Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com February 8, 2016 • Hartford Business Journal 5 Agwunobi pairs smart business with better health By John Stearns jstearns@HartfordBUsiness.com B usiness and medicine run in Andrew Agwunobi's family. The CEO at UConn Health and executive vice president for health affairs is a medical doctor and MBA. His Nige- rian father was a surgeon in Britain. His grandfather was a physician. His Scottish mother was a nurse. His wife is a hospital- ist and brother a physician. Working as a pediatrician at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates in Boston and running its pediatric urgent-care cen- ter, Agwunobi wanted to explore the busi- ness of medicine further. He got his MBA at Stanford and set sail. The transition from pediatrician to CEO was natural. His physician father also had pharmaceutical export-import, house- renovation and trucking businesses. "So when I grew up, I didn't see business and medicine as separate," said Agwunobi, 50, who was permanently appointed UConn CEO Dec. 31, but was interim CEO since Nov. 2014. "I always loved the business side as much as I loved the medicine side." Born in Scotland, where he lived until age 12, he grew up poor in a remote vil- lage as his parents worked to put his dad through medical school. Today he's running a $1-billion enterprise in UConn Health, overseeing operations on its Farmington campus, which also includes John Dempsey Hospital, 10 UConn Health clinics, and medical and dental schools. The enterprise employs 5,529 faculty and staff. Agwunobi has been steering UConn Health since fall 2014, but he arrived a year earlier from Spokane, Wash., as a health- care consultant with Berkeley Research Group to help UConn improve operations and finances, which included losses that approached $30 million. He also served as chief transformation officer. UConn Health leaders were receptive to change and finances have improved. John Dempsey Hospital narrowed its oper- ating loss in fiscal 2015 to $6.8 million, com- pared to a $17.8 million loss a year earlier. "We still are losing money and we still have to have a long-term plan for that, but at least we're not facing the type of huge losses that we were at that time," he said. With quality care, good service and new facilities, UConn has the ingredients to be strong going into the future, but not by itself, Agwunobi said. "I think that we have to reach out to enti- ties around us, deepen our collaboration with them, seek affiliations that are beneficial to the communities around us, and be creative and open to change, he said. He seeks to join one of the region's accountable care organizations and form other affiliations, too. Agwunobi had to be creative as CEO of Grady Health System in Atlanta, where he worked before Spokane. The system includ- ed a children's hospital losing substantial money. Leaders crafted a new vision that any child admitted in Atlanta should get the same standard of care as a top 10 children's hospital. He approached Children's Health- care of Atlanta, which operated two com- peting top 10 children's hospitals, to have it operate Grady's children's hospital with the other two. One system operated three hospitals with a single vision. The vision was widely supported, phil- anthropic dollars poured in and success followed, Agwunobi said. Rather than viewing Grady's problem as competition from the other hospitals, "the healthy way to look at the problem was, 'Let's step back from that and figure out how we can collaborate to make one plus one equal to three,' " he said. CEO or COO in four previous health sys- tems, Agwunobi is used to running complex health organizations in challenging envi- ronments, but said he's always learning. He believes leaders need to drive an organization's culture; think like own- ers; and not need credit, but view orga- nizational success as individual suc- cess. He's big on communication and is launching a "Dear Dr. Andy" inbox for staff to contact him. He's creating phy- sician-empowerment teams for doctors' input on business decisions. Agwunobi enjoys reading classic books, archaeology and writing. He's looking forward to his wife, Eliza- beth, and youngest daughter, Hannah, 11, moving from Spokane. His oldest daugh- ter, Rebekah, 13, is nearby, newly enrolled in Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford. He and Elizabeth met during his resi- dency at Howard University in Washing- ton, D.C. n H B J P H O T O | J O H N S T E A R N S Andrew Agwunobi is focused and serious, but also low key and approachable. He loves people, is a pediatrician and comes from a healthcare family. PDS has been meeting the needs of the construction industry since 1965. 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Hartford and Hamden, CT • Holyoke, MA www.whcpa.com W hittlesey & Hadley accountants are different. We care about our clients, not just their numbers. Our insight and practical advice are original and have been etched into the region's nonprofit landscape for more than 50 years. Who wants ordinary results? Our independent perspective on financial statements, tax and business advisory services renders innovative results that will change the way you do business. Put your trust in advisors with real solutions. Let our knowledge create your next masterpiece. Andrew Agwunobi CEO at UConn Health and executive vice president for health affairs Highest education: Medical doctor, University of Jos, Nigeria, 1995. Executive insights: "My core belief is that leadership is a privilege not a right." "Empower the physicians. … The actual solution to a lot of our problems in health care is to have physicians be co-leaders, so instead of them just giving input or giving advice, they're at the table leading the change." EXECUTIVE PROFILE

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