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SPECIAL REPORT: MOST CONNECTED
Nancy Schlichting: Network, develop connections, maintain them NO. 2: Now on the list: Fixing the VA health system
AARON ECKELS
By Cindy Goodaker cgoodaker@crain.com
Nancy Schlichting will retire as CEO of Henry Ford Health System in December 2016 after 13 years in the job, but she’ll continue to leverage a broad and deep network of connections built over three and a half decades. “I’ve often marveled at my network,” said Schlichting, 60. “I’ve always sort of focused on doing my job well, always being receptive to people and getting involved in the community. I guess that’s sort of been the strategy over the years, but it started as a very young person,” she said. That began with a fellowship with the American Hospital Association and Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association in Chicago in the 1970s. There she met Rufus Rorem, whose ideas had led to the creation of Blue Cross and Blue Shield; Wilbur Cohen, the architect of Medicare; Walter McNerney, who brought Blue Cross into Medicare; and later his son, Jim McNerney, chairman of Boeing Co. She also met Gail Warden, the now-retired Henry Ford Health CEO who hired Schlichting into the system in 1998, and many others. “If you look at the Health Care Hall of Fame, I probably know 30 percent of them because of the exposure I had as a very young person, …” she said. “I had an incredible network as a 24-year-old, and I maintained that network over the years; and as I moved in my career, I continued to stay connected.” Those early connections led to running a 650-bed hospital at the age of 28 because of a mentor in Akron, Ohio, which led to sitting on a number of local nonprofit boards, which led to sitting on a local bank board at the age of 32. Membership in an organization of the top women in health care 20 years ago led to meeting the husband of one of the members, who became a search consultant, who years later, in 2006, then recommended her as a director for the
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There are 20 women in the top 100, four of whom are in the top 10. In addition to Schlichting, those are: ■ No. 8: Suzanne Shank ■ No. 9: Deborah Dingell ■ No. 10: Susan M. Smyth
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. board.
“That’s been the pattern. It’s the network, it’s the performance in the job and it’s staying very connected to the community, serving the community.” Most recently, in June, Schlichting was appointed by President Barack Obama to chair the Com mission on Care, charged with recommending how best to strategically organize the Veterans Health Administration, local health care resources and deliver care to veterans. Schlichting said she was asked to join, and a few days later to chair, the commission by Sloan Gibson, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs . She believes Gibson was aware of her because she had been recommended to be head of the VA. Schlichting named three things she believes are her legacy to Henry Ford: Turning around and investing in Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, winning a Baldrige award and building the system’s West Bloomfield Township hospital. And she’s also proud of standing up for the city. “I was a champion for Detroit when very few people were. I came here as an outsider 17 years ago. When I came it was not a great time, and then it got worse, but I kept basically saying things won’t get better if you don’t believe they can. … Why would you not try to improve it instead of being a critic/observer/judge?” Is the canceled merger with Beaumont Health a regret? Not really.
Health systems have to have scale, Schlichting said, and at $5 billion, Henry Ford is the largest in regional revenue. It’s also vertically integrated with operations that include hospitals, large ambulatory centers, a health plan, salaried medical group, academic teaching hospitals, pharmacies, home care and hospice care. “We’re unlike every other health system in this market. Most health systems are hospital operating companies. … We are an integrated model, which is very relevant today. “We look for partnerships that fit that model, and we are very selective about that because we don’t want to just aggregate hospitals at a time when hospital stays are declining. “We see our vision and model as a strength. We will always have strategic discussions. Some will go places, some will not.” In retirement, Schlichting said she’s excited about doing some new things. Chairing the Commission on Care “is opening a whole set of doors for me in terms of public policy and the Washington environment. And who knows where that will lead? I don’t know, but I’m definitely meeting some remarkable people.” She also has joined the technical advisory board of Arboretum Ventures. Schlichting said she’s been approached by a number of other for-profit and nonprofit organizations about board seats. “I don’t want to overcommit, though, because I do want more time to do things that feed my soul. … I want to play my violin. … I want to exercise more, play a little more golf, a little more tennis. “The most exciting thing about this next chapter is not having the schedule I have right now, so I have a little more flexibility in my life and less stress. I’ve had the stress for 32 years.”
