September 9, 2024
As president and CEO of Healthcare Leadership Council, Maria Ghazal unites health care stakeholders.
After more than two decades of reporting on health care for TV news, Anita Brikman found an opportunity to grow in the association sector.
“I wanted to contribute in some way to the outcome of health care as opposed to reporting on it,” she told CEO Update. The transition was easy, because she stayed within a space that was her area of expertise.
Throughout her broadcasting career — you might recognize her from WPVI-TV in Philadelphia or WUSA-TV in Washington, D.C. — Brikman reported on medical breakthroughs, FDA-approved medications and scientific research. Having mastered the art of presenting complex subjects in an easy-to-understand way, in 2013 she segued to communications and public affairs roles at health care associations. Now she has arrived at the C-suite.
Brikman became president and CEO of the Plasma Protein Therapeutics Association (PPTA) in April 2023, after the UK-based recruitment firm Parkhouse Bell contacted her about the job.
Saving lives
PPTA is a global health care organization in Annapolis, Maryland, that represents more than 1,000 collection centers for plasma donations and manufacturers of plasma-derived therapies in North America and Europe. Some big companies do both.
Plasma-derived therapies help people with bleeding disorders, immune deficiencies, neurological problems and other rare conditions live normal lives. “It’s giving people back whatever it is in their blood that they’re missing, the proteins and antibodies that their bodies don’t make naturally,” she said. Sometimes the therapies are used to restore the weakened immune systems of patients with cancer, HIV or organ transplants.
With annual revenue of about $13 million, PPTA raises awareness about plasma donation, plasma-derived therapies and the need for more plasma.
“We represent manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and Europe and are expanding our work to other parts of the world where access to these therapies is lacking,” she said.
Diving in
Brikman began her new role by learning about plasma donation, how plasma-derived medicines are made, and what kind of patients use them. “In my first year, I visited Belgium, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Greece and China,” she said. “I feel so blessed to have this opportunity to represent PPTA’s voice and see our growing impact in these nations.”
A major highlight of leading PPTA has been developing a three-year strategic plan with board member input and approval from all association work streams, Brikman said. PPTA has several boards: a global executive board, a North American board, a European Union (EU) board and a source board comprised of groups from plasma donation centers.
The strategic plan will focus on identifying key priorities and the best use of resources. “A big part of it is increasing membership and engaging current members in new and exciting ways,” she said. Making sure that the EU and U.S. offices work together as a global team, deliver on the regulatory priorities of members and partner with patient organizations to increase awareness is important to Brikman.
She prides herself on leading in a straightforward and transparent manner but always with compassion. “Communication is my background,” she said. “I try to do it openly and honestly, even when we are tackling problems or having difficult conversations.”
Staying cool under pressure and being an active listener, she said, are skills she learned at the news anchor desk. “I do that with all of my team members,” she said. “You have to do more listening than talking to be a good team leader.”
During her first year on the job, she strengthened PPTA’s capabilities, especially in communications and regulatory affairs, heightening the association’s visibility and impact in Washington and the EU. To increase engagement with legislators and the media, she said, PPTA will move into a new office this fall a couple blocks from Capitol Hill.
Rising to the top
At her first role outside of TV news, leading communications at the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), Brikman created a video with her team. It captured people across the nation having more meaningful end-of-life moments with their loved ones, because of support from hospice. “It made me feel like I made the right decision to take a different career path and do work like this,” she said.
Brikman left NHPCO after three years to lead communications and public affairs at the Consumer Healthcare Products Association (CHPA), as well as serve as executive director of the CHPA Educational Foundation. She oversaw the rebranding of CHPA as it expanded from a primary focus on over-the-counter medications into dietary supplements and, more recently, consumer medical devices.
“It truly became a self-care association,” she said. “Now I’m proud to say I played a role in that growth strategy for the association and CHPA’s new identity.”
Overseeing the CHPA Educational Foundation’s board of directors, made up of representatives from the biggest consumer health care companies in the world, was an education in association leadership, she said.
“They taught me about leadership, strategic planning, conflict resolution, how to make decisions and take appropriate risks for growth,” she said.
At the foundation, she began to aspire to a CEO role at a health care association. With help from mentors along the way and after a decade of association experience, her goal became a reality.
