Tech, consumer goods and transportation leaders who move into healthcare often come equipped with unique skills, frameworks and strategic thinking — but they also encounter one of the most complex fields of their career.
While some enter healthcare through serendipity, many are drawn by its mission-oriented nature or are inspired by family members. Becker’s spoke with three executives who made the leap to learn how their non-healthcare experience informs their leadership today.
A chance encounter at 30,000 feet
Hernando Ruiz-Jimenez’s pivot to healthcare marketing began on a plane.
After spending 11 years in marketing at PepsiCo, he became the general manager of El Diario Nueva York, the oldest Spanish-language daily newspaper in the U.S. Following his tenure there, an encounter on a flight to Puerto Rico set him on a new path.
“I was sitting next to the CEO of BlueCross BlueShield of the Caribbean, and he asked me to help,” he told Becker’s. “What started as a three-month consulting job ended up being a four-year job shifting a health insurance company into something more modern, and I fell in love with healthcare.”
Mr. Ruiz-Jimenez was named chief marketing and communications officer of Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger in January. He most recently served as general manager and chief marketing officer of Un(Think) Foods, and as chief marketing officer of New York City-based NewYork-Presbyterian from 2017 to 2021.
“Healthcare is very complex, and you need to understand both traditional marketing and digital and content,” he said. “My experience in these fields gave me the ability to bring these together and fully understand what modern marketing at organizations should look like.”
In healthcare, unlike consumer goods, the brand is not the central product — patient care is. Transitioning into healthcare marketing required moving from a more assertive and task-oriented leadership style to one that is more collaborative, Mr. Ruiz-Jimenez said.
“The complexity in healthcare is much higher, so you need to delegate more,” he said. “You need to spend time listening, and you need to devise very clear plans and strategies, because you’re going to need to align a lot of people and agendas to get things done.”
Although it can be more complex than other industries — and a difficult transition for some — the beauty of healthcare is that the work is mission-oriented, Mr. Ruiz-Jimenez said. “You’re going to be doing things that really matter.”
A ‘calling’ into cancer care
For Nisha Morris, chief communications officer of Los Angeles-based City of Hope, joining healthcare was more than a career change — it was a calling.
Ms. Morris brings 18 years of marketing and communications experience, including roles at technology organizations like Dell and as chief of strategic communications at the National Security Agency.
“I love the innovative environment of the tech world, but I always knew that healthcare was my calling,” Ms. Morris told Becker’s. “I always appreciated the noble work of physicians and healthcare systems. I was drawn to cancer care, specifically because I lost my mom and other relatives to cancer. It impacts 1 in 3 Americans — that is a statistic my team and I rally against every day. I can’t find or imagine more meaningful work.”
Innovation is a strategic focus she homed in on during her time in the tech sector and has carried with her into healthcare.
“I’m always asking my team, ‘How can our work further accelerate our mission and ensure that more people who need us understand the difference that our cancer-focused expertise makes?’ One of the ways we can do that is through collaboration,” she said. “Traditionally, you think of healthcare as collaborating with other healthcare systems. However, there are like-minded organizations that are passionate about fighting cancer and supporting mission-driven work, so how can we partner with them, be creative and think differently?”
Since transitioning into healthcare, Ms. Morris has developed a greater appreciation for storytelling.
“There are so many inspirational stories at City of Hope, whether they’re about our teams, our physicians, our researchers, and even more importantly, our patients,” she said. “Telling our story allows us to connect more deeply with our audience and convey the true impact of our work. My leadership style has evolved into a greater appreciation of telling the story and doing it in a way that inspires people.”
Ms. Morris also emphasized that healthcare communications requires a unique balance of being direct and empathetic — a skill that not all industries or sectors have achieved.
“We also always emphasize teamwork and collaboration over individual contributions,” she said. “More importantly, healthcare communicators and marketeers need to focus on the impact on people and on saving lives. That’s a mission that most other fields don’t have.”
Planes, trains and jeans
Joe Gage, chief administrative officer of Cincinnati-based Bon Secours Mercy Health, has a background in “planes, trains and jeans,” with experience at Delta Air Lines, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, and Levi Strauss.
Mr. Gage told Becker’s he has spent nearly three decades helping people and organizations realize their full potential. With a background in finance and law, he most recently served as the system’s chief human resources officer before stepping into an expanded role.
He began his healthcare journey in 2003 as senior director of human resources at Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare, later joining Bon Secours Mercy Health in 2011 as senior vice president of human resources.
“All of these people are called to healthcare for the purpose of serving and giving to others,” Mr. Gage said. “It’s one of the most complex people environments on the planet.”
His transition into healthcare, he said, can be summed up by one pivotal conversation. While interviewing with Bon Secours Mercy Health’s COO, after discussing innovation and employee engagement, the executive reminded Mr. Gage to return to the system’s mission.
“At that point, I was sold, because the operations leader had just asked me about the mission, which has been the distinguishing characteristic of Bon Secours Mercy Health,” he said. “If you ask me what makes our culture compellingly unique, it’s that we are so united in our mission and our values that it brings all the discretionary effort that’s needed right now to overcome the complexities of healthcare and really meet our patients and help them every day.”
An early mentor in HR once told him: “Finance is the language of business: know it and speak it.” Knowing how to translate “people practices” into language that business leaders can understand is an effective skill for leaders, he said. But joining healthcare required a shift in perspective.
“It disconnects us from why caregivers come into healthcare, which is to serve others,” Mr. Gage said. “So we have to do the very opposite thing: We have to translate business into the language of care. It doesn’t often change what we’re doing, but how we talk about it really matters.”
He emphasized the importance of taking time to understand the industry’s complexities to make that transition successfully.
“Healthcare is a complicated industry, and you’ve got to take time to understand it and how teams work, because fundamentally, healthcare is a team sport,” he said. “You’ve got to create self-directed teams and really get out of their way and allow them to do what they are trained to do and what their hearts are driven to do.”
