Michael Miltenberger

High school brought Michael Miltenberger to faith, and faith brought him to FREOPP.

Michael was born and raised in South Florida. After growing up in private school and a comfortable upper-middle-class life, Michael enrolled in a large public high school that looked very different. “You had this incredibly ethnically and economically diverse group, and you quickly saw that not everyone had the same set of opportunities.” At that high school, a friend invited Michael to join a non-denominational church, and Michael began to see things in a new way.

Michael went on to Harvard College, where he continued to explore his faith. He also became active in politics, and ended up becoming national youth chairman for Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. “I’ve always admired politicians with bipartisan streaks,” says Michael. “McCain was never boxed in by party orthodoxies. I think there can be awesome results from that, when leaders think expansively about the best ways to deliver better outcomes for people.”

Later that year, Michael joined the Washington, D.C. office of McKinsey & Company, where he worked for FREOPP advisor Bob Kocher, and ultimately helped health care companies adapt to the new landscape created by the Affordable Care Act.

After three years at McKinsey, Michael joined Advent International, a global private equity firm, where after two years off to attend Harvard Business School, he is a Vice President. “Advent has done a good job of saying, ‘We want to be on the right side of health care, and accelerate businesses that are lowering costs and delivering better outcomes.’ The private sector can be excellent at getting those results when the incentives are set up in the right way.”

Michael is a member of FREOPP’s Board of Directors, where he brings his rigorous strategic thinking into all aspects of our work. He also serves on the Massachusetts Health Information Technology Council, on the Trust Board of the Boston Medical Center, and as an elder at Hope Fellowship Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“I’ve loved working with FREOPP because we’re focused on Americans on the bottom half of the economic ladder,” says Michael, “and my faith plays a big role in prioritizing that. But I love that we are working to harness the power of free enterprise to deliver those outcomes, and I get to use my private sector experience to help think about those opportunities.”

Michael lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with his wife, Lexi, and their two daughters.