Michael Leavitt

Michael O. Leavitt is a former three-term Governor of Utah and former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services who brings unmatched government leadership experience to conversations about healthcare policy, federalism, and public-private partnerships. He also served as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under President George W. Bush.

A Career of Leadership at the Highest Levels of Government

Leavitt served as Governor of Utah from 1993 to 2003, earning a reputation as one of the most effective governors in the nation. As HHS Secretary, he oversaw the implementation of Medicare Part D, managed the nation’s public health preparedness programs, and led international health diplomacy efforts. At the EPA, he advanced collaborative environmental policy. He also served as chair of the National Governors Association and played key roles in multiple presidential transitions.

Building Bridges Between Government and Business

After government service, Leavitt founded Leavitt Partners, a health industry intelligence firm that helps organizations navigate the intersection of government policy and business strategy. He is the co-author of Finding Allies, Building Alliances on collaborative problem-solving. His keynotes provide leaders with insider perspective on healthcare policy, regulatory trends, the future of public health, and how organizations can build effective partnerships between the public and private sectors to solve complex challenges.

Health Care Reform in the 21st Century

Healthcare policy is no longer just an exercise in reform; it has become a question of economic policy. One of the greatest lessons Michael Leavitt learned during his time as Secretary of Health and Human Services is that if you are going to reform the healthcare system, you have to change Medicare — the only system that pervades the entire healthcare environment. Using the lessons of Part D’s Medicare drug benefit, Leavitt shares how to improve the country’s health care system so that it delivers scorable savings, higher quality, and better value to all Americans.

Value Nets: The Gold Standard of Collaboration

The formula for success is undergoing a sea change.  In our increasingly interconnected world, the biggest or best-managed organizations don’t always win.  Instead, it’s the best-networked groups that triumph—that move faster and more innovatively than stand-alone competitors toward ambitious objectives.  Individual excellence is being replaced by collaborative excellence.

Unfortunately, few know how to collaborate in a high performance way.   Typically, collaboration is viewed as simply having a cooperative attitude.  In the world of low-level tasks, this perspective is fine.  However, if the stakes are high, the partners are diverse and success requires a network among unnatural collaborators, a more sophisticated approach is required.

A savvy negotiator and skilled consensus-builder, Governor Leavitt will inspire and teach audiences to build and join high performance collaborative enterprises he terms “Value Nets.”  This engaging, invaluable discussion centers on the elements required in constructing productive Value Nets and how to create, use and leverage them for business and personal success.

Health Care: Evolution or Revolution?

Though there is much to be proud of in American health care, our society is increasingly recognizing an alarming lack of organization and alignment that pervades our health care infrastructure and delivery. Our health care “system” isn’t really a system at all. Information doesn’t move with patients, quality and cost information is far from transparent, and stakeholder incentives often run contrary to achieving real value. It is not unreasonable to categorize this dysfunction and its accompanying cost escalation as the most serious economic threat facing our nation in the coming decade.

In this compelling presentation, Governor Leavitt identifies for audiences the core themes, structural shifts and evolving models that characterize the changing marketplace.

Step-by-Step: Protecting the U.S. Food Supply Throughout the Provider Chain

Governor Leavitt provides audiences a holistic approach to addressing modern day food safety and food defense challenges. Regardless of where organizations operate in the food supply chain, they are vulnerable to factors that are difficult to, and often beyond, control. Recent outbreaks and recalls have illustrated the fragility and vulnerability of brands and even entire businesses. Governor Leavitt urges organizations to recognize that as times have changed, so must the food and related industries if they are to stay ahead and alive. Governor Leavitt effectively addresses food safety and food defense problems wherever they may exist in the supply process.

Import Safety: The Most Urgent Threat You Don’t Know About

The United States has one of the safest food supplies and among the highest standards of consumer protection in the world. However, the rapid growth in the volume of exports, as well as the number of importers and exporting countries, present challenges that require urgent attention.

Americans want to enjoy fresh produce year-round, wear low-cost clothing, drive foreign-made cars, use electronic products designed and built off our shores, purchase affordable furniture and otherwise participate in the bounties of a global economy. This is the value of global trade. The challenges we face are the result of a global market beginning to mature.

Just as the volume of trade has changed, so must the strategies to regulate safety. Simply scaling up our current inspection strategy will not work. We need to develop new tools and strategies equal to the new challenges we face.

With an in-depth knowledge of international and domestic regulatory processes and first-hand experience in dealing with unsafe imported goods, Governor Leavitt provides audiences strategic counsel regarding the complexities and on-going changes related to imported foods and medical products, including pending legislation, product tracking and regulatory expertise.

Global Health and Diplomacy

The language of health is heard by the heart. The richest and poorest of us are bound together by the uncertainty of our mortality, the health conditions of those we love and, in some cases, the desperation of our pain. Said another way, global health is the common thread that binds all of humanity together. If we succeed in global health, we increase our chances of succeeding globally.

In geopolitics, there is a constant struggle to win the hearts of the people. In that battle, actions speak louder than words. On the Richter scale of deeds, health makes the needle within a person’s heart move more than anything else. We must invest in and succeed in global health diplomacy as a means to improve international relations and conditions in the world.

America needs to embrace health diplomacy and craft a unified policy around this important issue.  In this enlightening presentation, Governor Leavitt helps audiences understand how global cooperation and collaboration around the issue of health can lead to improved economic, security and overall diplomatic relations.