Alumni/ae Spotlight

Wick Lyne (MHA '71)

By Kimberly MacNemar (MHA '03)

Mr. Wick Lyne, a prominent member of the Richmond community retired this past May 2001 as President of the Central-Atlantic Division of HCA. His distinguished career in Health Administration launched after receiving his MHA degree from Virginia Commonwealth University's Health Administration program in 1971. He is renowned among the Richmond community for his work as CEO of CJW Johnston-Willis Hospital, a position he held for 13 years. It was during this time that he led the way in building CJW at its new location south of the James River. Even after retirement, Mr. Lyne plans to remain active in the community through his efforts in volunteering and his desire to become more involved in educating others.

As a student at VCU's MHA program, Mr. Lyne found himself involved in a program that he describes as, "strong, providing useful skills training in leadership and operations management." As a part of the program, Mr. Lyne performed a residency at Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley under his preceptor and first boss William R. Reid. He was hired on at Community for the next 18 months until he made the decision to work for HCA. Mr. Lyne credits Mr. Reid with steering him on a path to success, along with three other gentlemen, Richard Kraus, Thomas Frist, Sr. (co-founder of HCA), and Thomas Frist, Jr. However, Mr. Lyne's greatest appreciation is to his parents who he says, "guided me in the right direction, always with an emphasis on core values such as truthfulness and honesty, personal integrity and loyalty, owning responsibility for actions and inactions, teamwork and hard work, and interest in others." In March of 1993, after spending 13 years at CJW Johnston-Willis in Richmond, Mr. Lyne and his family moved to Nashville, TN. There he became President of the Western Group of HCA for a period of 18 months, until the corporation merged with Columbia. Upon returning to Richmond, Mr. Lyne assumed the position of President, Central Atlantic Division, with the objectives to implement various operations consolidation strategies, and pursue mergers, ventures and acquisitions in support of the company's aggressive growth strategy at that time.

Throughout his career Mr. Lyne has been an active member of the American College of Healthcare Executives and took part on many boards, including serving for a time as President of the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association, a Regent to the American Hospital Association, and chair of the Chesterfield Business Council. Additionally, Mr. Lyne served three terms on the Board of the Federation of American Health Systems; he is a Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International, and is a sustaining member of the Alexis de Tocqueville Society of the United Way.

When asked what significant issues/opportunities face present-day students and health care executives, he cites, "the severe supply-demand imbalance in health services manpower, the impact of accelerated deployment of technologies on delivery modes and settings, the advent of meaningful consumerism, and the demographically-driven expansion of demand for services balanced with the shrinking net revenue per unit of service." He also had plenty of advice to give students in the field including," the world is rife with problem definers, too few problem solvers" and "learn to own a mistake when it is yours, and learn from your mistakes versus focusing on placing fault somewhere it does not belong---and without fail make it right." Mr. Lyne's persevering attitude and his excellent leadership ability serve as a wonderful role model for current and future health administrators.