Connections Corporate boards: Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc..; Arboretum Ventures (advisory); Fifth Third Bank (Eastern Michigan) Civic/nonprofit boards: Detroit Economic Club; Downtown Detroit Partnership; Kresge Foundation; Commission on Care (chair); Citizens Research Council of Michigan; Sanford School of Public Policy, Duke University (board of visitors); Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Detroit board; Detroit Regional Chamber. Education: A.B., Duke University; MBA, Cornell
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Robert Taubman Chairman, president and CEO Taubman Centers Inc. Taubman joined the company founded by his father, the late A. Alfred Taubman, in 1976; became CEO in 1990 and chairman in 2001. He led the company through its successful defense of a hostile takeover and has become a national leader in the real estate industry. He also serves as a trustee on the family foundation with siblings William Taubman and Gayle Taubman Kalisman, who is the foundation’s president. ■ Corporate boards: Sotheby’s, Comerica
community relations and government relations. Those connections are now widened from the inside as she succeeded her husband in Congress in January. ■ Civic/nonprofit boards: Metropolitan Affairs Coalition (co-chair); Children’s Inn at NIH; Democratic National Committee; Vital Voices Global Partnership Inc.; Detroit Economic Club; Economic Club of Washington, D.C.; Washington Performing Arts Society; Michigan Roundtable for Diversity and Inclusion; Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan; ThanksUSA (advisory); ACLU of Michigan (advisory); Parade Co. (executive committee) ■ Education: B.S., M.S., Georgetown Univer-
sity
Inc. ■ Civic/nonprofit boards: Real Estate Roundtable; founding chairman, Michigan council, Urban Land Institute; Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (delegate at large); Beaumont Health System; Cranbrook Educational Community; National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts; Business Leaders for Michigan. ■ Education: B.S., Boston University.
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Reginald TurnerJr. Member Clark Hill PLC Turner’s community involvement has included political duty, including serving on Gov. John Engler’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Michigan Gaming, on the Michigan State Board of Education as an appointee of Gov. Jennifer Granholm and on the Detroit Public Schools board, representing then-mayor Dennis Archer. Turner also is a past president of the State Bar of Michigan and National Bar Association. ■ Corporate boards: Comerica Inc.; Masco
Corp. ■ Nonprofit/civic boards: United Way for
Southeastern Michigan; Detroit Institute of Arts; Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan; The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law; Hudson-Webber Foundation; Wayne County Airport Authority; Detroit Public Safety Foundation ■ Education: B.S., Wayne State; J.D., University of Michigan ■ Other employment history: Sachs Waldman P.C.; White House fellow, Clinton administration
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Suzanne Shank President and CEO Siebert Brandford Shank & Co. Inc. Shank co-founded her firm in 1996 with Muriel Siebert, the first woman to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, and Napoleon Brandford. In 2010, the firm was named Black Enterprise’s Financial Services Company of the Year for becoming the first minority-owned firm to rank alongside Goldman Sachs and other global giants in municipal bond offerings. ■ Nonprofit/civic boards: Citizens Budget Commission; Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History; Spelman College; Bipartisan Policy Center; Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; International Women’s Forum; Georgia Institute of Technology (advisory) ■ Education: B.S., Georgia Institute of Tech-
nology; MBA, University of Pennsylvania. ■ Other employment history: Muriel Siebert & Co. Inc.; General Dynamics Corp.
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Deborah Dingell U.S. Representative 12th District Dingell has cut a wide swath through both metro Detroit and Washington, D.C., fueled by wide-ranging community interests, her marriage to retired U.S. Rep. John Dingell and a long career with General Motors, where she served as president of the GM Foundation and executive director of global
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Susan M. Smyth Chief scientist for global manufacturing General Motors Co. Smyth’s GM career began as a project engineer. She’s one of GM’s key strategic technology leaders, responsible for increasing the automaker’s global collaboration within its operations in the U.S., Europe, Israel, South Korea and China. She holds leadership positions in many technology- and manufacturing-focused national and global organizations and is co-director of collaborative research labs GM helped to create at MIT, University of Michigan and Shanghai Jiao-Tong University. ■ Civic/nonprofit boards: Society of Manufacturing Engineers; Manufacturing Council, U.S. Department of Commerce (chair); Queen’s University of Belfast (advisory); U.S. Council for Automotive Research (executive representative) ■ Education: B.S., M.S., Ph.D., Queen’s University Belfast.
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Carl Camden President & CEO Kelly Services Inc. Camden has served as CEO since 2006, succeeding Terence Adderley, son of company founder William Kelly, who remains chairman. Issues affecting the workforce, including health care, have been front and center for Camden and he was appointed this spring to the National Commission on Financing 21st Century Education created by the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs. ■ Corporate boards:
TopBuild Corp.; Temp
Holdings Co. ■ Civic/nonprofit boards: Committee for Economic Development Education Subcommittee; The Conference Board; Detroit Regional Chamber ■ Education: Bachelor’s, Southwest Bible College; master’s, Central Missouri State University; Ph.D., Ohio State University ■ Other employment history: Keycorp; Wyse Advertising; North Coast Behavioral Research Group; Cleveland State University
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Allan Gilmour President Gilmour-Jirgens Fund Gilmour first spent 34 years at Ford Motor Co., retiring in 1995 as vice chairman and CFO, but then rejoined the company as CFO from 2002 to 2005. Gilmour then was president of Wayne State University from 2010 to 2013. His foundation is named for himself and his partner, Eric Jirgens. Gilmour’s philanthropy has included WSU and LGBT causes. ■ Civic/nonprofit boards: Detroit Institute of Arts (honorary); St. Johnsbury Academy (emeritus); Detroit Zoological Society; Detroit Symphony Orchestra; Citizens Research Council of Michigan; Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan ■ Education: B.A., Harvard University; MBA, University of Michigan