George Pillari, formerly a Managing Director in A&M’s Healthcare practice from 2006-2018, is now Executive Chair and Chief Restructuring Officer at Mosaic Dental Collective. 

In the Q&A below, Mr. Pillari shares stories of his career trajectory, his A&M mentor, and how his time at the firm shaped his approach to leadership.

You’ve been called the “grandfather of hospital quality rankings.” To what do you credit your success?

When we launched HCIA, it was not considered mainstream to publish different statistics on hospitals such as their profit margin and mortality rates. Being a good entrepreneurial company means that you are willing to take calculated risks. HCIA became very well known for supplying new and unique information that people had not previously seen.

You were once quoted as saying, "I was able to put together everything I learned about governance boards and dealing with investors to good use at Alvarez & Marsal. We usually do operational and debt restructuring. I'm now dealing with boards and lenders and investors. Maybe someday I'll get back to the widgets." How would you take your A&M experience and apply it back to widgets?

While I was at A&M I had the opportunity to be on many different engagements. I had the chance to engage with many personality types and individuals with different interests who helped broaden my frame of mind. Because of A&M, I have been able to assess situations differently and that’s largely due to the variance of my consulting engagements. As a consultant, you are tasked with being able to predict the outcome of a situation. Right now, I am back at widgets and enjoying it immensely.

What have you learned about healthcare in your time at A&M? How does that differ from your perspective working with Prospect Medical Holdings Inc.?

One of my biggest takeaways from my time at A&M is that healthcare can be a difficult business due to regulations, patient safety, changes in reimbursement and many other reasons. I learned healthcare can be really hard work. Even those who often get into it are doing it for altruistic reasons. I see the same thing here at Prospect Medical Holdings Inc. This is not an easy business to be in. It’s very management-intensive. Healthcare is the opposite of manufacturing iPhones. iPhones are created, boxed and shipped out. Healthcare is a never-ending treadmill of management challenges and transactions. It’s difficult to get the factory to run smoothly all the time.

Did you have a mentor at A&M?

Guy Sansone who founded A&M’s Healthcare Industry Group was a true mentor to me. He gave me a blank canvas and provided guidelines on how to become a good healthcare restructuring advisor. It was helpful to my healthcare education being mentored by someone who wasn’t overly prescriptive. But more importantly, he was willing to take a risk on giving me a shot.  He was a great teacher and I still speak with him frequently.

What are some of your fondest memories of your time at A&M?

I keep in touch with just about everyone from my time at A&M. We even have many A&M professionals working on projects at Prospect Medical Inc. now. I also recommend A&M on a weekly basis to others I know.  

We always had people who worked hard and played hard. We had several great outings a year as a team. The fondest memories I have is of the annual healthcare partners’ dinner. I always looked forward to attending and it was guaranteed to be a night to remember as we caught up with colleagues.

I also think fondly of my annual reviews with Bryan Marsal & Guy. Somehow my fifteen-minute review would always turn into an enthusiastic and animated discussion that lasted an hour and a half. 

In your experience, what’s the biggest difference between working in consulting versus in healthcare?

At A&M, consultants had a lot of accountability to multiple parties – from company management to the board to the partners. While at Prospect, you have a lot of constituents but don’t need as much buy in, which frees up your time to focus on getting results.

How do you differentiate yourself from other C-suite leaders?

I interact more with direct reports and staff. I like to hear about what’s going on from the ground up. I don’t mind roaming the halls to get information. And it never hurts to take everyone out on a Friday night.