Kate Festle

Kate Festle

Managing Director Mergers & Acquisitions Chicago

LinkedIn

In a constantly changing healthcare market, it helps to have someone like Kate to navigate through mergers and acquisitions. Using her expertise in provider, payer, and life sciences technology, she partners with private equity and strategic buyers in pre-acquisition due diligence, post-merger integration, and value creation to position clients for success in the dynamic healthcare marketplace. 

Kate enjoys helping clients harness emerging technology to differentiate their service or software offerings. She is particularly passionate about the behavioral health space, having led more than 50 buy-side, sell-side, and technology transformation initiatives. Kate recently leveraged her expertise to help a large behavioral health client craft an enterprise technology strategy to support ambitious growth goals—delivering a three-year roadmap and positioning the organization to double revenue and enter six new markets.

Beyond client work, mental health and wellness is a tenant of Kate’s leadership style. She emphasizes holistic wellbeing as a key success factor for her teams.

Prior to joining West Monroe, Kate worked in healthcare operations and finance consulting at Guidehouse and R1. She has a bachelor’s degree from Boston College. In 2022, Kate was recognized as a winner of the M&A Advisor's 14th Annual Emerging Leaders awards.

What makes Kate different

Kate is an outdoors enthusiast who enjoys cycling, hiking, and skiing—having biked through both the Alps and Pyrenees Mountains. Closer to home, in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, she takes advantage of the local restaurants and the lakefront running path.

Where Kate makes an impact

Kate has prioritized recruitment and retention of female talent within healthcare M&A ever since she first joined West Monroe. She is passionate about fostering community through our Women’s Leadership Network and is a leader in our Women in M&A program. She is also an active member of the Women Business Leaders of the U.S. Healthcare Industry Foundation (WBL).

In her spare time, Kate is a long-time volunteer at a local community care program for residents with developmental disabilities.

Meet the Mergers & Acquisitions team