A Measure of Success

Elise Peters Carey looks out her office window overlooking North Main Street in downtown High Point and envisions a future not yet written. As president of Peters Holdings and Bethany Medical, she oversees the business empire founded by her father, CEO Dr. Lenny Peters, which he began more than 35 years ago.?

Next door lies Peters Medical Research, a multi-million-dollar, three-story newly built office building with leasing space available for retail or office use, and an unfinished first floor designed for a restaurateur to build to suit. ?

Across North Main Street are the 28 luxury apartments nearing completion in yet another, multi-story new build with a similarly hefty price tag. The Point, at North Main Street and Westwood Avenue, are luxury living spaces well suited for young professionals, empty nesters and either the High Point Market crowd or the executives and educators at High Point University. ?

Bookending the city block which houses these pure-white monoliths – along with the award-winning headquarters of Bethany Medical and the Lenny Peters Foundation renovated in 2020 – are vacant lots owned by Peters Development. Each of these corner anchors are primed for new construction projects of their own over the coming months. The future of High Point might not yet be written but is actively being designed and, in many areas, built in no small part around the vision of Elise and Dr. Peters. ?

“We are creating an atmosphere here conducive to growing commerce and activity downtown,” Elise said.?

“We are working to create an attractive, walkable downtown community where business owners and their teams can live, work and play in what we envision will be a destination for new and existing companies to want to come.”?

Outside of work, she is a wife, mother of three – two girls and a boy – and an avid tennis player and pianist who seldom has the time to either serve and volley or improvise a sonata. Still, she would not have it any other way. ?

Elise describes her role as president of Bethany Medical, the pinnacle of the Peters’ portfolio of family businesses, now the largest independent health services provider in the Triad and the largest minority-owned business in the state, as overseeing the operations and growth strategy for future development of the 550-plus employee company. ?

“There is no such thing as an ‘average day,’” she said.?

Her inbox fills faster than it can be emptied. Meetings with department heads, fellow area business leaders, the many boards and committees she sits on and the operation of an international charitable foundation with centers in India and South Africa each vie for her attention.?

"Quite a lot of time is spent with Bethany, and that can be a range of different items,” she said. “And then a portion of my time is spent on real estate development and construction projects.” ?

With 16 locations across the Triad now, not counting the downtown headquarters and several support locations and a diagnostics lab, there are a lot of moving parts that keep Bethany Medical going. To manage it all, Elise applies the same strategy she instills in her team; she establishes firm goals and measures her success toward achieving them. ?

“I look at each week, each day, and try to figure out what the most important thing is I need to accomplish,” she said. ?

Elise is more than six years into the succession plan she and her father set forth when it was decided he would assume a more emeritus role over the companies he established since coming to High Point in 1987. She returned from a career in finance in New York City to take over the reins.?

Under 40, a Millennial, part Indian, a woman, the daughter of an immigrant and the boss’ daughter, Elise pours her best attributes, acquired genetically or through experience, into doing the best job she can with every endeavor she undertakes. ?

“I am very proud to be a female leader. I am hopeful to be able to empower more female leaders, or make a difference in that area,” she said. “Being a minority, being part Indian, looking different … I don’t know that that is how I identify myself. I know it’s a part of me, but it is not how I identify myself.” ?

A self-proclaimed introvert, Elise has learned to make herself heard in a boardroom when she is the only woman present. Beyond that, through humility, discipline or cunning, she most often prefers to “listen more and talk less," as it is to her advantage to know the minds of those around her. ?

“I am working to be clear on what I see as our priorities and goals; where we are going so people can have that insight and know that they are part of that journey."?

In addition to the aforementioned companies, Elise oversees LJP Labs, Kerala Capital Partners LLC, and the family’s interests on the boards of directors of banks and civic organizations across the Triad. ?

She is also a director on the board of the family's own international non-profit, the Lenny Peters Foundation. ?

“What I really like about it all is the diversity of the day, the variety of what I might come across,” she said. ?

The multispecialty practice Bethany Medical ballooned from seven locations and more than 300 employees in 2019, to 16 locations and more than 550 employees today. ?

She and Dr. Peters each bring unique perspectives to the table. Therefore, Elise finds it best to have open communication channels. ?

“We have different ways of looking at things that complement each other. We try to use those but also be accepting of what the other person can bring," she said.?

Aside from her parents, both of whom are successful in business, there is one person Elise credits with helping shape her personal and professional development. She met her husband, Matt, as a freshman in college.?

“He has been the person I have sought advice from, who has supported me emotionally and as a part of our family - a true partner in every facet of life," she said. "To have grown together over the past 20 years of our lives has been a huge source of strength."?

Outside influences aside, Elise has developed her own way of approaching things. She has identified strengths and areas where she might improve. ?

“I didn’t consider those things growing up, but as I have been in more situations – being the only woman in the room, being a woman leading a company, being a minority – I have realized for myself I am coming at things differently because of my experience," she said.?

The self-described "hard-to-get-to-know" business leader is taking time these days for personal growth. She recently resumed playing the piano, having taken lessons as a child, and again in her 20s. ?

Just don’t look for her to headline any upcoming jazz festivals, she said. ?

“It is pretty frustrating,” she said, with an honest laugh. “I enjoy it, but it is hard to not to take a step back. It is something I want to do for maybe the other part of me, and to relax my mind.” ?

Her eldest daughter is taking lessons, and her youngest daughter now wants to play, too. ?

Ever the analyst, Peters Carey advised her youngest to set a more attainable goal for starters. ?

“I told her she’s got to figure out her ABC’s and 1-2-3’s first,” she said. ?

Success is about setting the right goals.?

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