CEO and Managing Director of I-MED Network Steven Rubic has spent his career working in the health industry. Prior to taking the top office at I-MED, he worked for St Vincents & Mater Health Sydney, which included in its stable St Vincents Hospital, and prepared himself for the transition into the commercial sector. While St Vincents and its numerous partners are not-for-profit organisations, they are governed by various commercially experienced directors who helped Steven understand the importance of returns. And while the returns may be different compared to I-MED, his previous experiences taught him how to create and manage an efficient and productive organisation.
The CEO Magazine: When you first started in the industry, you were working the phones. Could you tell our readers more about that?
Steven: I grew up in Parramatta, and everybody up there was working class, so I went straight into working part time when I finished school. I ended up working on a switchboard for a hospital for a few months, and I have never left the health system. I went to university a few times and just worked my way around hospitals and healthcare systems and loved it. Starting at the bottom gives you a great appreciation of how to work with people. I worked with nurses, young doctors, and cleaners back in those days. It was a terrific experience.
And now things have changed, youre wandering the rarefied atmosphere of head office.
True. Hopefully, I describe myself as bilingual, where I can talk stakeholder and funders and banks, but Im equally able to communicate with the people doing the real work in the clinics, like doctors and nurses. And thats really important.