Phil Scalo has used the lessons he learned from his coaches to develop his leadership style.
He actually attributes much his business success to the value he learned while playing youth sports in Lodi in NJ and as a defense back on the Rutgers football squad in the late 1970s.
He is defined by the experiences of playing on a championship team even though he has never been there.
“I was never the super athlete,” he recalls. “I always had to work a little bit harder. I always wanted to be the best at what I did, and I now see my staff doing that every day. ”
Scalo is a descendant of hardworking individuals. His family moved from Jersey City to Lodi when Scalo was three years old. Lodi is a small community in Bergen County. Their house was close enough to the Bendix factory so that if it snowed or the car broke down, his dad could still walk to his job in the aviation division. His sister, a nurse, still lives there, and Phil still drives an hour and a half from his home in Ortley Beach for a haircut or dental check up — because he went to high school with the barber and the dentist.
After graduating from Rutgers University, he married Marilyn. Marilyn was a Lodi Girl who taught him how ski on their honeymoon in Aspen. He fell in love with the sport, which became a family pastime they’ve enjoyed together for more than 40 years. Their son Tim joined a downhill ski racing team and took to the slopes at a young age. The family moved to Colorado in winter, and Phil returned East each week. He became a regular at the local airport.
Eventually, Tim raced for Colorado State University’s ski team and then settled in Denver with his wife, where he now works as a corporate commercial litigator, just like his father before him.
Marilyn and Phil bought their dream house in Steamboat Springs. Marilyn is a horsewoman and Phil can ski all year. That’s where Phil keeps the football signed by his high school teammates. While they might not have been the champion team, Phil keeps the football signed by his high school teammates. It reminds him of the fun of the sport as well as the friendships he made with his teammates.
When he’s skiing — whether it’s on his favorite trails where he taught his son the sport or he’s heli-skiing at a remote mountain in British Columbia — he is intrigued by the idea of never knowing what to expect.
“Conditions change,” he notes. “The other day, we had a snow squall and it was a complete whiteout. I knew the trail, so I worked my way down.”
For Scalo, that’s a little bit like the long-term care industry. He remembers during the height of the pandemic, trusting his team to do their best and rise to the challenge, even though they couldn’t see what was in front of them.
“Just like in skiing, it’s never the same but in some ways, it is,” Scalo reflects. “We just follow the process we know, work hard and try to enjoy it.”
Scalo Resume
- 1975 Earns a BA at Rutgers College
- 1978 Earns a JD at Rutgers School of Law
- 1984 opens Bartley Healthcare
- 1990-1994 Acts as the director, executive vice president and secretary of the US Division Blenheim Group PLC
- 2000 Bartley Healthcare now offers assisted living
- 2005 Designated alternate delegate to White House Conference on Aging
- 2008 Joins Healthcare Association of New Jersey’s Board of Directors
- 2016 Joins AHCA executive committee
- 2017 Receives President’s Award for Service at Felician University
- 2021 AHCA named vice chairman
- 2022 joins the Rutgers University Board of Trustees
McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, April 2023