Results
365 Health
Gary Drews was most recently President & CEO of 365 Health, a Colorado non-profit devoted to utilizing innovative technologies to support preventive health across Colorado's underserved communities. Serving for over 6 years, hundreds of thousands of Coloradans benefitted from free and lowest cost healthcare, screenings, vaccines, education, and healthcare workforce development.
Gary Drews was most recently President & CEO of 365 Health, a Colorado non-profit devoted to utilizing innovative technologies to support preventive health across Colorado's underserved communities. Serving for over 6 years, hundreds of thousands of Coloradans benefitted from free and lowest cost healthcare, screenings, vaccines, education, and healthcare workforce development.
Gary Drews, theworldwewant.today’s founder, served as Interim CEO of Colorado’s ACA-derived health insurance marketplace/exchange, Connect for Health Colorado. During the position’s 11-month arc, Gary led the organization through a period of significant market disruption and legislative stress, yielding a strategic plan that has helped navigate the organization forward to this day.
Outcomes achieved included:
Outcomes achieved included:
- Aligning Connect’s governance and strategy, building organizational and technology capacity, leading legislative strategy, Board of Directors support, and additionally fulfilling CFO duties during stiff financial and audit headwinds
- Led the organization through its second open enrollment period, enrolling 150,000 Coloradans
- Strengthened legislative relationships/policy alignment amidst complex multi-stakeholder interests
- Secured public and philanthropic funding to enhance customer engagement and operations
- Designed & implemented Connect for Health’s long-range strategic and financial sustainability plan
- Successfully advanced $200m multi-stakeholder technology build with Medicaid and 15 insurance carriers
Theworldwewant.today has served as Sr. Strategic Advisor to the Mat-Su Health Foundation for the past three years, managing a range of projects from designing and facilitating Board of Directors Strategic Planning Retreats to managing the acquisition of additional hospital assets to developing digital health and capacity-building strategy.
Outcomes achieved to date include:
Outcomes achieved to date include:
- Financed and closed a $40m+ share purchase of the Foundation’s hospital and its assets, raising the potential for the Foundation to quadruple its philanthropic impact indefinitely
- Handled select interim CFO duties during a period of significant organizational activity
- Assisted the BoD in developing opportunities to amplify the organization’s potential to leverage health reform, digital health impact, and its resource utilization
- Facilitated design of increasingly effective owned-hospital governance and compliance requirements, as well as its strategic contribution to the community’s health and charitable priorities
- Designed and implemented a long-range planning platform to assist in aligning vision, strategy and culture toward several upcoming major organizational decisions.
- Management Comments: “We learned so much from you, Gary. You’ve given us a great deal to consider and a map to making some of the decisions in front of us. We will concentrate on putting those critical decision points into a 10-year plan that enables us to appreciate the scope of the individual decisions within the greater context. That was a HUGE take-away for me, and I really appreciate you enlightening me to see the bigger picture.”
Theworldwewant.today provided business model and strategy consulting to this innovative start-up (for-profit) that brings health habits, motivations, medical research, referrals, and community resources together in a form that anyone can use to better understand, enable, and engage someone about their health. The road to better health often starts with just a conversation - HeartSmartKids helps clinicians and community health counselors have those critical conversations.
The nation’s third-largest health foundation, with $2.3B in assets, invests over $100M annually in Colorado non-profits and for many years owned Denver’s largest hospital system, HealthONE, with partner, HCA. Gary served as CFO and VP for seven years during a period of extreme growth (700%), organizational change, and strategic re-alignment. Leadership responsibilities included strategic finance and planning overseeing a $100m+ budget; mission and portfolio investment management ($2.3b); hospital system joint venture management (7 hospitals); graduate medical education academic affairs (5 residencies); and accounting, facilities, and legal.
Of note, Gary originated a social-private mission-related partnership and investment program to further leverage financial resources. Additionally, Gary led design of innovative financial mechanisms that led to several statewide community investment start-up opportunities, improved financial planning, and risk mitigation. Of course, none of this was possible without implementing a successful multi-faceted human capital plan that grew and developed a high-performing staff and the organizational environment required for fast-paced growth and high-impact investing.
Of note, Gary originated a social-private mission-related partnership and investment program to further leverage financial resources. Additionally, Gary led design of innovative financial mechanisms that led to several statewide community investment start-up opportunities, improved financial planning, and risk mitigation. Of course, none of this was possible without implementing a successful multi-faceted human capital plan that grew and developed a high-performing staff and the organizational environment required for fast-paced growth and high-impact investing.
Facing increasing competition, Gary led the effort to re-define the school’s growth strategy, improve financial performance, strengthen pricing power, improve academic quality, enhance customer services, and improve inventory management.
With a solid plan in place, he re-engineered financial management and metrics to maximize resource and management effectiveness. One’s year’s process improvement work alone led to a 10% margin gain. Additionally, he conducted an organizational infrastructure systems analysis and plan that led to a 20% increase in e-learning inventory, customer service gains, and a 12% improvement in facility utilization. The extra capacity allowed development of numerous strategic partnership alliances and curriculum enhancements that resulted in increased revenue, margins, product diversity and, ultimately and most importantly, increased mission impact.
With a solid plan in place, he re-engineered financial management and metrics to maximize resource and management effectiveness. One’s year’s process improvement work alone led to a 10% margin gain. Additionally, he conducted an organizational infrastructure systems analysis and plan that led to a 20% increase in e-learning inventory, customer service gains, and a 12% improvement in facility utilization. The extra capacity allowed development of numerous strategic partnership alliances and curriculum enhancements that resulted in increased revenue, margins, product diversity and, ultimately and most importantly, increased mission impact.
With stiff competition and aging brand awareness, the program’s enrollment was challenged. Gary successfully managed the bottom line to average 11% annual budget surpluses and a 107% increase of the School's net assets during his tenure while student enrollment was sustained.
With increased resources and corresponding flexibility, Gary supported funding relationships that raised $1m of a $7m annual budget, kept pricing strong, and co-led internet customer service strategy developments that helped keep Colorado Outward Bound on the map.
With increased resources and corresponding flexibility, Gary supported funding relationships that raised $1m of a $7m annual budget, kept pricing strong, and co-led internet customer service strategy developments that helped keep Colorado Outward Bound on the map.
Having produced numerous network tv series and specials with some of the world's comedic talents, from George Carlin to Carol Burnett, and winning an Emmy for the breakthrough series In Living Color, Gary was recruited as lead production executive for Walt Disney Studios network tv production. Productions supervised included Home Improvement (Tim Allen), Carol & Company (Carol Burnett), and Boy Meets World.