I say, hey, you know, you got a quick minute. Well, in this case, I just pick up the phone and call and say, Hey, you got a quick minute, and that chat with them and try to, you know, form those bonds that way, right. And that's what I was doing with my team, my direct reports, my peers on the SLT with our hospitals, it was, you know, equally crucial that they know that they're not laboring out there alone, that we at Banfield, CTS and Vancouver, Washington, their field leadership, all of us are out there, supporting them. And so one of the things that I did is, is every week, the operations and veterinary leadership would get together and call to hospitals every week, right? And, you know, calling them to, you know, congratulate them on their performance, whether it's around veterinarian quality, whether it's around their business results, but really calling them and asking them, you know, what's making you successful? How are you able to deliver the great results that you're delivering? You know, number one, they're incredibly happy that they're being recognized or incredibly glad that they will notice, oh, hard work, but equally, they're willing to share they're able to share and these virtual weekly calls resulted in are having a better understanding of what some of the stressors are on our team out there, but what's also making them succeed. And then spreading that across the rest of the practices and understanding what we can do that do to support every single one of the hospitals to bring them up to the same level of success. So those that that almost the rituals around that weekly call.  was really important for us as a leadership. And I'll tell you like that was that's the highlight of our week, every week. Right? We start off by calling to hospitals, we listen to the hospital teams talk about what makes them successful. Honestly, it energizes us as a leadership because we oh, man, you know, there's, there's so much good work going out there. We got to spread the word. We got to make sure we take the best practices that we hear that spread them across the practice. It really is energizing. And it isn't just about recognizing the hospital teams. Blake, it's also us as a team coming together around this.

 

Blake St. Onge  15:49

Absolutely.  And I think the consistency of that, right, I'm doing that. Oh, I mean, that's the biggest thing in anything is sort of keeping it consistent. I mean, the joy, they probably feel about having, you know, this is just not another group calling in it's, you know, the SLT that's calling in and checking in on them and seeing how you can help and what how they're doing well. And good. That's that those are those are, those are huge employee morale pieces to that absolutely have. So have you what's been the growth in the I mean, with 23 million pets, sort of that have been now in households and that growth just across the country? And what about the hospitals? Have you guys and if I understand correctly, do Greg on wrong, some of the previous models of Banfield was sort of in the pet smarts and some of that, but I think you guys have changed to put those hospitals standalone, in many cases on there. It's sort of your own footprint versus being within? And maybe that's been a couple years ago, or whatever. But what's, what's the growth been like, from a from a footprint perspective for you guys over the last 18 months? Or has it been? Or has there been any growth?

 

Mony Iyer  16:55

The growth has been tremendous, obviously, certainly, in terms of volume of pets being seen, right, and we continue to be in PetSmart, the majority of our locations are in PetSmart. So a great partner for us. And we look forward to continuing to grow with them. As we as we grow our business. We also have, as you said, a couple of other models in which we're able to provide care in different ways to pets. And, you know, the growth in the number of pets we've seen is tremendous. And it's a real testament to our hospital teams, that they've been able to figure out the, you know, the right way to make sure that we deliver a great quality care to these pets. It's something honestly, that was an eye opener for me when I joined Banfield and joined the veterinary industry. You know, the care that our doctors and our para staff in our hospitals, our hospital teams have for their patients is unbelievable. Like, you see how much they put into it. They stay late, they say yes to the to the pet that wants to come in, they work really hard Blake, and that is very, very humbling to see. And because of that, we have been able to see a tremendous number of pets last year, right? And it's all because of what our hospital teams have been able to do. And that really is what we have CTS in Vancouver, and at our field leadership, that's really what we're focused on is enabling our hospital teams, how do we provide them with the tools? How do we provide them with the innovations? How do we provide them with the technology that makes their jobs easier, and allows them to deliver on our promise of a better world for pets.

 

Blake St. Onge  18:35

I gotta tell you, it takes special people to do that work in hospitals, it takes a real, I mean, just like in the human hospitals, it just takes a special type of person and then to have an organization to then support those people in the way that that you guys are doing. That's just an incredible testament to what's going on over there.

