Dr. Dixson is a three time INC Magazine 500 out of 5000 awarded entrepreneur, and the Founder and CEO of The DSO Project, dentistry's first and only dental support organization, DSO accelerator. Formerly, he was the Founder and CEO of Smiles Services LLC and Founder and President of Smiles Dental Group PC. He is a visionary, inspirational, and transformational leader who builds unified individuals, teams, cultures, and world class organizations. Dr. Dixson became the managing partner of Smiles Dental in 2008. In 2010 he finalized a buyout of his former partners, assumed the role of President and immediately accomplished a successful relaunch of the organization, setting Smiles Dental on a path to explosive growth. The company proceeded to double its number of locations, triple revenue and quadruple its valuation in the ensuing three years. From 2013 to 2015, Smiles Dental roughly tripled the number of locations, revenue, EBITDA and organizational valuation again. He also concurrently codeveloped the dental analytics technology software platform that became Practice Analytics, one of the industry leaders in real time dental practice management analytics. Under Dr. Dixson's leadership, Smiles Dental was recognized three years in a row, 2013-2015 by INC Magazine as one of the fastest growing privately held companies in the United States, topping out at 550 in 2013. Additionally in 2013, he completed a successful private equity transaction. In addition to his MandA Advising and Consulting work at The DSO Project, Dr. Dixson provides Board Services to private equity firms. He also currently serves as a trusted DSO and dental industry advisor for private equity firms, dental technology companies and global dental brands in a variety of capacities. Dr. Dixson returned in mid 2017 from a one-year sabbatical where he and his family visited six continents and thirty-five countries while homeschooling, with only what they could carry on their backs. Visit dixsonsout.com to learn more.
Ian is a Partner at The DSO Project, a national consultancy advising dentists on how to start, grow and successfully exit a DSO. Ian is also a Co-Founder and Partner at WEO Media, a 3X award winning “Best of Class” dental marketing firm. Under his leadership WEO Media has grown quickly to become one of the most widely respected dental marketing firms in North America, and has garnered an impressive list of industry endorsements and awards.
Ian McNickle is a nationally recognized marketer, writer, and speaker. He has developed significant expertise in online marketing, website optimization and conversion, search engine optimization, SEO, pay per click marketing, PPC, social media, video marketing, online reputation management, marketing strategy, and related topics. In addition, he has developed a set of critical KPI’s, key performance indicators for measuring the effectiveness of any marketing program.
Ian lectures all over North America at dental conferences, study clubs, dental societies, and conducts numerous seminars and webinars. His teaching style breaks down the complexities of dental marketing in an easy to understand approach that the non marketer can comprehend and implement. Ian writes articles for Dental Economics, Dental Products Report, The Progressive Dentist, and other industry publications on various aspects of digital marketing.
Prior to his work with The DSO Project and WEO Media Ian worked in the high tech industry for 10 years in various engineering and management positions at Siltronic and Xerox. He left high tech in 2006, and founded a regional marketing consulting firm which he ran for several years before eventually cofounding WEO Media in 2009.
Ian has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Washington State University where he was also a graduate of the University Honors Program. In addition, he graduated Cum Laude with an MBA from the University of Washington.
Ian is an avid endurance athlete having competed in numerous marathon, ultramarathon, Ironman triathlon events. His favorite activity is simply spending time with his wife Andrea, and three kids Evelyn, Morgan, and Brendan.