On Sept. 15, the Global Wellness Summit (GWS), the foremost gathering of international leaders in the multitrillion-dollar global wellness economy, announced the appointment of C. Victor Brick, CEO of Planet Fitness Growth Partners (PFGP) and chairman of the John W. Brick Mental Health Foundation, to its 12-person advisory board. Brick brings over 35 years of success in the fitness industry and a long-standing personal commitment to promoting the integration of wellness modalities into the treatment of mental health issues to the GWS Advisory Board.

As an advisory board member, Brick is looking forward to helping the GWS further extend its reach and impact within the $109 billion fitness industry. In addition, he believes that the pandemic has accelerated the need for all industries — especially those involved in wellness — to actively collaborate for the greater good, delivering on the promise of prevention over cure.

The mission of GWS is to bring individuals and businesses together to shape a better future. Brick believes that wellness, including exercise, nutrition, and healthy lifestyle choices, must be integrated into the healthcare delivery system, and recognized as essential businesses, which is best accomplished through funding, conducting, and evangelizing evidence-based research that the medical industry will embrace and support. Brick feels that, “now is our time — the window of opportunity has opened.”

Brick is a big believer in the success that can come from impeccable timing. He founded his first health club, Brick Bodies, with his wife Lynne in 1985. Twenty years later, they turned the running of the seven Brick Bodies clubs over to their daughter, Vicki, while they went on to found PF Growth Partners. That good timing also translates into Brick’s philanthropy. In 2015, he and Lynne founded the John W. Brick Mental Health Foundationin memory of Victor’s oldest brother, who suffered from schizophrenia and died from complications from the disease. Today, the foundation is focused on evangelizing the “prescription” of holistic therapies and healthy lifestyle choices in the treatment of mental health — something that is very much top of mind in any conversation around the mental health crisis that has become front and center amid a global pandemic that has also highlighted societal and racial inequities.