Chad Grant ’99 Named President and CEO of McLaren Oakland

Chad Grant believes work ethic and the drive for excellence can overcome many obstacles. Including age. He’s living proof.

The 40-year-old Grant has risen quickly up the corporate ladder since starting his career in health care with the Detroit Medical Center in 1995. He became one of the youngest executives in DMC history when he was named chief operating officer (COO) of the Children’s Hospital of Michigan in 2012.

In December 2014, Grant was appointed to his current position as President and CEO of McLaren Oakland, a subsidiary of the 10-hospital McLaren Health Care system.

“Even at an early age, I was always the youngest, so I had to work harder to really maintain within my peer group,” Grant said. “Even with the 10 CEOs of McLaren, I am by far the youngest. I need to work hard and learn. I think that work ethic has helped.”

The 1999 graduate of Siena Heights University’s Southfield campus said his education also set the stage for his success.

“Education is the foundation of the knowledge that I use, especially at Siena Heights,” said Grant, who received a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in nuclear medicine. “I focused on as many finance classes as I could. For me, that’s what really separates me from everyone else in my career. I took advantage of the instruction and (expertise) of the instructors at Siena Heights. … They helped me connect the dots. I use a lot of the skills even to this day.”

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Steven West ’79 Uses His Experience to Help Others Succeed in Business

Steven West ’79 has learned by doing.

And for more than a decade, he has used his experience to help others start, manage and grow their own successful businesses.

West, co-founding partner of the San Francisco-based Emerging Company Partners LLC, has been a CEO, COO and board member at numerous high-growth, global businesses, from manufacturing to enterprise software companies. In fact, he was the CEO of Hitachi Data Systems for three years, and currently serves on the boards of billion dollar companies such as Cisco Systems and Autodesk. He has also started, built and sold companies. Now, he is guiding others on a similar path.

With more than 30 years of business experience in the technology field, he said his specialty is advising CEOs and executives of small start-up companies ($100 million or less).

“It’s a lot of mentoring,” West said of his work. “You have to have experience and be willing to work with people who don’t necessarily know what’s going on.”

Most of his days consist of travel (he operates out of what he calls a “virtual office”) and talking to people, either on the phone or in person at their business location. He said a good CEO is not born, but made.

“You really have to learn to interact with people. Listen to what they say. Pay attention,” he said of the common qualities of an effective business leader. “Those are things you get with real operating experience. It takes time and skill. It’s not something you’re born with.

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Last fall’s Homecoming weekend began when the stars came out for the Alumni Awards ceremony Friday afternoon. Meet the 2014 award winners:

Recent Graduate Award

Kyle Leighton ‘13

Nominated by Zachary Orlosky ’10

A professional communications graduate of Siena’s Jackson Center, Kyle credits his Siena Heights education for igniting his success at EverLast Lighting, Inc, an energy-efficient lighting manufacturer in Jackson. As director of public relations for the firm, he has been published in numerous trade magazines and designed and launched a Michigan Energy Awareness Initiative that was adopted throughout the state; and was named an emerging leader in the electrical industry. He was recognized for “carrying the mission and spirit of SHU into a promising career in public relations and professional communication” and for being a role mode as “an advocate of energy efficiency.”

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