Annbeth Eschbach’s career has focused on reshaping how people care for their bodies and their lives. She has done so through the businesses she has created—from fitness and spa concepts to fertility care and longevity. As the daughter of a pioneering nephrologist whose research transformed treatment for kidney patients, she may have been destined for a life in the wellness business.

“Being exposed to my father’s work and seeing how he was able to meaningfully change the lives of kidney patients all over the world planted a seed. I am driven by the same thing—helping people live better, healthier, and more empowered lives,” she says.

She also has a passion for building new concepts, brands, and business models. That passion was sparked during her early career at Club Sports International (now Wellbridge) when Bud Rockhill, Tom Lyneis, and Ed Williams, leaders of the company, gave her the opportunity to develop a new spa and fitness concept for the Peninsula Hotel in New York City.

“It ignited everything in me,” Eschbach says. “They had my back, they gave me rope, they supported me, they trusted me, and to this day, I will always be grateful to Bud, Tom, and Ed. It was an incredible gift.”

The Peninsula Spa at Peninsula Hotel in New York City was arguably one of the most iconic spas ever built, according to Art Curtis, who served as CSI COO from 1989 to 2003 and worked closely with Eschbach during her time as vice president of marketing and spa development and later as president and COO of Cardio Fitness Centers for CSI.

“From day one she lifted the level of professionalism across the entire organization along with the quality and sophistication of our marketing,” says Curtis, who now operates consulting business Curtis Club Advisors LLC. “She immediately became a role model for our associates across the entire portfolio of clubs. We all became better at what we did because of the things we learned through collaboration with Annbeth. She helped us move from being a bunch of club operators to being businesspeople who were in the business of operating clubs.”

The Bay Club Company CEO Matthew Stevens worked with Eschbach for several years at CSI.

“She commanded respect from me and everyone else from day one by the way she showed up dressed for success, completely prepared, and with a no-nonsense approach,” Stevens says.

Eschbach delivered an annual state-of-the-industry presentation at CSI’s company meeting that also highlighted emerging trends and the competitive landscape. Her insight and delivery impressed Curtis, and her presentation became a cornerstone of the company’s planning, he says, adding, “I knew this was someone special.”

The Business of Boutique Fitness and Spas

An entrepreneur at heart, Eschbach left CSI in 2002 after 12 years to pursue her passion: the creation of a then-new concept that blended boutique fitness with spa and healing programs. She called it Exhale.

She raised the capital needed to fund her dream from Brentwood Associates. At one time, both Eschbach and Stevens shared Brentwood Associates as investors in their respective businesses, so Stevens would see Eschbach in action in front of the Brentwood Associates board.

“Watching Annbeth in a board room, raising money, pitching her concepts was magical,” Stevens says. “She has an innate skill to reach people, pull them along her journey, and convince them to say ‘yes.’ Her ability to grow Exhale was directly correlated to her deal-making skills with investors, lenders, and developers as well as creating an amazing product for consumers while creating an organic culture for associates.”

Eschbach built Exhale into a major force in the spa world, scaling the brand to over 30 locations and achieving a successful sale to Hyatt Hotels. She stayed on and continued in her role as CEO after the sale.

“What made Exhale particularly compelling to Hyatt was that Exhale had become recognized as a true value-add for hotel, residential, and mixed-use developments,” Eschbach says. “We had built a brand that not only engaged the local community but also drove incremental revenue for our hospitality partners—all while operating profitably.”

Stevens says, “To this day, Annbeth is recognized as one of the most influential and preeminent founders of the spa industry.”

The Business of Fertility

But in 2019, she was approached by Kindbody, a new startup on a quest to revolutionize reproductive care.

“I had personally gone through five years of fertility treatments and understood how broken and inaccessible that experience could be,” Eschbach says. “I had promised myself back then that one day, I would help reimagine the patient journey—to make it more compassionate, data-driven, transparent, and affordable. Joining Kindbody was the chance to fulfill that promise.”

She helped to transform fertility care and grew the brand from a single pop-up to 37 clinics serving 121 employers.

Dr. Roohi Jeelani is a world-renowned fertility doctor and OBGYN (and today the CEO of ONTO, a revolutionary fertility brand) who saw Eschbach in action while the two worked together at Kindbody.

“What has always stood out to me is her ability to balance bold vision with operational rigor,” Jeelani says. “She understands capital efficiency. She understands timing. And most importantly, she understands people, which is ultimately what builds enduring enterprises.”

The Business of Longevity

Soon Eschbach felt another calling—longevity—and left Kindbody to co-found ResetOne, a longevity-focused health company combining advanced biomarker testing, personalized clinical care, and evidence-based lifestyle intervention to increase health spans.

