Carlo Govia Biography

Carlo M. Govia

501 N. Clinton Street Unit 3404 Chicago, Illinois 60654 312.648.4288 | carlo@tapspaces.com

BIOGRAPHY Peter Drucker once said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” This quintessential principle has guided Mr. Govia’s life experiences from emigrating to the United States at the tender age of 14, to his seven-year military career which began at age 16, to business process and technology consulting for fortune 500 hundred companies during the disruption of Y2K and the dawn of the digital age, to his current career in healthcare and public health. One common theme that threads through these experiences is the persistent drive to challenge everyday thinking and push the envelope of innovation to create the future.

Mr. Govia is a Lecturer in the Health Policy Administration (HPA) division in the School of Public Health at University of Illinois Chicago. He is the subject matter expert for the organizational management component of the Master Public Health (MPH) program, and the Director of the online MPH program with an active cohort of 40 students. Core competencies include organizational management principles, strategy development & strategic planning, finance & government/nonprofit budgeting, leadership, policy & ethics theory, and principles of the U.S. healthcare system.

The military was most instrumental in grounding his professional development with principles of leadership, integrity, respect for the individual, mission focus, attention to details, communication, the constant desire to be curious of the unknow, and to develop and implement solutions that solve complex problems that change environments with positive outcomes. These core principles were instrumental in his consulting career with Andersen Consulting, Accenture, and Capgemini in which his leadership roles implementing global technology systems required engagement with the C-suite of organizations as well as line staff, and their strategic partners to deliver mission critical solutions that gave the organization a competitive advantage to fulfill its mission.

In 2006 Mr. Govia left the private sector for a role in government as the First Deputy Commissioner and Chief Financial Officer of the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH). The CDPH had 1,200 employees, a $200M annual budget, making it the fourth largest department in city government. The Commissioner had one principle strategic objective, “develop a 21st century health department.” The team leveraged the existing strategic plan to launch and implement the transformation initiative Project Focus. This has been one of his most successfully leadership positions of his professional career. The most gratifying aspects of this role was the transformation of a dormant human capital into a productive and innovative workforce that defied the stereotypes of government proving that “Our people are our most valuable asset” of any organization be it private, nonprofit, or government.

In 2010 Mr. Govia was recruited by the CEO of the Cook County Health and Hospital System (CCHHS) as a consultant in the role Director of Business Development reporting directly to the CEO. CCHHS had recently established an independent governing board over the hospital system and began implementation of its most recent strategic plan. As the Director of Business Development, he was responsible for the implementation of a key component of the strategic plan to develop new partnerships with Federal Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) to focus on ambulatory service delivery that shift the healthcare delivery system from primary inpatient services to outpatient services. Mr. Govia assisted the CEO presenting this new strategy to external

stakeholders in the county including hospital systems, FQHCs, Mayors, State and local legislators, communitybased organizations, and churches.

Observing the growing adoption of mobile phones and apps to engage with everyday functions those military characteristics that served him so well in his career once again spurred his curiosity in this developing industry.

In 2013 Mr. Govia returned to the private sector in an entrepreneurial role co-founding a mobile technology startup, TapSpaces. The team of 5 Built a mobile digital marketing eCommerce Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and leased it to businesses. They developed prototypes for assorted on and off-line customers. Secured two Quick Service Restaurant franchisees with ~1,000 customers. Customers who participated had increased sales by 40% and their participation in promotions increased sales by 67%. Secured $55k from the largest producer of rawhide dog chews in the US to produce a web app to certify the origin of the production of rawhide products.

Mr. Govia career in independent consulting began in the early 1990s designing and installing client server networks and software for small firms with less than fifty employees and over $10M in annual revenue. In 1996 he obtained a consulting contract, from a colleague who was the CEO of the Northwest Hospital System in Trinidad & Tobago, to develop a technology strategy to automate the administrative functions of the hospital System. After returning to Chicago in 1998 he was recruited by Andersen Consulting/Accenture to join their supply chain management practice. He led project teams implementing SAP and other enterprise resource planning systems for fortune 500 companies to mitigate the risk of Y2K. In 2005 he joined Capgemini’s supply chain management practice where he focused in the areas of operations, finance, supply chain management, technology infrastructure, and change management. Mr. Govia was one of several senior managers responsible for designing the global Shared Services Organization (SSO) for a multinational retailer with operations in the US, South America, Europe, and Southeast Asia.

Mr. Govia’s professional career has been guided by the principles he learned in the military, driven by the desire to always challenge everyday thinking, and the belief in the guiding philosophy of Daniel Burnham to “Make no little plans. They have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized.” I look forward to the next challenge!

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