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Investment Banker·Behavioral Health

Scott Kremeier

Managing Director at Piper Sandler

Chicago, IL, USA

SK
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Why they matter

One of the most connected behavioral health M&A bankers in the market, with 16+ years and deep private-equity relationships from Houlihan Lokey and now Piper Sandler.

Background

Scott Kremeier is a Managing Director in Piper Sandler's healthcare investment banking group, based in Chicago, where he covers the healthcare services sector. He joined Piper Sandler in March 2023 after nine years at Houlihan Lokey Capital as a senior banker focused on M&A advisory and capital raising in behavioral health and post-acute services, and earlier worked as a healthcare services investment banker at JMP Securities. He holds an MBA in Finance from Vanderbilt University and a BA in Political Science from the United States Naval Academy.

Notable deals

  • 2023
    Joined Piper Sandler as Managing Director in the healthcare investment banking group, recruited for his behavioral health M&A expertise
  • 2022
    Featured as Houlihan Lokey's behavioral health M&A expert discussing 2022 consolidation outlook in a WellSky-hosted industry webinar

Call-prep brief

Background

  • MD, Healthcare Investment Banking at Piper Sandler (Chicago), covering healthcare services since joining in March 2023.
  • Spent 9 years at Houlihan Lokey as a senior banker dedicated to behavioral health and post-acute services M&A; earlier at JMP Securities.
  • MBA (Finance), Vanderbilt; BA (Political Science), U.S. Naval Academy.

Current Focus

  • Sell-side and buy-side M&A, capital raises, and restructurings across behavioral health subsectors: autism/I-DD, mental health (inpatient/outpatient), substance use disorder, and post-acute (SNF, senior housing, rehab, pharmacy).
  • Positioned by Piper Sandler as a name PE sponsors specifically seek out for behavioral health expertise.

What They Care About

  • Platform scalability and de-novo growth stories in fragmented behavioral health niches.
  • Reimbursement/payer dynamics (value-based care shifts) shaping which assets trade well.
  • Sponsor-to-sponsor consolidation plays given the wave of PE ownership in the space.

Recent Moves

  • Lateral move from Houlihan Lokey to Piper Sandler (2023) — a signal Piper Sandler is building out behavioral health coverage to compete more directly with HL and Harris Williams in the space.

Potential Sensitivities

  • Active sell-side/buy-side mandates are typically confidential pre-announcement — avoid asking about live deals directly.
  • As a banker, he'll want to understand fee-generating potential of any conversation (platform build, add-on pipeline, eventual sale) rather than pure market color requests.

Questions to Ask

  1. Which behavioral health subsector (ABA/autism, SUD, inpatient psych) do you see as most primed for consolidation over the next 12–18 months?
  2. What separates a platform that commands a premium multiple from one that stalls at LOI in today's market?
  3. Who are the most active strategic and sponsor buyers you're currently running processes with in this space?

Outreach draft

Subject
Behavioral health M&A perspective — quick call?
Hi Scott, I lead deal sourcing on our team's behavioral health rollup effort, and your run of work on behavioral health and post-acute M&A — first at Houlihan Lokey, now leading coverage at Piper Sandler — puts you right at the center of where this market is heading. We're evaluating platform opportunities across ABA, SUD, and outpatient mental health, and I'd value 20 minutes to get your read on which subsectors are seeing the strongest buyer demand right now and how sponsors are thinking about multiples heading into next year. Would you have time for a call in the next couple of weeks? Happy to work around your schedule. Best, [Placeholder Name]

Linked companies

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