All in the Timing: From Operating Room to Board Room

In 1984, when Charles Hatcher took leadership of Emory’s heath sciences center, he had some reservations. As Emory Clinic director, he had known real power, generating millions of dollars to power medical school growth. As chief of cardiothoracic surgery, he had turned Emory’s open-heart surgery program into one of the nation’s largest and most respected. The health sciences center, on the other hand, was a loose confederation of three schools, two hospitals, and a primate center. Despite the reservations, Hatcher took the job and in essence became Atlanta’s first health czar. Eloquent, always prepared, he made it look so easy—even when it wasn’t.