About Arbor
Management
J. Howard Ragsdale, Jr., CFA
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
As chief executive, Howard Ragsdale brings more than 25 years of experience in building successful businesses and deep expertise in financial management. He became CEO in 2007 after serving as Arbor Healthcare’s chief financial officer for several years.
Before joining Arbor Healthcare, Mr. Ragsdale was president of Aston Capital Management, an investment advisory firm for high-net-worth individuals and institutions. Prior to Aston Capital, Howard was an institutional portfolio manager managing more than $5 billion in bond portfolios for such clients as First American Bank, NORTEL Networks, Erlanger Hospital, Colonial Penn Life Insurance Company, State of Kentucky, City of Nashville, and the Major League Baseball Players Association.
Previously, Mr. Ragsdale worked for AIM Healthcare as the executive charged with acquiring and running third-party administrators for AIM Healthcare’s founders.
Mr. Ragsdale also was founder and president of Premier EyeCare Systems, a company that provided investment, financial and operations management services as well as strategic planning for practice management, physician compensation and mergers and acquisitions to vision care physicians. Mr. Ragsdale was chief financial officer of EyeAmerica, another management services organization for ophthalmologists and optometrists.
Mr. Ragsdale began his career in banking, where he served as a corporate banking officer, asset/liability manager, and manager of strategic planning for an $8 billion bank.
Mr. Ragsdale holds a master in business administration in finance and accounting from Vanderbilt University and bachelor of science in finance from the University of Tennessee. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), a member of the Healthcare Financial Management Association and a member of the CFA Institute.
