The theme of greatness stemming from not the individual but the whole permeated the Westchester County Association”™s annual Spring Leadership Dinner.
The event, conducted May 15 at the Glen Island Harbour Club in New Rochelle, honored Westchester Medical Center CEO Michael Israel as its Businessman of the Year; 580 were expected and it appeared to be a full house.
Israel came to the then cash-strapped medical center in August 2005 from turnaround management consultants Pitts Management Associates L.L.C. and was named interim president and CEO.
Facing potential bankruptcy, Israel and his team set to work on a rescue plan that turned the medical center from an entity that had a deficit of millions of dollars to one that reported a surplus in 2007.
In a speech after accepting the award, Israel stressed the turnaround was not an individual achievement but a team one.
“I”™m proud, not just for myself but for Westchester Medical Center,” he said. “I”™m almost embarrassed to be the one up here.”
Israel, who had been serving as CEO of Duke University Hospital before coming to Westchester, recalled how colleagues would ask him why he was coming to Westchester Med, which was on shaky financial ground.
Israel responded by saying that he had seen hospitals across the U.S. that “didn”™t really need to exist”, ones that if they disappeared would not have affected the community very much.
“But Westchester Medical Center needed to exist and, quite frankly, needed to thrive,” he said. “This was an opportunity for me to take 30 years of experience and really make it work.”
Israel praised not only the staff at the medical center for their help in making it a success, but also the county and its representatives at the state and federal levels.
Westchester Medical Center, he said, “is a good case study”¦to what a group of people can do if they put their minds together.”
Israel concluded by saying the med center, “has its best days ahead of it.”
The keynote speaker for the event was James F. Mooney, chairman of Virgin Media. Mooney is the nephew of WCA President William Mooney Jr.
Like Israel, Mooney stressed the importance of teamwork and putting trust in colleagues as a key to business success.
He referenced three legendary college football coaches, Joe Paterno of Penn State University, Bobby Bowden of Florida State University, and Lou Holtz of Notre Dame, who all stressed the importance of playing for your teammates, not for yourself.
Ultimately, Mooney said it is not just one”™s talent that determines if they will succeed, but perseverance and hard work.
“It”™s not an uncommon story to have someone with all the talent in the world and is unsuccessful,” he said.
