Taking a company to an industry leadership position and keeping it
there is a feat many CEOs never accomplish during the course of their
careers. So achieving the top spot among U.S. health care staffing
firms makes Susan Nowakowski, AMN Healthcare Services Inc.’s
president and CEO, an anomaly among leaders.
But the achievement is even more astounding when you consider that AMN Healthcare is in an industry composed of hundreds of
competitors that has evolved from infancy to adulthood in record
time. While the industry continues to eke out organic growth, its
maturing status encourages consolidation, so larger competitors
are making acquisitions and nipping at AMN Healthcare’s heels.
Nowakowski’s secret for maintaining the lead is never looking
back in the rearview mirror at the competition and always striving
to be the pace car that others must follow.
“To maintain an industry leadership role, you have to be constantly looking forward, earn the business every day, make long-term investments and take chances with people,” Nowakowski
says.
She likes to offer people career opportunities because, at one time,
she was given that all-important first chance to prove her abilities
before she had all the requisite experience, and she grew through the
process. Nowakowski also differs from many of her peers in that she
was promoted to the CEO position from within the organization.
Starting as the company’s first chief financial officer in 1990, she later
became division president, then company president and finally CEO
in 2005. Now, she’s the leader of a NYSE-traded company that generated $1.16 billion in revenue in 2007.
Under Nowakowski’s leadership, AMN Healthcare has grown by
increasing its service offerings and global recruiting strategy, and in
addition to driving organic growth, the company made five of its
eight acquisitions under her leadership. Today, AMN Healthcare
operates under 12 distinct brands as a way to recruit the highly
coveted nurses, physicians and allied health professionals it places
on contract assignments.
