“We sought out Greg Smith to serve on our health care system Board of Directors (hospital, nursing home, home health agency, medical group) because of his reputation in our service area as a successful entrepreneur and highly respected community and business leader. During his 9 year tenure on our Board, he chaired its most important committees. His effective leadership of these committee roles resulted in his election as Vice Chair and then Chair of our Board. He assumed these roles at a time of sweeping national and statewide health care payment and regulatory reforms which necessitated structural change in hospitals, medical practices and their governance. Through his effective leadership, our board was restructured to facilitate speedier decision-making as well as more effective board member recruitment and retention. He facilitated a collaborative process between our Board and Medical Staff to explore systemic and structural change that would more effectively integrate private practitioners with each other and with our hospital. The work was reported on as a “best practice concept” proposal in Health Care Executive, a national professional journal. The success of this work is a testimonial to Greg’s superb change management skills in listening, communication, conflict management, motivating others, consensus building, and agenda management. He has a keen understanding of the important role customer satisfaction plays in business success. His leadership of our Board was instrumental in facilitating some of our most significant achievements which included national recognition for quality in patient and resident care, customer satisfaction, leadership in health care reform and recognition as a “Nursing Magnet Hospital” … a benchmark model for nursing practice and professional growth. Greg holds himself to a very high-performance standard and stimulates this same value in those he works with. He has high ethical standards, is very results-oriented, a proactive thinker, a visionary and is very “well-read” in management best practice literature. Because of these attributes I found him to be a superb coach, a wonderful mentor and an important partner in building our health care system strategy. He has a great understanding of a Board’s role and the importance of “team”. I was grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Greg, to be guided by him, and to learn from him.”