An American History and Political Science major, Fansler decided, after considering a career in education, to focus his ability and energy on a career in finance and business.  He joined First Bank Minneapolis in 1979, where he was placed in a commercial lending and management training program.  He was then moved into a lending division which focused on healthcare clients, and this is where he began to develop his expertise in healthcare finance.  He left First Bank in 1984 to work for one of his former customers in a healthcare management firm which specialized in HMO development and management and medical group management consulting.  He spent three years working in contracted line management positions and was promoted to Regional Vice President and Director.

In 1987, Fansler and two of his colleagues decided to form their own company.  They felt that they could serve a niche in the Upper Midwest middle market for project-specific consulting support to medical groups, and this became the basis for the foundation of Partners Consulting Group (now Partners Healthcare Consulting).  In the 1980s there was a booming need for hospitals to build primary care alliance strategies.  The members of Partners Consulting had experience with managing physician groups, and they brought this knowledge to large health systems to help them develop and implement physician alliance strategies and programs for their affiliated hospitals.  At its peak, Partners had clients in 40+ states and was the pre-eminent middle market healthcare consulting firm in the country.

Mr. Fansler left Partners Consulting Group in 1992 to form Peterson, Spencer & Fansler, LLC, a Minneapolis-based venture capital firm that specialized in seed stage healthcare investments.  Mr. Fansler was in charge of the fund's healthcare services investments, which included physician practice management and healthcare information technology.  The company's venture fund was extremely successful (at its height, its clients were receiving a 3:1 return).  It was during this time, in 1995, that Fansler and his family decided to move to Telluride, CO.  As the last of the fund's investments wound down in 1997, and with the three founding partners spread across the country, Fansler found himself drawn back to his former company, which he had continued to stay in touch with during his venture capitalist stint.  He rejoined Partners while it was in the process of being acquired by Towers Perrin, a global management consulting firm specializing in actuarial and benefits administration.  Towers was trying to get its foot in the healthcare management consulting door, and its hope was leverage of Partners' market presence and visibility along with its own experience in actuarial consulting within large city markets to enter the healthcare market in places such as Chicago, Boston, New York, and San Francisco.  Mr. Fansler spent a year commuting from Telluride to help build Towers' San Francisco office.  Among his major consulting engagements included developing a system-wide physician strategy and business plan for Catholic Healthcare West, a 40-hospital, 11 region health system with 2200 affiliated physicians.

Towers struggled with its acquisition of Partners.  With virtually no track record of healthcare consulting in large urban markets, it was unable to build a formidable and competitive presence.  In addition, many of Partners' former clients, who found themselves unable to keep up with the increased hourly rates connected with doing business with Towers, looked for consulting expertise elsewhere.  After three difficult years, five former Partners consultants, including Fansler, spun off and reformed the old firm.  Today, Partners Healthcare Consulting, Inc. is reclaiming its niche in the middle market in physician-hospital strategy work.  Partners' consultants focus on performance improvement, ambulatory strategic planning, market assessment, master facility planning, and new service analysis and implementation.  Mr. Fansler works out of Telluride but also spends time commuting to Minneapolis, where he maintains an office, and elsewhere around the country to work with his clients.

Mr. Fansler is extremely grateful for his UVM education.  He was impressed by the quality of his courses and the knowledge of his professors.  Of critical importance to his career, he believes, has been the instruction he received in writing and reading assessment.  He feels it is of utmost importance to be able to write well and to be able to read and analyze materials with a critical eye.  He is a proponent of a well-rounded education, stating that "there is something to be said for variety in a planned and structured way."  To the business students in particular, he stresses that nothing can take the place of "cutting your teeth in the trenches."  For those who want to pursue a career in venture capitalism or management consulting, the absolute best way to gain credibility with clients and colleagues is to spend time submerged in the operations of a company; to be able to credibly state, "Been there, done that."

Outside of his career, Mr. Fansler is married to Barbara Hanley Fansler (UVM '79).  They have five children ranging in age from 3 to 21.  He currently serves as the mayor of Mountain Village, CO, and just completed his two year term as President of the Telluride Ski and Snowboard Club.  He is also the head hockey coach for the high school club team and serves on the Curriculum Committee for the Telluride School District.