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Several decades ago, Mary Jane Hanley
was living in St. Louis as the wife of an ambitious corporate
executive who had moved to the city to become CEO of
chemicals and agricultural giant Monsanto. It was a
different time, one in which young women were expected to
support their husbands careers, a role that more often than not
required extensive participation at company and executive
social events. Mary Jane willingly participated, but it was not
easy for her. “There was a lot of entertaining when Jack was
moving up the ladder,” she said. “I was shy and I found out
that a few drinks helped me get through it.”
But the problem for Mary Jane, like so many others,
eventually became one in which a few drinks just didn’t do
the trick anymore. “So a few drinks became a few more, and
the next thing I knew I was embarrassing Jack, who would
become very upset. It became apparent that my drinking had
become a quite serious problem.”
The first thing that was tried was to send Mary Jane to a
psychiatrist, which “didn’t work.” Next came treatment at a
center on the outskirts of St. Louis called Edgewood, which
Mary Jane recalls was located in a rather run-down converted
motel. But the venue is never as important as willingness, and
apparently Mary Jane was willing to do what it takes to get
sober. Since her time at Edgewood, Mary Jane Hanely has
been without a drink, now living in South Florida with her
husband and with many decades of sobriety under her belt.
Up the Ladder
While Mary Jane was grappling with getting sober, Jack
Hanley was dealing with running Monsanto at a very critical
juncture in its history. At the height of the petro crises that
dominated economic discourses of the 1970s, Hanley became
disenchanted with Monsanto’s chemicals focus as too
cyclical, encumbered with huge environmental risk and
overly dependent on the vagaries of the oil markets. Being
highly interested in the work of his company’s scientists,
Hanley eventually became very close to biotech pioneer Dr.
Ernest Jaworski, who helped convince him that genetically
engineering plants to protect themselves might eventually be
a bigger business than selling pesticides. One of the earliest
business movers in biotechnology, Hanley set Monsanto on
a course that would lead to its position today as the leading
bioagricultural player in the world.
Upon retirement in the early 1980s, both Mary Jane and
Jack looked around and asked themselves what they were
most grateful for, quickly coming to the conclusion that it
was Mary Jane’s sobriety, an event that had quite literally
saved their family. Hanley wanted to give something back
and became interested in the possibility of setting up a nonprofit
treatment center in South Florida, specifically in tony
Palm Beach. “I was national chairman of the United
Way at the time,” recalls Hanley. “So I gave a half a million
dollars to the national United Way and another half a
million to the local Palm Beach United Way committee.
There was a specific understanding that if we were ever to
get the South Florida non-profit idea off the ground, that
these monies would be donated by the United Way toward
the founding of the new institution.”
The million dollars donated by Jack and Mary Jane
Hanley was the financial genesis behind the Hanley Center,
a now thriving treatment facility located in northern Palm
Beach County, one that is viewed without a doubt as the
premier non-profit center in the region.
Under the direction of CEO Terry Allen, who took over the
reins four years ago, the Hanley Center has moved through a
period of rapid change in an environment of strong growth.
Unquestionably the biggest change came in 2004, when
the Hanley Center was still called Hanley-Hazelden and was
managed by Hazelden under a contract arrangement that
went back nearly twenty years to the founding of the facility
in 1986. “One of the things I was very high on from the start
was to have Hazelden manage the new center in Florida,”
said Jack Hanley, adding that Hazelden management wasn’t
too keen on the idea at the time, but that some adroit political
manoeuvring at the Hazelden board level got the deal done.
But almost two decades later that deal began to unravel as
Hanley-Hazelden filed suit against Hazelden alleging efforts
by Hazelden to stall growth plans at Hanley-Hazelden, which
was pushing to launch a major capital expansion.
In late 2004 the suit was resolved out of court, with both
sides agreeing to go their separate ways. Caron Foundation
CEO Doug Tieman, who was brought in by Jack Hanley in
1983 to get Hanley off the ground and later worked at
Hazelden, says the parting was difficult to watch: “It’s like
seeing two friends get divorced when you’re still friends
with both of them.” Nevertheless, the separation appears to
have been smooth and professionally handled by both sides.
