Podcast: Impactful Leaders – Episode 2 | Kerry Watson: An Interim Healthcare CEO’s Secrets of Success
Being an interim CEO requires an executive who relishes new challenges, learns on the fly, and makes a significant impact in a finite period of time. In this podcast – part of WittKieffer’s Impactul Leaders Podcast series – Lydia Ostermeier-Haynes, principal in WittKieffer’s Interim Leadership practice, speaks with long-time healthcare CEO Kerry Watson on the secrets of success in an interim role. Watson has more than 30 years of healthcare leadership experience, including several high-profile CEO tenures. In his view, success requires great interpersonal skills, integrity and honesty, continuous inquiry and learning, and coalition building. A great interim leader, he says, engages their team “around a vision that everyone can get excited about and relate to in their own job.” In other words, a great interim exhibits many of the same qualities that make a strong permanent chief executive.
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Kerry Watson is a seasoned operations management executive with more than 30 years’ experience in the leadership, direction and management of major hospital and healthcare organizations generating up to $1.5 Billion in revenue and employing over 9000 professionals. Kerry is President of Watson Healthcare Management Solutions (WHMS) in Raleigh North Carolina, providing interim hospital executive leadership, comprehensive operational/work cultural assessment, executive coaching & expert legal consultation.
Currently, Kerry is Interim Chief Executive Officer Maui Health, Maui Hawaii, a not-for-profit organization that provides high-quality, patient-centered, affordable care to all residents and visitors on Maui and Lanai. Maui Health System includes, Maui Memorial Medical Center, Maui Memorial.
As a CEO/COO, Kerry has emerged as an industry leader and innovator. He applies an extensive expertise in healthcare systems and business processes to ensure superior healthcare services, strong organizational learning and a positive, forward-thinking organizational culture – while driving operational performance to record levels of success. His visionary direction and broad knowledge base have enabled Kerry to develop solid working relationships with internal and external constituents, and build working cultures that promote compassionate, committed and qualified healthcare.
In addition, Kerry currently holds an adjunct faculty appointment in the Doctor of Health Administration Division of the Medical University of South Carolina and teaches DHA 816 Diversity and Inclusion Management. Kerry is a Certified Diversity Trainer, coach, and facilitator, with a proven track record as a valued corporate consultant.
Lydia Ostermeier-Haynes (Host), principal in WittKieffer’s Interim Leadership practice, speaks with long-time healthcare CEO Kerry Watson on the secrets of success in an interim role. Watson has more than 30 years of healthcare leadership experience, including several high-profile CEO tenures. In his view, success requires great interpersonal skills, integrity and honesty, continuous inquiry and learning, and coalition building. A great interim leader, he says, engages their team “around a vision that everyone can get excited about and relate to in their own job.” In other words, a great interim exhibits many of the same qualities that make a strong permanent chief executive.