Work hard, play hard By Anne Sampson Valley Business FRONT welcomes Christopher Finley as a 2023 Patron Advisory Board member representing the region’s healthcare sector. Chris Finley describes himself as a firecracker baby (his birthday is 7/4/74). Over a 26-year career in Public Relations, he’s tried to live up to the name. Chris is the Senior Market Director, Marketing Communications for LewisGale Regional Health System.
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Chris Finley
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t JANUARY 2023 / vbFRONT.com
“In my role, I lead the marketing and communications functions for four hospitals, two freestanding ERs, two regional cancer centers and affiliations with both employed and independent physicians,” he says. LewisGale has a long history in the Roanoke Valley. In 1909, Drs. Joseph Lewis and Sparrell Gale opened a cutting-edge facility in Roanoke City that featured running water and central heating. In the ensuing century-plus, LewisGale Regional Healthcare System has grown to become part of HCA Healthcare, an international company providing healthcare at 182 hospitals and over 2,300 other sites of care, including surgery centers, freestanding ERs, urgent care centers, home health and hospice agencies, and physician clinics, in 20 states and the United Kingdom, according to its website. “Before joining LewisGale Regional Health System, I commuted for each and every one of my positions,” says Chris. “I am a Salem resident so the opportunity to work at our main campus in Salem, (he and wife, Laura, were newly married), and being back to doing a role in a domain that is my first love – marketing and communications – it was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down. And, I joined one of the nation's leading providers of healthcare services.” Chris’s 26-year career includes a variety