Nickolas Mitilenes has spent over 15 years leading healthcare organizations through growth, innovation, and complex challenges. His career spans clinical labs, health systems, and diagnostic services, where he’s driven business expansions, mergers, and new ventures. Known for aligning teams and delivering results in high-stakes settings, he blends science, strategy, and people skills. From scaling labs to launching AI-driven tools, Mitilenes has tackled evolving market needs with a focus on outcomes.
When it comes to relationships with people you work with, investors, and partners, Nickolas Mitilenes believes it starts with actually caring about who they are. "Connecting genuinely with anyone is essential," he says. "The 'check the box' style questions do little more than fill up space at the beginning of a meeting. Instead, demonstrating true interest in what is going on in the lives of others is what builds relationships."
That's different from a lot of business culture, where people just go through the motions in meetings and expect it to be enough.
When he has a conflict with clients, regulators, or business partners, he starts by trying to understand their side of things.
“First, I think it is important to try to understand the perspectives of all who are involved in a particular conflict or situation,” he says. “Odds are that most or all parties come from a reasonable place and are just trying to achieve the best outcome for themselves, their clients, their partners, their shareholders, or their constituents.”
He believes most parties want fair outcomes. Compromise, not rigid wins, moves things forward. Focusing on the intent behind rules prevents one from getting stuck. This approach has come in handy to smooth tensions during integrations and testing rollouts and has also helped him forge partnerships and lead teams effectively.
Nickolas Mitilenes laid the groundwork for his career with a solid education and early leadership roles. He earned a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology from Colgate University, giving him a deep understanding of lab science. He later added a master’s in business administration from Cornell University and a master’s of science from Weill Cornell Medicine, blending technical and business skills. These degrees prepared him to navigate the complex world of healthcare management.
“I am a firm believer that a team can’t communicate enough,” Mitilenes said on leading groups.
He stresses sharing updates on progress, challenges, or personal priorities without overloading on meetings. This keeps teams productive and sustainable.
At MedLabs, as president and chief operating officer, he grew a regional lab into a $30 million business serving over 450,000 patients yearly. He achieved 22% annual revenue growth and 102% EBITDA growth over three years, leading to a $45 million private equity sale. This role taught him how to scale operations while keeping efficiency high.
Mitilenes also earned certifications from the American Society for Clinical Pathology as a diplomate in laboratory management and a technologist in molecular biology. He became a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, boosting his credibility in regulated settings.
His early involvement in professional and academic boards, now including the Mendham Township Board of Health, showed his commitment to broader health issues. These roles helped him connect lab work to community needs, shaping his leadership style.
This phase built the skills he’d later use to tackle bigger challenges, balancing science and strategy while fostering teamwork.
At Eurofins Clinical Diagnostics, Nick Mitilenes took on president-level positions that tested his ability to manage large-scale change. He led the integration of NTD Genetics and EGL into a unified maternal-fetal and pediatric genetics business. This required aligning teams, systems and goals across different cultures. He also rolled out high-volume COVID-19 testing, updated bioinformatics tools, and modernized IT systems to meet rising demands.
“Three top qualities every effective leader should possess include, but are not limited to, persistence, hard work, and vision,” Mitilenes says.
Persistence kept him pushing through merger challenges. Hard work drove teams during tough times, like the pandemic. Vision ensured efforts aimed at clear goals, such as better diagnostics.
Mitilenes thrives in matrixed setups, breaking silos and aligning stakeholders. His work at Eurofins built on MedLabs but tackled national scales and stricter regulations and with COVID came forced quick pivots which sharpened his crisis management skills.
Board roles during this time linked his work to public health, reinforcing his focus on results that matter beyond the company. This phase showed his knack for driving profits and innovation in complex, regulated environments.
Nick Mitilenes turned to entrepreneurship to address unmet healthcare needs, launching ventures that brought fresh solutions. At Innoterix Labs, he led the design of self-collection tests for vector-borne and environmental illnesses, making diagnostics more accessible. He also advised on building a high-complexity pathology lab for nursing homes, tailoring services to a critical population.
“In my experience, I have rarely found that a particular framework is helpful, mainly because most tough calls require bringing several concepts together along with your gut instincts,” Mitilenes says about decision-making.
He uses tools like scenario planning or pros and cons lists. He also thinks a lot about what can go wrong, plans, and then uses his instincts to determine what he should do in case reality does not match his expectations
With Hatchleaf, he created an AI platform to improve outpatient navigation and education, partnering with Johns Hopkins Medicine and Northwell Health. This venture used technology to simplify complex care systems, reflecting his interest in AI’s potential.
Building relationships was key. His focus on genuine connections helped secure partnerships, while being candid and assuming good intent built trust with stakeholders, from health systems to investors.
At Opentrons, as vice president and general manager of the Pandemic Response Laboratory, Nick Mitilenes managed a $60 million operation with over 250 employees across three states. He shaped strategy, expanded high-throughput infectious disease testing, and led shutdowns that beat financial targets in a fast-paced, regulated setting.
“A group of colleagues and I once had to unexpectedly shut a business down despite our firm belief that we could deliver value in excess of expectations,” Mitilenes says, recalling a tough moment.
The shutdown affected hundreds, including families, and was emotional. Rather than break under the pressure, he and his colleagues leaned on each other, focused on how to support one another's future success, and found the silver lining in the experience.
What happened next was surprising. Even though the business was going under, they actually ended up exceeding their goals. "By the end of our time together, we had learned much more about business and life than we had during normal operations," he says. "It was one of the more rewarding professional experiences I have had as it enabled all of us to ignore the typical hustle and bustle of clinical and business operations and focus on the well-being of our team."
His delegation style balances roles, passion and skills. “My instinct is to strike a balance between delegating tasks that are someone’s responsibility, versus those that they love to do, versus those that they are good at,” he says.
In order to maintain a team that is both happy and high-performing, he believes you need a strategy that thinks both short and long term. What emerges from this approach is less a set of flashy management techniques and more a commitment to fundamentals: genuine relationships, honest communication and long-term thinking.
Be it navigating a business shutdown, putting his staff to work, or even furthering his education, he does it based on the same principles. In a field often driven by short-term metrics and rapid decision-making, his philosophy stands out precisely because it asks leaders to slow down, listen more and think beyond the next quarter.
Nick Mitilenes is now pursuing a Doctor of Public Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, focusing on leadership and artificial intelligence in health policy and management. “During my DrPH, I’m taking electives in artificial intelligence (AI) to fully understand the intersection of public health/healthcare and AI from both an academic and practical perspective,” he said.
The AI focus ties to his Hatchleaf work, where he used tech for patient navigation. It signals his intent to shape healthcare’s tech-driven future, possibly in diagnostics or systems. He aims to earn a Certified in Public Health credential before finishing. This builds on his earlier degrees and certifications, keeping him ready for new challenges.
His board service, including Mendham’s health board, lets him apply new ideas locally. This phase is about looking ahead, unlike past operational roles. Mitilenes’ persistence drives his studies amid a demanding career. His vision centers on blending policy, tech, and leadership for broader impact.
