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Jon Rousseau, President and CEO of BrightSpring Health Services, was named an EY US Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2026 East Central Award winner. Rousseau was selected among nearly 1000 program participants that included 592 finalists across 17 regions competing for the title.
Under Jon’s leadership, BrightSpring has grown into a leading provider of home- and community-based health services, serving more than 460,000 patients, clients, and customers each day across the United States. His strategic vision has helped expand access to high-quality care while driving innovation across pharmacy and provider services.
Now in its 41st year, the Entrepreneur Of The Year program honors business leaders for their ingenuity, courage, and entrepreneurial spirit. It celebrates original founders who bootstrapped their business from inception or raised outside capital to grow their company, transformational CEOs who infused innovation into an existing organization to catapult its trajectory, and multigenerational family business leaders who reimagined a legacy business model to strengthen it for the future.
Regional winners were chosen by an independent panel of past winners, top CEOs, and business leaders. Judges assessed candidates on long-term value creation, entrepreneurial spirit, purpose-driven commitment, and significant growth and impact.
As an East Central award winner, Rousseau will now be considered by the national judges for the Entrepreneur Of The Year 2026 National Awards, which will be presented in November at the annual Strategic Growth Forum®, where high-growth CEOs, Fortune 1000 executives and investors converge to shape the future of business. The National Overall Award winner will move on to compete for the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ Award in May 2027.
About Entrepreneur Of The Year Founded in 1986, Entrepreneur Of The Year® has celebrated more than 11,000 ambitious visionaries who are leading successful, dynamic businesses in the US, and it has since expanded to nearly 60 countries and territories globally.
The US program consists of 17 regional programs whose panels of independent judges select the regional award winners every June. Those winners compete for national recognition at the Strategic Growth Forum® in November where national finalists and award winners are announced. The national overall winner represents the US at the EY World Entrepreneur Of The Year™ competition.