OUR TEAM.

Dan Markwalder is a graduate of Purdue University, School of Veterinary Medicine. Dan is a partner/owner as well as a practicing veterinarian in eighteen veterinary hospitals in and around the Chicago area. He founded his first hospital at age 28. He has a passion for mentoring young doctors as well as a keen interest in client compliance and preventative care for his patients. Dan speaks throughout the United States to veterinarians and practice managers. Moreover, Dan frequently lectures to both SCVMA and VBMA chapters at numerous veterinary colleges throughout the United States.

Dan has applied many of the concepts taught by VMS into his group of hospitals with fantastic success. The VMS model has been beneficial in assisting many new graduate veterinarians to achieve their individual goals as well as help them in raising their personal production and average client transaction.

Dan serves as a partner in Veterinary Mentor Solutions and lectures on the importance of developing a culture of mentorship at the practice level.

Dr. Adam Conroy graduated from the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) College of Vet Med in 2005. Upon graduating, Dr. Conroy took an associate position with Dr. Markwalder at the original Animal Care Clinic. After a year, he became a partner of ACC, and together, they have expanded to 5 hospitals in the Chicagoland area.  Dr. Conroy’s passions have always centered around surgery and the advancement of his leadership skills.

With multiple hospitals, Dr. Conroy has had the opportunity to mentor numerous veterinarians over the years. Whether it be a new graduate or experienced veterinarian, the success throughout the process has been based upon a simple principle: the mentor helps the mentee accomplish his/her personal goals and become the most proficient doctor they can be. Based upon the success of the mentoring culture created within the ACC organization, he again partnered with Dr. Markwalder and created MarkRoy Consulting. MarkRoy is committed to educating veterinarians on the importance of proper mentorship and becoming a strong leader. They have traveled to nearly every Veterinary College and are regular speakers for the VBMA.

Recently Dr. Conroy became a co-founder of the Seven Summit Society. This program is focused on empowering young veterinarians to become practice owners. He speaks in various cities offering seminars on the process of becoming a practice owner.

Dr. Dan Phillips is the lead didactic mentor for VMS.  After graduating from North Carolina State College of Veterinary Medicine in 2011, Dr. Phillips completed a rotating internship in small animal medicine and surgery at Tufts Cummings College of Veterinary Medicine.  It was during his internship that Dr. Phillips gained his first experience in training and teaching young veterinary students. 

Following completion of his internship, Dr. Phillips moved to the Chicago area and worked in both general practice and emergency settings for 4 years prior to joining the Animal Care Clinic family of hospitals as medical director of Barrington Square Animal Hospital in the Fall of 2016.  As medical director, Dr. Phillips has mentored dozens of fourth year externs in addition to new graduates launching their careers.  His combined experiences in university teaching settings, private practice and emergency medicine allows Dr. Phillips to mentor from both a practical and academic approach in his teaching style.

During his time as a teacher and mentor Dr. Phillips noticed several common characteristics among his veterinary externs and newly graduated clinicians: a strong desire to be great clinicians, a desire for mentorship to help them achieve their goals, a lack of confidence in their own knowledge and abilities, and a lack of mentors to get them where they want to be.  It was these characteristics that helped the Animal Care Clinic family of hospitals create a unique mentorship experience tailored to the needs of each of their new graduate hires. 

After years of working with students, Dr. Phillips was inspired to create a program to deliver the mentorship needs of new clinicians across the county.  Subsequently, VMS was born in the Fall of 2019.  Dr. Phillips loves teaching and working with new clinicians and hopes you find this video library a useful tool to help you take your clinical and diagnostic skills to the next level.