Casey Clark has a longstanding relationship with the association business, starting when he was 15 years old and interning with the American Trucking Association.
“I have been literally in and around the association business since I was a teenager,” he told CEO Update. “It’s been a wild ride of my entire career in Washington: four internships at associations, and then a career in Washington spanning 25 years that’s probably equal parts association management and strategy consulting where I was servicing associations.”
Now, he’s bringing that experience to his new CEO role at the Alexandria, Va.-based National Association of Professional Employer Organizations (NAPEO).
Supporting small businesses
NAPEO serves roughly 400 companies about equally split between PEO (professional employer organization) members and associate members, companies that provide services to the PEO industry.
“We’ve got companies with a small amount of revenue and a handful of employees, to publicly traded businesses that would be names people would appreciate and understand,” said Clark.
He calls PEOs “small business enablers” that provide back-end administrative support and access to benefits most small businesses wouldn’t otherwise have. Their role, he said, dovetails with the classic idea of a passionate startup owner learning the business side of things.
Small business owners are “really good or passionate about one particular thing, and then they learn that running a business is a lot different and a lot harder to do than their expertise or passion,” he said. “That’s where PEOs come in and help them focus entirely on what it is that they do best. And we help take the burden of the back-end benefits administration off their shoulders.
Clark began with NAPEO in December 2023. His core team consists of 22 people in Alexandria, and a handful of employees across the country manage state affairs. The organization operates on $10.5 million annually as it seeks to bring value to its members in all 50 states.
“Think about it as a time-based organization where what we deliver is expertise and time, and that time is a product of member investment in us,” he said.
Organization similarities
Clark left a senior vice president role at the $15 million-revenue American Gaming Association, and he’s found some similarities that might not seem obvious.
One is the state-by-state, “patchwork quilt of regulation” both organizations must submit to, which he said requires a nuanced approach at the association level to help move common interests forward. Like the gaming association, NAPEO must observe federal regulations from the Treasury Department.
And both organizations, Clark contended, face typecasting.
“The gaming industry was misunderstood from antiquated stereotypes, and the PEO industry is just as often underappreciated in terms of all that we can do,” he said. “Part of that is because we’re a relatively new industry. Part of it is that we’ve got work to do to make sure that people really understand what we’re doing for small business and how we can help.”
Greater appreciation
Clark’s goals as NAPEO’s leader begin with a sort of Hippocratic oath: “Do no harm.”
He said he intends to preserve the good work his predecessor, Pat Cleary, did in creating a foundation for the next evolution of the industry and the association.
“My goal is to meet a lot of people and get to understand the industry better and then identify opportunities to move the ball down the field a little bit,” he said. “Certainly, there are those opportunities and I’m excited to apply what I’ve learned in my career to help advance those things.”
One of those opportunities lies in elevating appreciation for how NAPEO serves small businesses to ensure wider adoption of the services PEOs can provide. That appreciation can spread through contact with influencers on Capitol Hill and state regulatory bodies, Clark said.
“This will be an ongoing NAPEO thing for probably the next three CEOs,” he said.
Team ball
In pursuing greater appreciation for the association, Clark plans to engage his innate sense of accountability.
“I have a very strong sense of responsibility for the team, for the organization, and for the membership,” he said. “That’s been true across, not just here, but at AGA and my other association work. I think that’s something that carries over and sticks with me.”
For Clark, a teamwork mentality is the underpinning of quality work, and he’s not opposed to stepping in at any level necessary to keep things moving.
“I preach team ball. I really believe in everybody working together to deliver the greatest outcomes,” he said. “We are one team of people committed to accomplishing the same goal. If that means that I’ve got to go to Capitol Hill and testify on behalf of the industry, or I’ve got to go in the conference room and stuff envelopes, I’m excited about doing both of those things.”
A family business
As he steps into his first CEO role, Clark said he’ll be able to look to family members in similar positions for guidance.
His wife, Liz Clark, oversees the Boston-based Health and Fitness Association, and his sister, Suzanne Clark, leads the $200 million-revenue U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C.
