Lobo football to health care leadership, Brad Cook finds purpose in building better systems - UNM Newsroom
By Google News Sports ·
For Brad Cook, leadership began long before he entered the healthcare industry.
As a student at The University of New Mexico, Cook received a full ride scholarship to serve as the head equipment manager for the Lobo football team. This experience gave him an early lesson in leadership and helped shape the career that followed.
“I always gravitated toward leadership,” Cook said. “I enjoyed organizing work. I enjoyed organizing teams and supervising people.”
Today, Cook is senior vice president and chief operating officer for Presbyterian Medical Group, a division of Presbyterian Health Services. He has spent more than two decades with Presbyterian, building a career that took him from finance to healthcare operations and gave him experience across many areas of the organization.
However, his path into healthcare was not necessarily planned.
While in business school at The James & Gail Ellis School of Business Leadership, formerly the Anderson School of Management, Cook took a part-time position with Saint Joseph Medical Center, where he managed accounts receivable. The experience introduced him to the financial side of healthcare, though he didn't initially see it as a career.
Two years after earning his Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) in 2002, Cook then joined Presbyterian in a managerial role. Over the next 22 years, he moved through different positions, developing new technical and leadership skills along the way.
What began as a job ultimately became a career for Cook, who developed a deep appreciation for Presbyterian’s mission as a nonprofit healthcare system and its impact on the community. For Cook, who grew up in Albuquerque, that mission carries a personal connection to the community he has called home.
Cook's relationship with UNM came full…
Originally published by Google News Sports