 

Mony Iyer  18:56

And the debt, the dedication of our hospital teams, honestly, it's you know, you one of the best things I got to tell you like when I joined the field, one of the best things that Banfield had me do was they did give me a laptop, they didn't give me a phone. They sent me to go out and work at the hospital for two weeks. Right. That was my onboarding that was part of my was, you know, Mony. Start by working in the hospital for two weeks. And that's what I did. I went in and I shadowed every role of the hospital. It was eye opening. I would not trade those two weeks for anything, you know.  And I think it was a tremendous part of my onboarding. And it's something that, you know, I love so much. I've done it for everybody I've hired. Hey, if you report to me, you start with Banfield. The first thing you're going to do is go work in a hospital, you know, and sometimes shadowing every role.

 

Blake St. Onge  19:47

I had a client of mine do a similar thing to Hey, come out to campus because I want you to see the type of work that we are doing so that when you're out there searching for space are in discussions are strategizing for us to help, you know what's sort of going on within those four walls. And it was a tremendous value to do that. And that was all in for you. As you know, it's not just you're coming in as I mean, you're coming in as the Chief Operating Officer. And that's the first thing to do. I think it speaks volumes in a way to transition that to the people that are that you've hired.

 

Mony Iyer  20:24

It really does, it speaks to the hospital Centricity at the culture at Banfield, you know, the message is very clear that our promise is delivered, our great care is delivered at the hospitals. And that's what all of us are here to support is that work at the hospitals. And so going in and seeing our doctors working, seeing what their challenges were seeing what made their job easier, that helped inform me make some of the decisions I was making. So I hired a new head of technology and new head of commercial over the course of the last year or so, all of them started by working in the hospital, right, and they got to see everything from surgery to well checkups to sick pet visits and understand, you know, basically what are some of the challenges that that the hospital has, so that when they start as leaders in their role at CTS, their focus is always on, hey, this is where ultimately, my work is going to have an impact. And I need to make it as impactful as possible.

 

Blake St. Onge  21:20

So as you guys think about the next couple years, is your intent, or the is the plan to is there a certain number of hospitals, you guys plan to open across the country, what's sort of some of the that you can share some of the strategic sort of vision over the next couple of years as, as you guys sort of get deeper into what's going on.

 

Mony Iyer  21:43

So you know, you made a point earlier, and it's for we have over 19,000 Associates, right. And at the end of the day for us strategically, we recognize that in order to deliver on our promise a better world for pets, we have to do it through our people. And we need to innovate and ensure that that innovation helps them deliver a better world for pets. So one of the things that I am most focused on, is ensuring that we have the right technologies, the right process innovations that will make the work in the hospitals as seamless as possible, take the administrative burden off of the hospital teams, and allow them to spend their time where it's most needed, which is with pets and with clients. And so doing that is incredibly important. And there's no doubt Blake that if you if you look out at our hospital teams, they have felt the effects of the pandemic. It’s been tough for everybody. But it's been particularly tough for folks that have continued to work through it that have had to shift their business model in order to accommodate the safety needs of the pandemic. And our hospital teams have come through that and really pushed strongly through that. So it's critical that we continue to listen to them. So having great channels for them to provide feedback, provide their, their thoughts back to us so that we can act on them is going to be critical, and then empowering them with the tools and resources that they need to provide care for the billions of pets that need care. That is what we need to do. Right. And this is an industry that also has a lot of people coming in. So we had Banfield and certainly my job is to is to create that culture, where associates want to start stay and grow with Banfield. And so that training, that investment in developing them is going to be critically important. The number of pets is only going to increase. And so innovation in how we provide care technologies that make their job easier and take the administrative burden off of the hospital teams. And then making sure they have the ability to develop themselves their skills in order to grow with the company. That's really how we're going to win the future at Banfield.

 

Blake St. Onge  23:53

So where do I apply?

