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Peer Fund / Dealmaker·Behavioral Health

Steve Page

Founder, President and CEO at SUN Behavioral Health

Red Bank, New Jersey

SP
LinkedIn
Why they matter

Ex-Goldman healthcare banker who built and still runs a multi-state, founder-owned psychiatric hospital platform through three facility launches and one exit-scale predecessor.

Background

Steve Page is the Founder, President and CEO of SUN Behavioral Health, a national operator of psychiatric hospitals and outpatient behavioral health services he started in 2013. He spent eight years at Goldman Sachs in healthcare investment banking and leveraged finance before serving as CFO of Ascend Health Corporation, where he helped grow the company into the nation's largest private psychiatric hospital provider (nine facilities, 800+ beds) prior to founding SUN. He holds a BA from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Wharton.

Notable deals

  • 2013
    Founded SUN Behavioral Health, a de novo psychiatric hospital and behavioral health platform
  • 2018
    Opened 197-bed, $40M SUN Behavioral Kentucky hospital in Erlanger, developed with St. Elizabeth Healthcare
  • 2018
    Opened 90-bed, 90,000 sq. ft. SUN Behavioral Delaware hospital in Georgetown, DE
  • 2025
    Led ribbon-cutting for Georgetown, DE outpatient expansion, tripling capacity from 40 to 100 patients

Call-prep brief

Background

  • Founder, President & CEO of SUN Behavioral Health since 2013; platform now spans multiple states (KY, DE, OH, NV, CO, TX, PA and more)
  • Prior CFO of Ascend Health Corporation, which grew to 9 facilities/800+ beds before being sold
  • 8 years at Goldman Sachs in Healthcare IB and Leveraged Finance; CFA charterholder; Wharton MBA

Current focus

  • Growing SUN's inpatient and outpatient (PHP/IOP) footprint via de novo builds and health-system JV partnerships (e.g., St. Elizabeth Healthcare, Beebe Healthcare)
  • Publicly discusses unit economics of psychiatric hospitals — "most lose money at 30 beds, break even only at 70+" — signaling a scale-driven growth thesis
  • Frames the business around a "double bottom line" (social impact + financial viability)

What he cares about

  • Filling behavioral health access gaps in underserved regions via hospital-system partnerships rather than pure roll-up M&A
  • Long operating discipline after opening four hospitals before reaching profitability just before COVID

Recent moves

  • March 2025: expanded Georgetown, DE outpatient capacity from 40 to 100 patients

Potential sensitivities

  • Founder-controlled company; may be protective of control/valuation given the multi-year build-out
  • Public comments about early unprofitability suggest capital intensity is a live topic — approach growth-capital or M&A conversations carefully

Questions to ask

  1. How is SUN currently capitalized, and is the platform open to a partial recap or growth-equity partner as it scales past its current facility count?
  2. Which markets are next for de novo builds vs. health-system JV partnerships, and what's the target bed/facility count over 3-5 years?
  3. Given his Ascend Health experience (built, then sold to a strategic), what does he view as the right exit path or ownership horizon for SUN?

Outreach draft

Subject
Behavioral health platform growth — quick call?
Hi Steve, I've been following SUN Behavioral Health's growth — from the Erlanger and Georgetown hospital launches to this year's outpatient expansion in Delaware. Your background building Ascend Health before Goldman and Wharton gives you a rare operator-plus-banker view of psychiatric hospital economics. We're active in behavioral health services and are mapping the roll-up/platform landscape. I'd value 20 minutes to hear how you're thinking about SUN's next phase of growth — new markets, JV partnerships, or capital needs — and share a bit about what we're seeing across the sector. Would you have time for a short call in the next couple of weeks? Best, [Placeholder Name]

Linked companies

Sources