“Everything I’ve worked on—across consumer health, tech-enabled care, and well-being—has centered on transformation,” she says. “But this next frontier of health—precision, personalized longevity—is where transformation becomes truly profound. For the first time, we have the science, technology, data, and tools to take a proactive approach to health, rather than a reactive one. Imagine finishing the next decade biologically younger and healthier than you are today. That’s the opportunity in front of us.”

Consumer behavior and market dynamics have fundamentally shifted with a cultural movement toward consumer-first, data-driven health. “The lines between healthcare and wellness are dissolving,” she says. “Wellness is entering healthcare, healthcare is moving into wellness, and consumers want personalized solutions that meet them wherever they are from performance and recovery to sleep, nutrition, and preventive health—but it’s all disconnected.”

With ResetOne, Eschbach sees an opportunity to connect the fragmented pieces of longevity to deliver an integrated, end-to-end experience that combines medical interventions with lifestyle programming to drive measurable outcomes.

The Business of HFA

Eschbach’s ability to connect the dots and build businesses that meet consumer needs was shaped during her early years in the health and fitness industry. She shared that expertise as a highly rated speaker at HFA events and as a member of the HFA board of directors from 1998 to 2002, ultimately becoming the organization’s first female board president at a time when leadership was overwhelmingly male.

“She took on the old boys’ club and took no prisoners,” Stevens says. “I watched firsthand as she demanded respect, pushed agendas, and worked to professionalize the industry.”

Her leadership made her a powerful role model, inspiring many women to pursue leadership roles of their own, Stevens and Curtis agree.

Those who have worked closely with her say that influence has only grown. Susan Passoni, who has spent most of her career alongside Eschbach, first as Exhale senior vice president of marketing and sales and now as ResetOne head of sales and marketing, describes her as a visionary with boundless energy and a deep love for her work and those she works with.

“What sets her apart is her fearless ability to see the white space in wellness and boldly step into it before anyone else does,” Passoni says. “She doesn’t follow trends; she defines what comes next. She leads with conviction, heart, and an unwavering belief that wellness should empower people, and she instills that same confidence and momentum in those around her, lifting them to grow and succeed.”

Jeelani was inspired by Eschbach, who recognized Jeelani’s executive and business building skills and elevated her to Kindbody’s chief growth officer.

“She recognized my potential before I fully owned it myself,” Jeelani says. “She didn't just give advice; she gave belief. And that belief changed the trajectory of my career. That's who she is at her core. She sees people clearly. She invests in them before the rest of the world catches up. And she builds businesses, movements, and leaders with the same steady conviction.”

The Business of Integration

Today, Eschbach says the industry is at a pivotal moment—one where consumers are engaging with a broader, more complex world of health.

“People want agency,” she says. They’re actively using tools, tracking, diagnostics, and multiple disciplines across longevity, recovery, nutrition, sleep, strength, spa, sports performance, hormones, meditation, and more to manage their well-being.

“But all of these disciplines exist in silos and need to converge­—for the benefit of the member, and the success and sustainability of operators,” she says. “My hope is that my work can in some way contribute to pushing the industry to build the connective tissue for a more integrated, orchestrated health, fitness, longevity, and well-being ecosystem.”

Gale Landers is a study in contrasts that, against expectation, work remarkably well together. The founder and CEO of Fitness Formula Clubs (FFC), Landers built a highly successful brand in the fiercely competitive Chicago market by combining sharp financial discipline with relentless operational savvy.

But Landers’ vision extends far beyond KPIs and spreadsheets. He leads with humility and a deep sense of responsibility to his community. His work has always been about creating a meaningful impact on a regional scale both on the business side and in the lives of the people he serves.

Landers’ unique blend of grit and grace was forged in his early days growing up on a farm in rural Illinois, where he learned life lessons at the kitchen table from his father.

What a Farm Boy Can Do

“Growing up on a farm teaches you a lot about life,” he says. “You learn what it takes to be successful. You learn responsibility. You learn to drive all types of vehicles at a very young age. I remember my dad sitting with me at the kitchen table in grade school, teaching me how to balance a checkbook. That entrepreneurial business mindset was instilled in me at a young age.”

After playing four sports in high school and serving as senior class president, Landers went on to Western Illinois University, where he earned a bachelor's in accounting and played four years of collegiate baseball.

By 1981, Landers was general manager of a gym. He found himself in the orbit of John McCarthy, then the executive director of IHRSA (now HFA), and got involved in the early days of the association.