“This really is the family business in a lot of ways,” Clark said. “It’s a fascinating time and one that is great for someone like me as a first-time CEO to be able to rely on my closest confidants and family members to help me and counsel me through the first couple of months.”
Obesity Medical Association’s executive director makes decisions that create welcome change.
Knowing where you want to be and getting to that place often takes perseverance. In the case of International Wood Products Association (IWPA) Executive Director Ashley Amidon, opportunity knocked twice. After beginning her career at IWPA as a lobbyist and returning as its leader in August 2022, Amidon’s career has come full circle.
Now that she’s a leadership role, Amidon facilitates change by involving her community.
Finding direction
Amidon’s education prepared her for a political life: she earned a bachelor’s in history and government and international affairs from George Mason University and a master’s in international affairs from the University of Hull in England. But she had doubts, and a Capitol Hill internship confirmed them: that path would require accepting lifestyle that was just too demanding.
Associations proved to be her real home. Starting in 2011 she served two years as manager of government relations and public affairs at IWPA, a trade association for the international wood industry focused on uniting supply chains. Then she gained experience at other organizations, including serving as executive director of the North Carolina Pest Management Association and vice president of public policy for the National Pest Management Association, before returning to IWPA for her current role.
Amidon’s portfolio of work has included small business, tax, environmental and trade issues. As executive director at IWPA, she fosters supplier growth and consumer demand.
IWPA’s members import wood used for many purposes, from guitars to home furnishings. The association has an international footprint and an impressive lineage.
“The vast majority of our members are the importers of record in North America, predominantly small businesses. We have a few that are larger, but most of them are multigenerational, family-owned businesses. There are some really old companies that date back to the late 1700s and early 1800s in our association. We also stretch back to over 30 countries around the world,” Amidon said.
A family history of business ownership
Growing up with her father being the sole proprietor, Amidon has always understood the tools one needs to lead.
“I remember, even as a kid, being aware that it’s a lot of work to run a business. It isn’t a nine-to-five thing, it’s something that you are always thinking about,” she said.
Watching her father inspired Amidon to champion business owners. “I want to support and represent small businesses. I know that there are hundreds of people like my dad that are trying their best for their family and their employees,” she said. “They want to give a better life to their family and employees. Helping with that effort is rewarding.”
Maintaining a community of small and larger businesses at IWPA gives Amidon that opportunity.
Lobbyism to leadership
For Amidon, the transition from lobbyist to executive has been a way to combine her love of politics with her natural leadership orientation. Her tenure as executive director of a smaller, regional organization was an intense learning experience and, she said, a useful step to where she is now.
“In that sort of management style, you have other people you can go to that are in-house and be like, ‘Hey, we’ve got this thing. I don’t quite know how to handle it. Have you guys had that?’ It was immediate help,” she said.
“So that, for me personally, was really helpful, because it’s almost like training wheels. And I don’t mean that in a derogatory sense at all because that association was wonderful. But it was a way to have more support as a CEO.”
Amidon’s current position requires the sort of judgment that comes from experience. “When you’re CEO, the buck stops with you. When I moved into (my current role), it was like, ‘Oh, I’ve run board meetings before. That’s no problem.’ I’ve run the committee process, we’ve done meetings. I had that experience to draw on,” she said.
Refreshing tradition
After accepting her executive role at IWPA, Amidon reexamined and updated many of the group’s standard ways of operating. “An example: our convention every year. Like every association does, we (would issue) a press release saying registration is open, populate the website, send a few emails, and that was it. For me, it was looking at, well, why aren’t we being more aggressive with some of the marketing?”
So, she changed their marketing tactics, resulting in measurable improvement. “We saw literal jumps in registration in the couple of hours after those emails went out.”
Amidon also saw the need for an internal communication revamp. She redid the employee handbook with input from staff, in keeping with her community-oriented leadership style.
Words of wisdom
Early in her career, a colleague advised Amidon to “pick a hill to die on.” As a result, she adopted a strategy of asserting herself on compliance and governance issues she felt were too important to yield on, but compromising on other issues.
Finally in the position that she aspired to hold for a decade, Amidon is thriving. “As an association, we are very small, but we are mighty. I just love coming to work every day. I’ve enjoyed other jobs, but I have never been as happy as I am now.”
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