Behind the Hires: Opal Greenway
Power lifter Opal Greenway shares her path from courtroom to clinic and how she translates between doctors and the C-suite.
Opal Greenway is a Senior Client Partner for Physicians Workforce Solutions at Korn Ferry.
Job Description: I solve problems for healthcare organizations and anyone who works with physicians. I bring Korn Ferry’s full suite of expertise—strategy, compensation, operations, everything—into the physician space. We think through our doctors’ problems holistically, from hire to retire, because that’s what will actually fix physician issues in healthcare.
Professional Background: I have a law degree, but transitioned to healthcare 15 years ago. Before Korn Ferry, I led physician advisory at a healthcare consulting firm for eight years. Korn Ferry has given me the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues from every industry under the sun.
Typical Clients: I bring my expertise to many academic medical centers and urban hospitals—and because so many of our client organizations are serving rural healthcare, we are very involved in that space as well.
Industry Tip: Healthcare is very late to learning what works from other industries. Now that other industries are starting to hire doctors, it’s even more important that we look outward. What are those industries’ development incentives and pay structures?
Surprising Role: I’m often brought in to referee between healthcare administrations and physicians. It’s being the Rosetta Stone: the people in the C-suite are speaking finance, and the doctors are speaking clinically. They say, “I can’t get the [doctor or CFO] to listen, can you just explain it in a way they’d understand?”
Sidekick: Moki, our 7-year-old pocket pittie. My husband and I rescue pit bulls. He’s 50lbs of pure muscle, and turns every run into a strength workout.
Ask Her About: Competitive Olympic weightlifting! My last competition was in 2019. I was a marathoner who found CrossFit, which introduced me to weightlifting, and I got into power lifting.
Unexpected Life Turn: I married my lifting coach. He’s been coaching our four-year-old, who watches us lift in the garage and has a barbell of his own.
Community Service: My mother is from the Philippines. I’m on the board of a non-profit that works to rescue street trafficked children. I help the board find corporate sponsors that give not just capital but also training, like teen reskilling programs. It dovetails with my Korn Ferry work.
When Her Law Degree Comes in Handy: Healthcare is so heavily regulated, and some regulations aren’t well known, so organizations need counsel. We have clients that don’t necessarily have those resources, especially in the private equity space. A physician may have launched a new device and is moving quickly, not realizing that there are regulatory constraints. Sometimes the reason the device doesn’t exist is because it’s largely illegal.
Teaching Side Gig: I’m a preceptor for the National Rural Health Association. I teach healthcare finance, reimbursement and the regulatory landscape for their Chief Medical Officer leader certification, as well as other leadership certifications. I also teach medical residents about contracts, so they can enter their negotiations informed.
If She Could Wave Her Magic Wand: We’d invest in real leadership and cross-technical development across the C-suite, so that the language of leadership becomes the common language. We’ve done physicians a disservice by putting them into leadership without investing in their leadership skills and development.
How We Can Help
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