Alumni Spotlight: Stefanizzi on Careers in Healthcare
Nick Stefanizzi (Pardee ’09) gives credit to the mentors he’s had throughout his career for his trajectory through the world of healthcare that landed him in his current position as Chief Administrative Officer of Formativ Health.
“I think this is one of the most important things young professionals can do for themselves – build relationships and find the people that can teach you what you don’t know – and I’m always cognizant of the fact that there’s plenty I don’t know – as well as help you grow along the way,” Stefanizzi said. “I’ve been very lucky to have great teachers and sponsors in my career and I’m very thankful for that.”
Stefanizzi first got exposure to the world of healthcare during his four years of undergraduate education, both in Boston through part time work at Tufts Medical Center, and over each of four summers interning with Northwell Health while back home in New York. While Stefanizzi found the complexity of the healthcare industry intriguing, he almost turned down an offer to enter the industry full time after graduation because he wasn’t sure he wanted to give up on his dream of securing a position somewhere like the State Department.
Stefanizzi ultimately took the offer and spent more than eight years at Northwell Health in several roles including in technology, operations, and human resources. He says that each of these opportunities was a calculated risk as he didn’t always have background experience relevant to his new role.
“Over time what I’ve come to appreciate is that each of those opportunities helped to round out my skill set and perspective, to sort of mold me into more of a generalist than a functional expert, which I think has helped to create opportunities and frankly prepared me for the role I have today,” Stefanizzi said.
According to Stefanizzi, there was some luck and timing that factored in his joining Formativ in 2016. He worked as part of the deal team that was working to establish the company, and over the course of that effort the incoming CEO of Formativ, who he had worked for previously, asked if he was interested in joining the organization’s the executive team.
“It felt like a great opportunity to try something different – a for profit, private equity backed start-up, that needed to scale very quickly – that would be a valuable experience over the long term of my career. On top of it, the role we designed felt like it would both benefit from my generalist background and also be another real challenge and great learning opportunity,” Stefanizzi said. “So I took the leap, joined the team, and have had the pleasure of serving as the Chief Administrative Officer for the last two years — which have absolutely flown by.”
Stefanizzi has responsibility for most of Formativ’s support and enabling services, which include human resources, marketing and communications, real estate, legal and compliance, as well as board and governance matters.
According to Stefanizzi, the Pardee School curriculum helped to prepare him for the complex and diverse healthcare industry in which he now works.
“Working to align the interests and needs of diverse stakeholders, and keeping everyone focused on improving the experience and quality of patient care day in and day out, is what I imagine practicing international diplomacy feels like. You are constantly negotiating, trying to understand and balance the needs of your stakeholders, so that you can find room for compromise and consensus where possible, to get to the right end,” Stefanizzi said. “I think the focus on this in the curriculum at Pardee, both from a historical and current perspective, was helpful in thinking about how to approach these situations on the job.”
The written and oral communication skills he developed while studying at the Pardee School are also critical to the work he currently does at Formativ, Stefanizzi said.
“I can’t emphasize enough how important I think this is for students to think about, and I don’t just mean in the traditional sense of it being an advantage to be comfortable with public speaking — which is absolutely a teachable skill,” Stefanizzi said. “I think about it a lot more broadly, including even your more routine professional and day-to-day interactions – meetings, discussions with colleagues, strategy sessions – to be able to distill down and communicate your ideas in a way that is fact based and digestible to your colleagues or stakeholders, to be able to use that to your advantage to advance a point of view or build consensus – that is incredibly valuable, and I think Pardee’s approach to their curriculum really lends itself to the development of that skill set.”
Stefanizzi said his Pardee School education helped him build a truly diverse skill set that was marketable across industries and allowed him to be successful following graduation.
“I think at the end of the day it matters a lot less what exactly you study during the course of your time in undergrad, and a lot more that you get a good, quality, well rounded education, where you have an opportunity to build skills that are transferable across industries,” Stefanizzi said. “And certainly, I can say unequivocally that BU and Pardee in particular provide a world class education for its students, and that in and of itself will prepare them to be successful in whatever path they choose post graduation.”
Offering advice to current Pardee School students, Stefanizzi encouraged students to always jump at opportunities to learn, build professional relationships and network.
“Don’t be afraid to take calculated risks and jump at the right opportunities – of which there will be plenty. Be aware of the fact that there is always going to be plenty you don’t know – so take every opportunity to learn, ask the right questions, and be humble in your approach,” Stefanizzi said. “Focus on relationships and building the right network – you can’t be successful without it. And lastly, don’t lose sight of the fact that at the end of the day, we’re in the business of serving patients, and doing the right thing by patients and providers should be at the center of everything we do.”