Terry Shaw's four-decade career at Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based AdventHealth includes his tenure as president and CEO since 2016, during which he guided the organization’s strategic direction, unified the health system under one brand, and introduced the 10-year Vision 2030 plan.
As he prepares to retire in July, Mr. Shaw reflected on his career and shared insights about his tenure and plans for the future in a conversation with Becker's.
Editor's note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity.
Question: Reflecting on your 40-year tenure at AdventHealth, what do you consider your most impactful accomplishment, and why?
Terry Shaw: The first is moving the company's credit rating from "BBB" to "AA" with Fitch Ratings. It took a consistent financial plan for 16 years to get that done, and I'm very proud of that. The second thing I'll tell you is the organization has spent an enormous amount of time, energy and effort over the past five years to be a consumer-facing organization, as opposed to having everything built around the people in healthcare. We have consistently tried to move our systems and processes so that it was easy to use for the consumer. And even though I'm not satisfied with where we are, it's been some of the most rewarding work that we've done over the past five years.
Q: With Vision 2030 as a cornerstone of your leadership, how do you see this framework evolving under the next generation of leaders, and what advice would you offer your successor?
TS: When I took over as CEO, I had Vision 2020 that I completed, and then I pivoted the organization into Vision 2030. I believe the new CEO will do the same. Both candidates for my role have been with the company over 30 years, and both of them have been senior leaders under my administration for the past eight years. I believe they will both follow Vision 2030 tenets until they have the opportunity, somewhere in the 2028 – 2029 timeframe, of calling victory. And then I think they will pivot the organization to Vision 2040.
Q: AdventHealth has recently encountered significant developments, including HCA's appeal of the CON approval for 26 additional acute care beds in Buncombe County, N.C. As you prepare for retirement, how do these milestones and challenges shape your vision for the organization's future growth and strategy?
TS: If we were an organization that was looking for a new CEO to come in from the outside, I think our current footprint and all those issues might be up for grabs. But since we're actually rotating into a candidate that's been with the organization a long time, the board knows well, and they have bought into the markets that we're in and the growth trajectory that we're on in every one of those markets, I don't see anything that we have going changing. The CON that we have in North Carolina is part of plans to grow in the state. And we're going to grow in Denver, Chicago, outside of Florida, inside of Florida. We have growth plans, and I think those growth plans and the capital that we've got set aside to fund those growth plans will continue unabated.
Q: You've mentioned your decision to retire is driven by the desire to create opportunities for the next generation. How do you envision staying connected to AdventHealth’s mission in your continued role on the board?
TS: I find it will be a privilege for me to continue to serve on the board.
AdventHealth has a leadership institute, and I'll be spending some time inside the leadership institute helping train the next generation of leaders. And then I'll do whatever the CEO would like for me to do, just like when I became CEO, the CEO that retired, I had him do a lot of things that were helpful to me. But that's going to be up to the new CEO.
I need to be helpful to the new CEO in whatever capacity they think makes the most sense for their leadership. Otherwise, I need to become chief cheerleader and do the best I can to support the organization in whatever manner that is.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to share or emphasize that we haven’t discussed?
TS: We've just become certified as a Great Place to Work. Our engagement scores are in the top decile. We have spent, and are spending, a lot of management time and attention on how we grow our team into the next generation. We're going to double the number of students that we have in our own AdventHealth University — from 1,800 to 3,600. We're putting in a branch campus in Tampa. We have over 100 other university partnerships, and I believe being a workplace of choice is going to attract people to our organization in a short-term environment, which I believe all healthcare will go through over the next 10 years. And if you're not an employer of choice, you're going to have a hard time attracting the talent you need to care for the people that you have to care for in your market.
Additionally, I've been blessed. I've been blessed to have a great team to work with. The organization has grown rapidly over the past eight years, and I believe that the best days are ahead of AdventHealth, not behind them.