Just three years later, he co-founded Fitness Formula, Ltd., a fitness design, consulting, and management company. But five years in, Landers hit a wall of tragedy that for many would have ended the story. Within a 90-day span, his business partner, Michael Gitlitz, and both of his parents passed away.

This loss became a turning point for Landers. He moved forward with a renewed focus, pivoting Fitness Formula to developing and owning clubs throughout Chicago. FFC would eventually crystallize with the development and opening of its first club in 1994, but not before Landers had to make one of the most difficult decisions of his life—selling the family farm.

“In a very real way, my brother and I ‘bet the farm,’ and I used some of those proceeds as seed capital for the first club I developed,” Landers says.

After selling the farm, Landers pitched his integrated health and wellness model—a radical concept at that time, combining core fitness with personal care, physical therapy, and nutritional support—to 164 potential investors. He heard “no” 142 times.

Amid a recession and the loss of his support system, many people told him he was crazy for dreaming of a new club in the Gold Coast of Chicago.

“I spent a lot of time praying about it, listening to an inner voice,” he says. “And over time, that voice told me: ‘You can do this. You have the strength and capability, you have the experience, the financial background, and the entrepreneurial spirit. You can make it happen.’ Having lost three critically important people in my life, my Christian faith was an anchor in the bedrock that held my life together during that time and kept me moving forward.”

That sense of purpose became a defining trait of his leadership. In moments when grief, fear, or doubt could have stopped him, Landers chose instead to keep moving forward.

Because of his belief and persistence, Landers convinced 22 investors to get on board—enough to turn his vision into a reality.

FFC now has 10 locations throughout Chicagoland, operating on a unique hub-and-spoke regional model that places clubs strategically within the city’s transit networks, increasing member value and allowing for a seamless transmutation of culture and operational standards from one facility to the next.

Chuck Runyon and Dave Mortensen have spent more than two decades reshaping the global fitness industry, building one of the world’s most influential fitness brands, Anytime Fitness, into a phenomenon. Since founding the company in 2002 in Cambridge, Minnesota, Runyon and Mortensen have empowered thousands of entrepreneurs around the world, creating generations of successful business owners.

Their transformative vision has helped expand the global footprint of the fitness industry perhaps more than any other contemporary fitness leaders. The HFA Hall of Fame would be incomplete without them.

The fitness journeys of Runyon and Mortensen started years before Anytime Fitness became a household name, with unique personal experiences that helped empower their shared mission.

Forged in Tragedy and Hope

A family tragedy led Runyon to his calling. His older brother, Steve, passed away at the age of 17 from a heart condition. The impact on his family was profound, and for Runyon, it led to the realization that good health is not guaranteed.

“This inspired a career in the fitness industry, and still today, I’m driven with purpose to help people around the world become healthier and happier,” he says.

From a young age, Mortensen witnessed the impact of obesity on individuals he admired.

“After graduating high school, driven by my passion for fitness, I decided to enter this industry to help combat a challenge that many face,” he recalls. “My goal remains unwavering: to make healthy living more accessible and to inspire transformative lifestyle changes for a healthier future.”

The two young men met in the early 1990s in Saint Paul, Minnesota, while selling gym memberships. They struck up a friendship and eventually a business partnership. Driven by their desire to create an accessible model for a broad population, they co-founded Anytime Fitness.

Positioned as an alternative to big-box gyms that often featured expensive frills that the two believed few members actually used or needed, Anytime Fitness facilities occupied smaller neighborhood spaces that were open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The clubs featured what members wanted most: convenience, affordability, quality equipment, and personable service in a secure, non-intimidating environment.

The model would go on to revolutionize the fitness industry.

Expansion to Every Continent—Even Antarctica

By 2014, Anytime Fitness had expanded to over 2,500 locations worldwide, becoming the first franchise on all seven continents. (Its Antarctica facility, which launched in 2019, is aboard the Magellan Explorer cruise vessel, which journeys to the Antarctic Peninsula.)

Anytime Fitness quickly grew into an international powerhouse, partly due to its master franchise model. It is currently the largest and fastest-growing fitness brand in the world, averaging 300 new clubs per year while serving nearly 5 million members at more than 5,600 clubs.

In 2024, their original parent company, Self Esteem Brands, merged with Orangetheory Fitness and was rebranded as Purpose Brands.

Today, Purpose Brands is the world's largest portfolio of fitness, health, and wellness franchise brands and services, including Anytime Fitness, Orangetheory Fitness, Waxing the City, Basecamp Fitness/SUMHIIT Fitness, and The Bar Method. Led by CEO Tom Leverton, these brands collectively generate $3.8 billion in revenue, operating across 49 countries on all seven continents with a combined 6 million members.