For the past three decades, Dr. Azziz has been a creative force in the fields of science, clinical medicine and art, and has served as transformational leader in the arenas of translational research, academic medicine, higher education, and healthcare. Ricardo Azziz, MD, MPH, MBA is a scientist-educator-executive with over 20 years of leadership experience in higher education, academic health, and biomedical research, currently serving as Principal of Tellurian Global, LLC (d/b/a SPH Consulting Group), Executive Director of the Foundation for Research and Education Excellence (FREE Fdn.), Director of the Center for Higher Education Mergers & Acquisitions (CHEMA) at the Foundation, fellow of the Rockefeller Institute of Government, and on the faculties at the University at Albany-SUNY and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Azziz has served as Chief Science & Strategy Officer and EVP, Operations, Strategy, and Scientific Affairs, The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center; Chief Executive Officer of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM); Chief Officer of Academic Health and Hospital Affairs, State University of New York (SUNY) System Administration, the largest university system in the nation; and founding President of Georgia Regents University (GRU; now Augusta University), one of four comprehensive public research universities in Georgia. He also served as founding CEO and Board Chair of the Georgia Regents Health System (GRHS), the sole public academic health center for the state. During his tenure at GRU/GRHS Dr. Azziz managed a greater than $1.3 billion integrated and aligned enterprise with over 1,000 full-time faculty, 8500 students, and 10,000 employees. Dr. Azziz had also served as President of Georgia Health Sciences University (previously the Medical College of Georgia). Dr. Azziz is an internationally recognized clinical translational scientist, developing over the past 25 years an important program in androgen excess disorders research, and is the Founder and Senior Executive Director, Androgen Excess & PCOS Society, Inc. Finally, Dr. Azziz is an accomplished visual artist, in the surrealistic thematic. Dr. Azziz is passionately focused on improving our global community through excellence in discovery, learning, creativity, and servant leadership.
How do we, as organizations, ensure that we develop new approaches to old problems…and more importantly, new strategies to overcome problems we have yet to face or needs we have yet to identify? We leverage the diversity of our people of course. But assembling a diverse group of individuals is only the first step… Maybe even the easier step. The rest of the journey involves inclusion… Because it is inclusivity that weaves the threads of diversity into the fabric of our organizations, strengthening the whole.
Excellence in Leadership,
Science and EducationRicardo Azziz, MD, MPH, MBA