Ms. Faulkner has run Epic since founding it in a Wisconsin basement apartment in the late 1970s. It has since grown into the market leader for hospital EHRs with $4.9 billion in annual revenue, all without ever taking venture capital money or acquiring another company. Ms. Faulkner, still the CEO at 81 years old, intends for things to stay that way.
According to Forbes, Ms. Faulkner has all of Epic’s voting shares, which, after she dies, will transfer to a trust governed by four family members — her husband and three children — and “five long-time senior manager employees” at the company.
The trust’s rules forbid an initial public offering, sale or acquisition and set forth that the next CEO must be a “long-term Epic employee and a software developer,” Ms. Faulkner told the news outlet. Meanwhile, an independent oversight board made up of three of the company’s longtime healthcare clients will “sue anyone who doesn’t vote according to the rules.”
Ms. Faulkner has also begun selling her nonvoting shares back to Epic to fund her family foundation, with those being offered to employees, according to the story.
“Eventually it’s going to be pretty much all owned by employees and my family,” she told Forbes, referring to Epic.
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