Donna LaHaie, Chief Financial Officer at Broad Reach, has an attribute that serves any CFO well:

“I love to figure things out,” she says, “to improve something, to fix a problem. So I do a lot of research. I love to learn and understand process, procedures, from clinical to clerical to financial. So I’m very happy to be here at Broad Reach working with such great people, to understand their goals, the direction, be part of decision making, have a voice and contribute.”

She engaged in similar ways for 38 years at a skilled nursing facility in Connecticut, where she worked her way up to become Director of Finance, “working through every aspect of the business as it grew.” About four years ago she and her husband “took a chance” and bought a second home toward the tip of Cape Cod, in North Truro. “I fell in love with it,” she remembers, and so began to network, thinking she might be able to spend more time here.

“I knew about Bill, but had never met him,” she says, meaning Bill Bogdanovich, Broad Reach’s owner and CEO. “So I reached out to introduce myself, wondering if perhaps he might need a consultant or other support at some point. We met and over the course of a year talked, explored ideas. In November, 2020, he said, ‘I have a position for you to consider,’ and it was CFO. Sure enough, I started in January, 2021.”

Her job is to “oversee all aspects of the financial side.” That means she applies analytic skills to each part of the business, from assisted living to nursing home, rehabilitation to hospice. Recognizing trends and forecasting are important:

“Recently I did a five-year lookback at performance and it was tedious, but I got a really good feeling for where we’ve come from. When I share that with the team, it gives people clarity, helps us create goals and get there.”

Solid financial performance is crucial for a healthy business future, but it can’t become the driving motivator in a health care setting, she says. “I don’t just look at it from a money standpoint, I have to understand the priorities and needs of our health care team,” she says. “I have to help create a balance to be sustainable going forward. I have to ask questions like, ‘Is the data base set up with the right tools to make jobs easier, better, and more efficient?’”

The combination of “right brain left brain,” as she puts it, shows up in Donna’s personal life as well. For all her focus on procedures, process, and numbers, she has another love; she’s been singing professionally for decades, everything from small wedding bands to fronting 24-piece orchestras, rock and jazz to opera, often headlining benefits for philanthropies in her Connecticut community. She hasn’t begun to incorporate that part of her life into Cape Cod just yet, given her successful and organized career and approach, seems like it’s only a matter of time.

Supporting her every step of the way, she emphasizes, is her close family; husband, children, and grandchildren.