Joel Theisen, BSN, RN
CEO
Joel has over 30 years of experience in the health care industry with specific expertise in home- and community-based elder care.
His entrepreneurial story began as a front-line nurse where he witnessed seniors in and out of what he felt was a ‘sick care,’ not a ‘health care,’ system. Deep in his soul, he felt socially responsible for changing the ‘roller coaster’ experience seniors faced which depleted their financial resources, decreased their wellbeing, and increased healthcare costs overall.
He started Lifespark, a complete senior health company, with a mission to spark lives, connecting seniors to whole person senior services that help them age magnificently. Under Joel’s leadership, Lifespark has seen year-over-year double-digit growth, closing 2023 with a revenue of over $70 million, and more than 2,800 employees.
Joel has perfectly positioned Lifespark, the first complete payor-, disease-, and environment-agnostic, fully integrated, holistic home- and community-based delivery system, for the current market convergence. He is accelerating in-home/telehealth capabilities, surging senior population, rising health care costs, increasing global risk, rebuilding senior living, and engaging seniors to take action in their own health outcomes.
Joel’s vision for disrupting the ‘sick care’ system of health and senior care has grown in momentum over the past several years starting with a major step forward in 2017 as he forged a partnership with Utah-based Intermountain Healthcare, and again in 2019 with a value-based payment arrangement between North Memorial Health and UCare. In 2020, Joel secured a $16.1 million Series A Preferred Investment led by Virgo Investment Group to fund organic growth, strategic partnerships, and implementation of Lifespark’s population health operating system.
In 2021, that fueled a secondary investment of a $20 million B-round with Virgo and UCare, one of the largest Medicare Advantage provider in Minnesota to serve Minnesota seniors with a holistic, multiproduct strategy. That same year, Joel acquired Tealwood Senior Living to provide a markedly different senior living experience under Lifespark Senior Living and bring value-based care to more than 35 senior living properties. In 2022, Lifespark added Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota as a partner and investor to drive senior health forward. In 2024 Lifespark developed its own Urgent Response Services system to fully integrate within Lifespark COMPLETE, Lifespark’s flagship program. A key function within URS is the deployment of Mobile Urgent Response (MURS) who provide urgent care services to Population Health members in their home as the ‘First Call for Help.’
Known as a business innovator, Joel has earned numerous accolades, including being named a finalist for Leaders in Health Care by the Minnesota Business Magazine, one of the Twin Cities’ 40 under 40, and honored as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award® finalist for the Upper Midwest in 2021, 2018, 2017, and 2011.
Prior to Lifespark, Joel served as Chief Executive Officer for AdvoLife, Inc., a venture-backed company in San Jose, CA. He trained as a critical-care nurse of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN and graduated from Viterbo College in La Crosse, Wisconsin with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.
For more on Joel’s vision visit: https://lifespark.com/partner/