DR. BENJAMIN SCHWARTZ
The president of Corewell Health East (formerly Beaumont Health and Spectrum Health), Dr. Benjamin Schwartz is passionate about making health care exceptional, equitable and affordable, as well as inspiring the next generation of physicians. The recent New York transplant — along with his wife, Jenya, and four children — was previously senior vice president of Northwell Health, the largest health system in New York. In his current role, the Birmingham resident leads strategy and corporate decision-making for eight hospitals, 155 outpatient sites, close to 5,000 affiliated physicians and more. Schwartz earned his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College, his medical degree from George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences and a master's in healthcare management from Harvard University. He is board certified in gynecologic oncology, and obstetrics and gynecology.
BCL What is your greatest strength?
BS One of my greatest strengths is my ability to empower and support our team. I’m here to help facilitate change, but I don’t have all the answers. That’s why I rely on our outstanding team to help me understand what to prioritize. I ask our leaders to share potential solutions with me whenever they identify a problem. We have so much knowledge and expertise across our organization. I am proud of what our team has already achieved and excited to see what we can do next.
BCL How do you define success?
BS At Corewell Health, our mission, vision and values define what success looks like for our organization. Our mission is to improve health, instill humanity and inspire hope. Our vision is a future where health is simple, affordable, equitable and exceptional. Every decision we make is guided by our values of compassion, collaboration, clarity, curiosity and courage. Sometimes we take small steps and other times we take a big leap, but whenever we can move in the direction of these guiding principles, I call that a success.
BCL What are your proudest accomplishments?
BS Personally, I’m an extremely proud father of four beautiful children. They are successful, kind and compassionate. I am so fortunate to be their dad. They inspire me every day.
Professionally, I am proud and honored to be the president of Corewell Health. We have so many wonderful team members who serve our communities. It is a privilege to have a role where I can support and champion this amazing team.
BCL What advice do you wish you’d had when you were younger — or would give your younger self?
BS It’s better to find the fire inside people instead of lighting a fire under them.
JASON RAZNICK
A passionate award-winning entrepreneur, Jason Raznick is the founder of Detroit-based Benzinga, a financial content ecosystem that makes information easier to consume — it is read by more than 25 million people every month. While a student at University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, Raznick founded two successful digital startups. He has been named to DBusiness’ 30 in Their 30s and Crain’s Detroit Business 40 Under 40. He lives in Bloomfield Hills with his wife, Stacey, and their three children — and loves to coach his son’s flag football team.
BCL What is your greatest strength?
JR A true passion for working with others. My energy comes from being around others and I believe that every single person has the ability to achieve more than they believe they can.
I push those around me to think big, take leaps that may be intimidating, and to grow outside of their comfort zones. This has been critical for my personal development, for building our business, Benzinga, and it has been incredibly rewarding to see those around me achieve success.
BCL How do you define success?
JR For me, success is the holistic evaluation of several domains, including my family life, personal development and business. The commonality between all the domains through which I think about success is that people are paramount: I try to live my life in a way that leads the people around me to achieve their goals and break their own barriers of how they define success.
BCL What are your proudest accomplishments?
JR I was told I may never be able to read when I was younger. I think ignoring the naysayers is something I am proud of. Getting married and having our three kids is also something I am very proud of.
From the business side, starting Benzinga with $3,000 and seeing where it is now — whether it’s seeing one of our articles on Yahoo! Finance or our videos playing at gas stations throughout the country.
BCL What advice do you wish you’d had when you were younger — or would give your younger self?
JR It doesn’t matter what you start, it only matters what you finish! It is so easy for us to get excited about new ideas and opportunities for us to impact the world — but that impact is only felt if the idea is run through the finish line.
When I was younger, I had a few startups gaining traction and on the verge of real success, but excitement for the next idea kept me from “finishing” what I’d already started.
DAVID FARBMAN
The CEO of HealthRise Solutions, founder and chairman of Carbon Media Group, a principal in NAI Farbman and New York Times best-selling author, David Farbman has spent his career hunting success in commercial real estate, online media and healthcare. He is passionate about developing a motivational platform where he can inspire others.
A lifelong outdoorsman and hunter, Farbman drew on those skills to write his book, The Hunt: Target, Track and Attain Your Goals.
Currently sitting on the executive board of Young Presidents’ Organization, Farbman has also served as a board member of DMC/Harper Hospital’s Board of Trustees, the Southeast Region Board of the YMCA, the Economic Development Corporation and the Detroit Regional Chamber. He was a founding member and past chairman of Beyond Basics, a nonprofit organization devoted to improving literacy rates among public school children. A graduate of Michigan State University, Farbman has been named one of Crain’s Detroit Business’ 40 Under 40, Dbusiness’ 30 in their 30s, one of Crain’s Most Powerful People. Farbman lives in Bloomfield Hills with his wife, Nadine, and their three young children — who have inherited their father’s love of the hunt, especially for morel mushrooms.
BCL What is your greatest strength?
DF My greatest strengths would be my ability to stay authentic and optimistic. The other skill that I possess is being able to effectively communicate with people, build trust, through authenticity, and inspire people to perform at a higher level than they thought possible. Maximizing talent.
BCL How do you define success?
DF Building a culture that demands excellence and is the best at what they do. Whether this is a start-up or mature business, both have their own constant challenge to continuously improve.
BCL What are your proudest accomplishments?
DF My most proud business accomplishment is turning around what was almost a complete disaster in the outdoors, starting a professional hunting league, and then pivoting it into becoming the largest outdoor content/ad network on the Internet and exiting the company to a Canadian public company.
Another accomplishment would be HealthRise, our healthcare, tech and consulting company we’ve been building for the last decade. HealthRise is arguably the best revenue-cycle consulting company in the country and someday will be the best healthcare consulting and tech company in the country.
My biggest philanthropic accomplishments were donating $1 million to the Jewish Federation, something we are very proud of.
Another philanthropic accomplishment was joining Pam Good’s founding board and helping to start and grow Beyond Basics, the best literacy training/tutoring business in the country. It’s an incredible nonprofit that is changing the world and giving kids a shot in life by learning to read and write.
BCL What advice do you wish you’d had when you were younger — or would give your younger self?
DF The advice I would give a younger me, or someone else would be the following:
First, many issues seem like a big deal and in that moment, it can seem so huge and so real and so substantial, but it ain’t shit. Nothing is as big a deal as it seems. Take a deep breath, count your blessings. Then work on dealing with the issue and it won’t be as big of a deal as you thought.
Second — this is especially for people who want to have start-up businesses or early-stage businesses — spend time on sales and on business development, especially if you’re the founder/CEO: Never stop selling. The day you do is the day you die. ABS: Always Be Selling.
