Paradigm Oral Health has promoted two of its surgeon partners to the organization’s executive leadership team. Blake Ballenger, DDS, has been named Chief Clinical Officer, and Rian Cho, DDS, has been named Chief Growth Officer. They join Daniel Yacoob, DDS, MD, who has served as Chief Operating Officer for the past two years. Together with Founder and Chief Executive Officer David Rallis, DDS, MD, four oral and maxillofacial surgeons now hold Paradigm’s most senior executive roles.
The appointments come just weeks after Paradigm completed a surgeon-led buyback that returned controlling ownership of the organization to its surgeons and leadership team — the third successful liquidity event for its doctors in seven years. The new executive structure carries that same principle from the ownership table into the daily operation of the business: the surgeons who own Paradigm are the surgeons setting its clinical and growth strategy.
“Surgeon leadership has never been a slogan for us. It is the operating model,” said Dr. Rallis. “Blake and Rian have each built and grown exceptional practices inside Paradigm. Promoting them to the executive team, on the heels of returning ownership to our surgeons, is the clearest statement we can make about who runs this organization and who it is built for.”
As Chief Clinical Officer, Dr. Ballenger leads the surgeon side of the organization: the education and development of every surgeon on the platform, from onboarding through advanced training, along with the clinical quality and workflow standards Paradigm holds across its national portfolio. He also leads clinical programming at the Paradigm Innovation Institute (Pi2). Dr. Ballenger is a board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon based in Colorado.
“The promise we make to every surgeon who joins Paradigm is that they will practice at the highest level of our specialty and keep getting better for their entire career,” said Dr. Ballenger. “My job is to make that promise real: world-class education, genuine mentorship, and clinical standards we hold ourselves to everywhere we practice. Patients feel the difference, and so do the surgeons delivering their care.”
As Chief Growth Officer, Dr. Cho leads Paradigm’s organic growth: the development of new practices from site selection through opening and ramp, and the recruitment and development of the next generation of Paradigm surgeons. Dr. Cho is a board-certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon based in North Carolina.
“Growth for us means one thing: more exceptional surgeons building practices they lead, in more communities that need this level of care,” said Dr. Cho. “I built my practice inside this model, so I know the path we offer firsthand. Leading growth as a surgeon means every decision about where and how we grow is grounded in what actually works in the operatory and in the community.”
Dr. Yacoob, who has led operations as Chief Operating Officer for the past two years, sees the structure as a competitive advantage in itself. “When a prospective surgeon looks at Paradigm, they see surgeons who own the company, surgeons who run the company, and a real path from residency to practice ownership to executive leadership,” he said. “Almost no one else in healthcare can show them that.”
Paradigm also added two oral and maxillofacial surgeons to its surgeon-controlled Board of Directors: Tom Dietrich, DDS, and Daniel Jeong, DDS. Their appointments extend surgeon control from ownership into governance, placing practice-level perspective directly in the room where Paradigm’s long-term strategy is set.
“The surgeon-led buyback was a landmark moment for our specialty. Surgeons now control the company they built, and very few organizations in healthcare can say that,” said Dr. Dietrich. “Governance is where that control becomes something real and lasting. Joining this board means helping make sure the ownership our doctors earned translates into how decisions actually get made.”
“The transaction was the beginning. The structure we are putting around it, surgeons on the board and surgeons in senior executive seats, is what makes it durable,” said Dr. Jeong. “That is what convinced me this is an organization worth helping to govern for the long term. Our job now is to turn a monumental moment into a monumental decade for our surgeons and their patients.”
Every executive appointment announced today was developed from within — surgeons who joined the platform, built successful practices, and grew into enterprise leadership. It is a career arc Paradigm intends to keep repeating as the organization grows.
“This is the model working exactly as we designed it,” Dr. Rallis added. “Surgeons own the organization, surgeons lead the organization, and the surgeons joining us today will help lead its next chapter.”
About Paradigm Oral Health:
Paradigm Oral Health is one of the nation’s leading organizations for oral surgery, partnering with elite oral surgeons and periodontists to deliver exceptional patient care through clinical excellence, innovation and education. By combining surgeon leadership with advanced technology, operational support and a commitment to continuous learning, Paradigm is helping shape the future of the specialty while expanding access to world-class care across the United States. To learn more, visit ParadigmOralHealth.com and Pi2edu.com.
Will Garin
Paradigm Oral Health
Will.Garin@paradigmoralhealth.com
