Stewart Putnam supports organizations in strategic repositioning, change management, leadership coaching, focus group facilitation and board development.
Stewart led a 36-year career in healthcare administration. Most recently, he served as president of the Health Care Services Division at Unity Health System in Rochester, New York, where he worked with Unity’s CEO and board to engineer its merger with Rochester General Health System to form Rochester Regional Health.
Previously, Stewart was president and CEO of St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester after serving as senior vice president for Inpatient Services and COO, vice president for Ambulatory and Physician Services, administrative director for Surgical Services and Ambulatory Services, and executive director of Westside Health Services. As president and CEO of St. Mary’s, Stewart was crucial to crafting the affiliation that restructured Park Ridge Health System and St. Mary’s Hospital to create Unity Health System. Stewart was also instrumental in developing community services in inner city Rochester, for which St. Mary’s received the prestigious Foster G. McGaw Prize in 1996.
As a coach, Stewart has worked with a number of senior executives on improving both their organization and team performance. His focus has been on helping executives articulate clear strategic direction for their organizations and helping managers find new ways to approach staff to help ensure an engaged workforce and positive work environment.
Stewart served as chair of the national board of the Alzheimer’s Association from 2014 through 2016, where he led the transformation of the organization’s federation model into a single, unified, nationwide organization to help it reach its vision of creating a “World Without Alzheimer’s.” He holds a BS from the Pennsylvania State University and served in the United States Army for 4 years. He is a BoardSource Certified Governance Trainer and certified TandemCoachTM. He is currently working toward Associate Coach Certification with the International Coaching Federation.