 

Mony Iyer  23:56

It's a great question. It depends on where you want to work because we have deeds everywhere. I gotta tell you hospital teams. This is one of those industries where, you know, like I said, with the record number of pets entering the space. Man, we need a lot of folks to come in and join us and grow with us. And I gotta tell you since I came and joined Banfield, this this place is a lot of fun to work. I like I said before, I'm blessed with an awesome team. I'm surrounded by great leaders, every single one of them is invested in, in our purpose. And what I love what I love about the Banfield culture, is that this is one in which we do recognize what it is that we're committed to doing. And everybody is committed to pulling in that direction. You know,  . And so whether you want to work at a hospital, whether you want to come work at CTS, whether you want to feel leadership role, there are opportunities at Banfield and we love to get talented folks in here and certainly even on the commercial side. You know, we have real estate needs and I know you're a care guy Like, right,  ,

 

Blake St. Onge  25:01

 , I am

 

Mony Iyer  25:02

Yes, yes. So we're continuing to look at what the right ways are for us to innovate our space and innovate our growth in our space. Every single area of the business, I'd say has opportunity and growth.

 

Blake St. Onge  25:17

 ,  . workplace strategy is not just for humans. You know, it is also for  ,  , it's

 

Mony Iyer  25:23

 , I've worked in a lot of different offices. And I'll tell you what, I when I joined Banfield and I came out, and I saw our headquarters for the first time it made for Washington, Blake, that is one of the most beautiful headquarters I have ever seen. I've worked with a lot of different places. And that that headquarters was absolutely beautiful in big ways. And small, right, the light the space, the way we use the space, but even the little touches the chandelier that are made out of dog squeaker toys, and  , you know, some of the small quiet working spaces that they've created for focus work. I think it's, it's tremendous. And I really am excited about getting back to the office and working with my team there. And navigating this pandemic has been a challenge for me in that respect, you know, starting it.  , funny. And then having the kind of work through all this through last year. That that's been I'd say, one of the big challenges I've had, but

 

Blake St. Onge  26:16

 , I was I was going to add to that I was going to ask, you know, what are some of the things that you have learned personally, Mony and your career journey? And then what have you learned maybe specifically, in the last 18 months, I mean, you know, about yourself, or about your leadership style,

 

Mony Iyer  26:33

I learned about myself, I've learned how much I need people, I can tell you that working from working from home hasn't been that easy for me, and I love getting out there. And, you know, for me, one of the best parts of the job is getting out there with our field leadership and visiting hospitals, right?  , hearing from the hospital teams capturing some of those learnings, ensuring that our field teams know what they need to do in order to support our hospitals. That's been awesome. And I missed that for, you know, the beginning of when I started with Banfield when we were still not traveling. And so as soon as we started traveling again, man, that that was that was awesome for me. From a leadership journey standpoint, recognizing how much I needed people, I also recognized how much I intentionally needed to form those connections with people. And so making sure I get out to CTAs meeting with our teams that are based in Vancouver, Washington, getting out to the hospitals with the field leaders, spending time with them in the field, getting to know them very intentionally doing that is I think, really important for my well being and my development as leader in many ways as well. That's I'd say that was that was one big learning and something I started doing a lot more intentionally, you know, before it was a little bit automatic, when I needed to go someplace, I get up and go someplace. Now it takes a little bit more planning, but I make sure it's well planned, when I take a trip out, I try to maximize my time, I let people know, so that they could come and join me there. So we maximize the time that I have out there in the field that I have at the office. And so that's been that's been one learning. A second one, honestly, through COVID has been how important it is to make people know that you see their work, you know, because you don't necessarily see it the way you see it in an office, we've had to do that I think a lot more intentionally because people are at home and people are working hard. But you don't necessarily see it the way you see it when they're in the office working alongside you. So, you know, seeing the work, recognizing the work empowering leaders to do so, I think has been something we need to you know, I'd say as a, as a business community overall. Right. This is beyond veterinarians beyond healthcare. Absolutely. I'd say every industry needs to look to this and see how they can they can recognize people. But  , for me,

 

Blake St. Onge  28:54

it's a great point. It really is, you know, from

 

Mony Iyer  28:57

a leadership standpoint, I think in many ways. Like I said, I've been blessed with a great team here at Banfield and having leaders you can trust, empowering them to make the decisions that they need to make. And then seeing the results of those great leaders and seeing the results of that great leadership. I think that's that there's nothing better than that, like, you know,

 

Blake St. Onge  29:20

 , that's the that's the feather. It really is.  . So if you had a chance to grab coffee or cocktail or maybe a dog walk, okay, maybe a dog walk with someone in history or someone current, you know, that they may still be alive. Who would that be? and why?

