Acadia Healthcare started 21 years ago as a private company. Reeve B. Waud founded it in 2005. Today it describes itself as the largest stand-alone behavioral healthcare company in the U.S.
Getting from one point to the other took an IPO, a run of acquisitions and a long list of partner hospitals. These are the dates that stand out.
Before and Just After the IPO
1993: Reeve B. Waud founds Waud Capital Partners in Lake Forest, Illinois.
2005: He founds Acadia as a private corporation, 12 years into running his own private equity firm.
2009: Waud Capital moves from Lake Forest to downtown Chicago.
2011: Acadia goes public, six years after its founding. Its headquarters are in Franklin, Tennessee.
2014: Acadia buys CRC Health, an addiction treatment chain, from Bain Capital. The deal brings it into methadone clinics.
Partners and New Builds, 2018 to 2025
2018: Debbie Osteen joins as CEO in December after 19 years at Universal Health Services.
2018: Waud Capital raises its fifth fund.
2022: A children’s hospital opens in Chicago, along with a joint venture facility in Knoxville and two comprehensive treatment centers. Chris Hunter succeeds Osteen as CEO in April.
2023: Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital and Acadia announce a 96-bed hospital for Council Bluffs, Iowa. Waud Capital turns 30. “I am very humbled to be celebrating this major milestone,” its founder says.
2025: Acadia finishes the year with 277 facilities and more than 12,500 beds in 40 states and Puerto Rico.
January: The board, chaired by Reeve B. Waud, brings Osteen back as CEO.
February: Waud Capital hires Prithvi Raj as its first chief AI and data officer.
March: The 16-bed Northern Virginia Adolescent Treatment Center opens in Chantilly.
April to June: Partner hospitals open in Florida and Iowa with 240 licensed beds, plus two new outpatient treatment centers.
June 30: Acadia reports 279 facilities and about 12,600 beds.
July: Acadia raises its operating cash flow forecast to $350 million to $400 million.
August: Eight Acadia centers land on Newsweek’s 2026 list of America’s Best Residential Addiction Treatment Centers.
September: Zacks reports the stock up 100% for the year.
October: Geisinger Behavioral Health Center Northeast, an Acadia joint venture hospital, wins the Joint Commission’s first Care Team Award. Acadia sets November 4 for its third-quarter report.
That report will cover a company of roughly 25,000 employees serving more than 84,000 patients a day. Reeve B. Waud is still its chairman.
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