Mark Ganz

Background

About Mark Ganz

I grew up watching and working for my dad, a family physician, caring for patients in Spokane, Washington. He was a true healer. The experience I had there and the values taught and modeled by my parents and my teachers at the Jesuit institutions I attended for high school, college and law school, as well as my work to become an Eagle Scout, drove my interest in law, health care and leadership. For 29 years I worked at Cambia Health Solutions, a 104 year old family of companies serving individuals and families in navigating their health care journeys. For nearly 18 of those 29 years, I was privileged to serve our employees as their CEO. Our founders weren’t businessmen or providers; they were timber workers who in 1917 decided to pool a portion of their wages to create a financial safety net for their injured and sick colleagues. This innovative idea of neighbor helping neighbor, birthed not only our company but the entire prepaid health insurance industry. Over the last 18 years, we expanded beyond our legacy health insurance business to build a family of over 20 companies pursuing our Cause to serve as a catalyst to transform health care, creating a more person-focused and economically sustainable health care experience for individuals and their families. I retired from Cambia because my successor, whom I mentored through the years, was ready. One of the most critical responsibilities of a CEO is to create strong potential successors and to facilitate with the board a smooth transition to the person chosen at the optimal time. I am very pleased with how we accomplished that at Cambia. In this chapter I am focusing on board service for companies and nonprofit organizations whose values and aspirations align with my own. I have gained extensive knowledge and feel for good board governance, especially how to optimize the board-management working relationship. Cambia is an innovator in board governance, and it has been a key to the company’s success. I also am supporting and advising CEOs and senior executives who desire to be highly effective servant leaders, not just financially successful senior managers. I have learned a great deal in my leadership journey both from successes and my mistakes. Sharing that experience and the hard-won wisdom gained from it for the benefit of other CEOs is a way of paying forward the graces and good mentorship I have received through the years. Finally, the cause of making health care a more empathetic, integrated and honoring experience for individuals and families still burns bright within me. More work to do!