 

Mony Iyer  29:37

And that's a that's a good question.  , I've worked now at a at a couple of companies, several companies now that had great founder leaders, you know, you know, Frank Mars and Forrest Mars here at Mars sample at Walmart. You know, these are leaders who founded companies and they legacy, right. And that's what every leader aspires to, in many ways is to leave a lasting legacy. And you think about the lasting legacy that some of these leaders have made. They've changed industries play Korea, you know, they've changed industries. So, you know, for me, it would be fascinating to spend some time with them to understand, you know, what decision making process what decision making ethos drove, you know, their success?  . And what was on their mind as they as they built these lasting businesses that have made such a big change to, to so many industries. So  , I look at, in many ways, the last, you know, 3050 years how much these industries have evolved. And it's been driven by so many of these founder leaders.  . Bending the industry to their will. Oh,  .  , pioneers, for sure. They absolutely weren't. So I think it would be fascinating to catch the fact that, you know, Sam Walton had dogs, he was a he was a big dog guy. Oh,  . And, you know, the confectionary business, again, is tremendous fun. I've spent some time with the confectionery business. It's tremendous fun.  . Understanding how these leaders made the contributions that they made to these industries, I think would be fascinating.

 

Blake St. Onge  31:27

I just open the book, the third door. And it's, if you've heard of it, I just opened it, I probably got cold pages in. And I'm, because it's about it's about how to sort of get in touch and sort of figure out the third door that a lot of these founders and pioneers did it. And I'm just I'm just really encouraged to sort of get through that, but it's, it's a, it's a wonderful answer. And I think it's  , just to spend some time with people that really have changed the game that are true pioneers of what's going on. We have a lot of them right now. In our world today.

 

Mony Iyer  32:01

So and, and so much of the legacy that these founders have left are really, you know, built on principles, right? I mean, you look at the bars principles that continue to guide how the company makes decisions. That to me is leaving a lasting culture is leaving a lasting legacy. And it's a tremendous achievement that that so many of these pioneers, as you put it, right, they really were pioneers that their way. It's fascinating to see what they've accomplished.

 

Blake St. Onge  32:31

So Mony for those that may want to get in touch with you or learn more about Banfield about career opportunities about hospitals, where can they where can they go,

 

Mony Iyer  32:43

Oh, they can find me on LinkedIn, and Instagram, I'm on social media, and certainly, my contact information is available through our company website, as well. I'm pretty easy to get ahold of for most people, they want to find me They can find me and I'm always happy to chat about Banfield and, and our industry blank, because this is a tremendously exciting place to be this, this is the this is the kind of place where you can come. You know, you can, you know, start, stay, grow, become the leader you want to become, achieve what you want to achieve. And you get to do it by fostering I think one of the most important things we have today. And that's the human animal bond, right? Pets are tremendously important for our well being. We have, you know, my family has a German Shepherd dog and a mini lop rabbit, we have a dog and a bunny. And I will tell you, you know, my wife was the one who kind of spearheaded both pets coming into our house into our household. And I can't imagine life without them. They are in so many ways, our emotional support through the pandemic, through tough times. I can't tell you that over time, my youngest daughter, whatever, you know, her, her parents get mad at her and she will go and hug the dog and cry and cry and cry into his neck and he is endlessly patient with her. And it's so important to have that right at 23 million pets adopted over the pandemic tells you that our society has recognized that through the pandemic, and you know, we have an opportunity, I think, as Banfield as a veterinary industry to foster that strength of that and  , make that relationship as healthy as possible. And to me that's incredibly noble and fun way to spend your time.  ,

 

Blake St. Onge  34:40

that's they're never mad. I mean, if you have a bad day, it's just you see him and it's man it's  , it's pretty incredible. It is Mony. Thanks so much for saying yes to joining me today man. I just really appreciate I mean, your the enthusiasm you have sort of want to walk out here and bang through the wall and like, you know, just you just you have a infectious energy and you have a true it seems, you know, mission and purpose for what you're doing right now in your life and for and for Banfield and that really comes through and I just I can't wait to actually share coffee with you and walk around campus with you when you get out here, man I mean at but I just thank you so much for saying yes,

 

Mony Iyer  35:19

absolutely. This is a lot of fun. Thank you, Blake for asking me.

 

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