Executive Coach

Kevin Gross

Division President, Ardent Health Services · Chief Executive Officer, Hillcrest HealthCare System

“The challenge in any acquisition, whether it’s a hospital or any type of organization, is blending the cultures, blending the leadership style.”
Kevin Gross

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Experience

Hillcrest HealthCare System Ardent Health Services

$1.3 Billion: Revenues in the Hillcrest system
About 24: Hospital acquisitions led, two in Switzerland
About $40M: Hospital turnaround, from $12M annual loss
3rd to 2nd: Tulsa market share rank, 2011 acquisition

Expertise

For more than 40 years, hospital companies gave Kevin hospitals they had just bought or that were losing money, first as a single-hospital CEO, later as the executive over other hospital CEOs. He has integrated acquired hospitals into a system and run hospitals he bought in Switzerland. He cultivates lower in the organization who tell him how things are going, and he never attributes what they say. On a leadership change, he applies a mentor’s rule: you waited too long, and it is worse than you thought.

Industry

Kevin has spent more than 40 years in the hospital industry, working for investor-owned hospital companies and not-for-profit organizations. He has served as a hospital CEO, a division president, and a senior vice president of hospital operations. His last role was leading Hillcrest HealthCare System in northeastern Oklahoma, which has eight hospitals and 6,000 staff members.

Specialties

Integrating an acquired organization into an existing one
Turning around an organization that is losing money
Leading a system where several CEOs report to you
Deciding when to replace a senior leader
Running an organization in an unfamiliar country

Career history

01 of 9

Head of International Division, Pesch Health System

Board service: Chairman, State Chamber of Oklahoma; Chairman, Tulsa Regional Chamber; Chairman, Oklahoma Hospital Association; Chairman, Oklahoma Department of Corrections board; Regent, Tulsa Community College.

In their own words

Proudest accomplishment?

I ended up taking a job in Amarillo, Texas, and running a hospital that, when I got there, was losing $12 million a year. The last year, we made about $40 million a year.

Best advice he’d give?

I want to hear what people have to say. I think that’s the thing I learned the most from my father: be a listener.

Most fulfilling part?

That I left it better than I found it. I think that’s all we can do.

Career highlights

Led about 24 hospital acquisitions over his career, including two in Switzerland that he then ran for two years.
Ran a hospital in Amarillo, Texas, for six years, taking it from a $12 million annual loss to making about $40 million a year.
As CEO, completed Hillcrest’s 2011 acquisition of SouthCrest Hospital and Claremore Regional Hospital, moving Hillcrest from third to second in Tulsa market share.
Led Hillcrest HealthCare System, which employs 6,000 staff members, in two stints, 2004 to 2006 and 2010 to 2025.
Chaired the Oklahoma Hospital Association while it led the state question to expand Medicaid, which passed by about 50.5 to 49.5 percent.

Personality type

ENTJ-A

“The Commander”

Kevin listens before he speaks and builds a leadership team that can run the organization without him.

Based in

Tulsa, Oklahoma. In his words: “I have four grandchildren that live in Tulsa.”

Would Kevin be the right match?

Tell us about the leader and the situation. If Kevin is not the fit, one of the other coaches will be.

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