Our Faculty

Ian McNickle, MBA

Co-Founder and Partner of WEO Media

Ian McNickle is a Co-Founder and Partner of WEO Media, an award-winning dental marketing agency providing a wide range of digital marketing services to general dentists and dental specialists alike. Under his leadership WEO Media has quickly grown to become one of the largest and most widely respected dental marketing firms in the country, and has garnered an impressive list of industry endorsements.

WEO Media is a 4X “Best of Class” Award winner for Websites and Online Marketing. It is the top award in the dental industry, and is presented at the annual ADA conference each year.

Ian is also a Partner and President at The DSO Project, an advisory firm which helps dentists build, scale, optimize, fund, and exit their dental group or DSO.

Ian has twice been named a Top CE Leader and Consultant by Dentistry Today. He writes articles for numerous industry publications, and recently published his first book “Mastering Practice Growth – The Definitive Guide to Growing Your Dental Practice or Dental Group”. Ian frequently lectures at major dental conferences and study clubs all over North America.

Ian has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Washington State University and an MBA from the University of Washington.

Alan Hollander

Founder and CEO of ePractice Manager

Alan Hollander has developed unique management systems and tools that have generated long-term growth and higher profit for dental professionals and specialists over a span of 30 years. He built a team of over 50 consultants and practice administration experts that have delivered highly impactful services and results to thousands of clients throughout North America.

Alan is also the Founder and CEO of ePractice Manager™, a groundbreaking practice and HR management firm that delivers a comprehensive array of practice support systems, both online and through hands-on, individualized consulting programs.

His seminars and workshops show attendees how to identify and address the areas in practices that commonly break down, and lead to slower or stalled growth. Attendees leave with specific actions they can immediately implement in their practices.

Alan did undergraduate studies at Hofstra University, and completed a graduate program in Education at New York University.

Amol Nirgudkar

Co-Founder and CEO of Patient Prism, LLC

Amol Nirgudkar helps dentists grow their practices and reach their goals. He is in an unusual position to offer practical insights. As a certified public accountant, business consultant, author, entrepreneur, and former owner of several dental practices, he has 20 years of experience working with dental practices, both large and small.

Through the three companies he founded, Amol has served more than 1,000 dentists across the United States. Through his work, Amol saw firsthand a growth challenge that all dental practices face. No matter how successfully they may market their practice, almost 50% of new patient calls don’t end in a booked appointment.

To help solve that problem, he founded Patient Prism in 2015. The service uses both A.I. (artificial intelligence) and American call coaches to evaluate the way dental offices handle phone calls, identify the callers that didn’t schedule, and teach the team how to win them back – all within 30 minutes of the failed call.

Amol co-invented the patented technologies used in Patient Prism. One eliminates the need to listen to recorded phone calls by providing the information visually. The other technology details specific words spoken by the patient during the call so dentists and managers know which services callers are requesting and the revenue opportunity associated with each call. Amol continues to work with artificial intelligence and machine learning to empower dental teams to deliver a better patient experience and build even more successful practices.

Amol has also written several articles and e-books, and published a paperback book called Profitable Niches in General Dentistry (2014).

In his spare time, Amol also runs a quantitative hedge fund and travels the country with his 15-year-old piano prodigy daughter to piano competitions.

Ryan Hungate, DDS, MS

Orthodontist, Founder and CEO of Simplifeye, Inc.

Ryan Hungate, DDS, MS, is a practicing orthodontist and the founder and CEO of Simplifeye, a company that focuses on creating better workflows for healthcare practices to increase new patients, reduce overhead, and reduce bad debt. Dr. Hungate's deep understanding of the daily operational flow of practices combined with his visionary ability to develop highly innovative products has made Simplifeye one of the fastest growing companies in the dental industry.

Dr. Hungate graduated from the orthodontic specialty program at the University of Southern California. Prior to dental school, Dr. Hungate worked for Apple Inc. and helped design the customer workflow adopted by Apple's retail stores globally. Dr. Hungate continues to practice orthodontics each month, volunteering to help children in need of orthognathic surgery, cleft palate treatment, and orthodontic care.