Paying It Forward
How Mark Ganz, President and CEO of Cambia Health Solutions, is Building a Legacy Company with Intense Focus, Kindness and a Little Serendipity
by Laura A. Roser
“M
y dad was a family doctor of the old-fashioned variety,” says CEO and President of Cambia Health Solutions, Mark Ganz. “He truly took the time and really cared about knowing his patients completely. He tended to their spirit as much as he did their body because he knew there was an inextricable link.”
During his school years Mark worked in his father’s office and got to experience the impact his father had on patients. Mark says he always had an interest in health care, but he made the decision in college that he didn’t want to become a doctor. Instead Mark went to law school and graduated with a specialty in health care law. “But after 6 years in health care litigation, I knew I wasn’t making a difference,” he says. So, he joined a nonprofit health plan, Pierce County Medical (which would later affiliate with other companies to form The Regence Group regional health plans), as their general counsel, which he enjoyed. Then in 2001, he got a phone call one night from a board member of the company who asked him if he was going to put his hat in the ring to take the CEO position that had just opened up. “I totally didn’t expect it.” He laughs. “In fact, I’m not quite sure how I ended up where I am.” Mark says he’s always followed the philosophy of transforming the job you were hired to do way beyond what the person who gave you the job ever thought it could be. Mark says often people make the mistake of never being satisfied with what they’ve got. They always want more. They are always looking for the next job or the next opportunity. But that has never been Mark’s approach. He has always focused intensely on the job at hand and made it the very best it could be. It is this commitment to excellence that led him to define the company’s cause – to be a catalyst for change, transforming health care to be more person-focused and economically sustainable.
8 LEGACY ARTS August 2016 www.paragonroad.com