FMG Leading Expands Healthcare Advisory Capabilities

January 23, 2025 – Human capital advisory firm FMG Leading has expanded its team with the additions of principals Kate Katz and Rod Wilkes. FMG Leading explains that Ms. Katz and Mr. Wilkes each bring decades of experience to their roles and will immediately begin providing strategic guidance and value to the firm’s growing list of clients. “We continue to see sizable market opportunities for healthcare operators and investors with transformative visions for their organizations and the industry as a whole,” said Matt Brubaker, chairman and CEO of FMG Leading. “An increasing number of these leaders are learning they can better and more rapidly execute on their mission by partnering with trusted advisors who can help them harness the power of people, accelerate value creation, and drive sustainable change across the healthcare ecosystem.”
The expansion of FMG Leading’s team reflects growing demand for experienced senior advisors that have proven their ability to help organizations simultaneously meet financial targets and mission-driven goals. “This is especially true in the healthcare sector, where innovators are striving to transform today’s system by meaningfully improving outcomes while containing costs,” FMG Leading said.
Ms. Katz has more than 20 years of healthcare consulting experience, most recently at Huron, where she designed new organizational structures and processes, led change programs to improve access to clinical care, and improved workplace cultures. Notably, she led a revenue cycle improvement initiative for a $5 billion healthcare system, resulting in more than $100 million in yield improvement; leveraged change management to implement ambulatory clinic innovations across more than 25 medical specialties for a $1.4 billion academic medical center; and managed a change management program for a $2 billion public health system, supporting their journey back to financial stability.
Mr. Wilkes joins FMG Leading from Press Ganey, where he served as a trusted healthcare advisor working with C-suite leaders to impact change, improve employee engagement and organizational resilience, and enhance patient and business outcomes. Over his 30-year career, he has partnered with renowned organizations including Cleveland Clinic, Houston Methodist, Advocate Health, Atrium Health, and Kaiser Permanente, developing tailored strategies that empower first-line leaders and drive sustainable improvements in workforce well-being and performance.
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FMG Leading is a human capital advisory firm that works alongside executives, boards and investors. The firm helps clients maximize human capital initiatives, drive transformative change and accelerate growth.
New Approach
Last year, FMG Leading unveiled a new approach to developing high-potential and next-generation healthcare leaders. “The data-driven, collaborative process has reliably delivered high value to healthcare organizations for more than four decades, preparing leaders to effectively navigate the industry’s most pressing challenges and yielding substantial, measurable results,” the company said.
This process is outlined in FMG Leading’s latest whitepaper, “Leveling Up: Improving Healthcare Performance Through Strategic Leader Development.” The whitepaper offers clear advice and best practices around designing and implementing customized, high-engagement healthcare leader development programs, while sharing stories of implementations that created award-winning outcomes, and highlighting common missteps.
At the heart of FMG Leading’s approach is a strong emphasis on purposefully aligning development programs with organizations’ unique cultures and strategies. “This ensures that program goals and outcomes reflect institutions’ highest priorities, driving improvements that have a meaningful and positive impact on financial, operational, and clinical performance,” the company said. “This high level of individualization stands in sharp contrast with the expanding universe of off-the-shelf leadership development options, frequently offered at off-site events and retreats. Because these more common programs exist in a vacuum with no ties to the larger contexts influencing organizations, they rarely yield meaningful organizational benefits.”
Related: How Healthcare Recruiters Help Find Top Senior Talent
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media