Warner L. Thomas

Growth opportunity seems to be the name of the game.

Um, we hear so much from leaders that you cannot cut your way to success, I believe something the Sutter Health CEO, Warner Thomas, said at a recent Becker's conference.

No doubt we are seeing quite a lot of, um, restructuring and cutting, but the CFOs, the CEOs that I've been speaking to over the last few months have all said, uh, growth, growth is inevitable.

We're really looking for those opportunities across the board, diversification of their geographic markets, diversification of their revenue streams, and really accelerating towards, um, outpatient care more so than ever it seems.

More joint ventures, more building ac- and acquisitions of surgery centers.

In the healthcare space, I would say there's CEOs out there that do a really good job of storytelling.

Warner Thomas of Sutter Health is one that I actively follow.

He does a really great job of humanizing the impact of what a large health system can do to address some really important needs in their community.

Another one is obviously like Scott Becker is the guru of this stuff.

leadership.

My guest today is Warner Thomas, President and CEO of Sutter Health, one of the nation's largest nonprofit health systems.

Warner has had a remarkable career in healthcare.

He spent 24 years at Ochsner Health in New Orleans, leading through explosive growth and innovation, as well as through some tough seasons like Hurricane Katrina and COVID.

But the Warner I've gotten to know over the years also believes deeply in people and places great value on culture.

And I'm interested in how that Warner came to be.

So, Warner Thomas, welcome to The Backstory.

And great to be with you.