Early Days
When Jack Hanley started planning in earnest to found the
Hanley Center, he approached Hazelden to do a market
research study to determine whether or not it was feasible to
launch a major treatment initiative in Palm Beach. With the
close proximity of one of the world’s largest concentrations
of wealthy donors just across the intracoastal waterway in the
town of Palm Beach, there seemed little doubt that support
might be forthcoming, and Hazelden confirmed that there
was indeeed a strong market need for the center.
“There is no question that Hanley was a pioneer in opening
up the South Florida market for private treatment,” says
Doug Tieman, adding that few centers were in the area then.
Of course, South Florida, and especially Palm Beach County,
has since developed into one of the nation’s premier regions
for addiction treatment, rivaling other top areas like
Minnesota, Arizona and Southern California.
In the early days during the mid 1980s, despite the fact that
the treatment business was going through its biggest boom
time ever based on then generous commercial insurance
reimbursement policies, the Hanley Center found it difficult
to turn a surplus. Nevertheless, the facility managed to attract
a loyal following: “I was in outpatient at Hanley back then”
said Ileana Ross, who remembers being in treatment with
a group of men mostly from Pratt & Whitney, a big
former corporate client of Hanley’s that at the time had
major operations in Palm Beach.
But these struggling days are now just a distant memory, with
the Hanley Center now far more engaged with the type of
problems that come from strong growth. Over the past five
years, Hanley has seen its revenues increase dramatically. In
2006, the center forecasts its revenues will hit $20 million,
up over 40 percent from $14 million in 2001. Overseeing
everything from marketing to information technology at
Hanley, COO Joe Monastra says that much of the non-profit’s
recent growth has come after 2002, when Terry Allen
ascended to the CEO post.
Allen is currently overseeing the largest expansion of Hanley
Center’s campus in its history as he positions the center for
even more growth in coming years. “We see a bright future
for the treatment industry and Hanley’s place within it,”
says Allen. “Our current growth plan will ensure that the
Hanley Center continues to be among the nation’s premier
providers of addiction treatment services.”
Under Allen’s direction, Monsatra says that Hanley has
committed itself more than ever to the provision of gender
specific treatment, an area in which the center is recognized
as a clinical first mover. Especially important to the growth
plan is the expansion of Hanley’s Older Adult Program,
which under Carol Colleran has emerged as unquestionably
the leading and most pioneering of its kind in the nation.
With the progressive graying of the population that is
forecast for the coming years, Hanley’s Older Adult
Program will likely tap into the rich South Florida market for
seniors to spur growth, with the program also potentially providing
a launch vehicle for expansion outside of the region.
For the moment, though, Hanley has its hands full with its
plans to drastically increase the size of its campus, located in
north West Palm Beach.
For years Hanley had leased its land, 6 acres, from St Mary’s
Hospital, which had been instrumental in the founding of the
non-profit. But in 2001, Tenant, then an aggressive acquirer
of hospitals in its effort to build a national chain, bought
St. Mary’s. “It was then that we entered into negotiations to
buy the land, at which time we also picked up a few more
acres in addition to the six we leased,” said Terry Lehman,
EVP development at Hanley. The purchase was to sow
the seeds of the capital plan currently in place at Hanley,
which calls for a more than doubling of the size of the
campus from its current
six acres to 13 acres.
Lehman is leading a fund
raising effort that has just
topped $5 million in
donations, with the
ultimate goal being to
raise $12 million.
“We are currently
working with a
number of potential
donors, so we anticipate
that we will see a large
amount of donations
this year,” says Lehman.
A coup for Hanley came
in the form of the
availability of a former
blood bank building on the St. Mary’s campus that
the center recently scooped up. “This building is very
important for us, because it allows the campus to now
open up to 45th Street, which is the major throughway
near the center,” said Terry Allen. Lehman says
the new building, which is tentatively being called the
Hanley Resource Center, will house the more public
operations of the center,
including outpatient,
Hanley’s fast growing
education and outreach
operations, as well as
a coffee house, a book
store and a major
public auditorium.
The Hanley Resource
Center is slated to open
its doors at the end
of 2006, according to
Lehman.
The capital program also
calls for a big increase in
patient capacity at
Hanley, which when
completed will see
capacity rise by 65 percent to 136 beds from its current
level of 82 beds. A new wellness center and meditation
center are planned, with corresponding increases in
support facilities to match the growth in capacity.
Plan completion is roughly slated for 2009. TJ
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