Gene Fernández

1.  Communication Skills. The importance of developing and honing communication skills has been paramount throughout Gene’s career. Whether it was during his time as a junior naval officer or as a member of the executive team at Sparrow Health System & Accident Fund Insurance Company, communication skills have been critical to accomplishing goals and achieving results. This is a fundamental leadership skill that has helped him to share a vision and motivate employees and colleagues. Through the use of enhanced listening, probing, and feedback skills he has been able to convey a future vision of success more effectively. Gene has often volunteered or been called upon to prepare and deliver technical and complex presentations to a mixed audience of line staff, managers and executives. His bilingual skills in the English-Spanish languages have provided unique opportunities while assigned with the Navy throughout several European countries. 

2.  Relationship Building.   At the core of Gene’s business successes has been an ability to establish and sustain one-on-one business relationships. This notion of forming true business partnerships with colleagues and vendors alike has served him well. Relationship building has helped foster new partnerships in addition to being advantageous when faced with difficult or tough situations during times of conflict. In an age of workforce diversity, Gene has learned to respect cultural and personal differences by building relationships. He is also a firm believer in serving as a mentor to future generations in our workforce. Gene currently serving as a mentor to both a junior healthcare management professional as well as relatively junior healthcare CIOs and freely volunteers his time to speak at Lansing area high schools about IT careers. 

3.  Collaboration. This competency has helped Gene to develop an ability to share authority, responsibility, and control. By collaborating with peers and work teams, he can access additional human capital or talent as well as technological resources which are both in high demand. During his time as a career naval officer, he volunteered for many project team assignments that have carried over during my transition to the private sector. As a senior IT consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, his first engagement required collaboration when working with a diverse group of seasoned consultants. Gene’s daily activity as an effective change agent for his current company requires that he collaborate with peers in accomplishing organizational strategic priorities, goals, and objectives.

4.  Innovation. Throughout his career, Gene has focused on developing his ability to generate new or different processes, create unique solutions to problems, or think outside existing paradigms. One of his most memorable challenges with innovation occurred during his tenure as the CIO for the Navy’s hospital ship (USNS Comfort) deployed to Lithuania & Sweden in 1998 [Exercise Baltic Challenge - www.msc.navy.mil/factsheet/hospital-highlights.htm ] . During this period, his technical team was able to successfully demonstrate the first use of a C-Band satellite communications system which facilitated high-speed Internet transmission of radiology (X-Ray) images from the Baltic Sea to the U.S. in support of neuro-surgery for a 9-year old Lithuanian boy with a birth defect who underwent successful surgery onboard the ship. Gene was also a co-presenter at the International Telemedicine Conference in Visby, Sweden in July 1998.  He and Joseph Miller, MD shared information about shipboard mass casualty IT support and Navy Telemedicine initiatives with this international audience from the Baltic States. Another innovative experience occurred when assigned as the IT Director for Naval Medical Information Management Center (Headquarters for Navy Medicine’s IT programs worldwide). The innovation was the result of championing three IT Business Process Reengineering (BPR) projects which led to the implementation of 29 Functional Process Improvements (FPIs) in a global technology Help Desk area. Through a series of focus groups with customers and technical staff Gene’s leadership resulted in the implementation of new web-based technologies and network management tools that resulted in an overall 20% reduction in process time and a 21% reduction in process cost.  The total annual savings was over $2.5 MM. 

5.  Continuous Learning. As a board certified Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), Gene subscribes to this concept of life-long learning. His philosophy involves two steps: seeking opportunities to expand his knowledge or skills and then applying learned principles to the workplace environment to improve organizational effectiveness or efficiency. This is critical in the constantly changing healthcare, managed care, insurance and IT field. Gene has regularly participated in annual IT or healthcare related conferences and seminars. For example, he has participated as a speaker for the annual Healthcare Information Management Systems Society Conference (HIMSS) while a member of the Navy Medical Department.   In addition, he completed a more current MIS graduate program in 2007 offered through the University of Illinois – Springfield (distance-learning format) to sustain his competitive edge in this dynamic career field. (Graduate Thesis Project title: “HEALTH CARE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DIFFUSION: THE IMPACT OF ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORD (EHR) LEGISLATION AND INTEROPERABILITY CERTIFICATION ON ADOPTION.” (Nominated for the "Outstanding Master's Thesis" academic project award by the MIS Deptartment in 2007.)

6.  Risk Taking.   A critically important competency that Gene has developed is the ability to take reasonable, yet, calculated risks in pursuit of performance improvement and to be comfortable with the possibility of failure. Gene’s philosophy can best be summarized by a quote from Vice Admiral James O. Tuttle (Retired Navy Aviator) who once said: “Turbulent progression is preferable to tranquil stagnation.” 

7.  Work/Life Balance. Gene has always valued the skills required to juggle work and personal responsibilities. He has strived to participate in activities outside of work (especially volunteering on community programs such as the Lansing Chamber of Commerce’s IT Council; the Tri-County Career Connections Board; the Lansing Rotary Club; and as Chair of the Audit Committee for the Capital Region Community Foundation in 2007). Achieving this work/life balance has allowed him to sustain the energy level required to be an effective leader on the job. Since Gene enjoys spending time with his family, this concept has also resulted in a more balanced approach to duties and responsibilities as a good husband/father.