Inside “Inside the Reporter’s Notebook”
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The Phoenix Business Journal recently started a series called "Inside the Reporter's Notebook" to get reporters out of the newsroom (with notebooks, we assume) and executives out of their offices for a conversation with community leaders. The setup for these events is casual -- at a local restaurant -- and interactive -- with a small contingent of business leaders. The second of these insider interviews (but we're guessing first on their list) was Mayo's own Wyatt Decker, M.D., vice president, Mayo Clinic.
Dr. Decker joined reporter Angela Gonzales for a nice little sit-down at Postino Central, which the reporter describes as "a nice little restaurant" on Central Avenue in Phoenix. Gonzales covers health, biotechnology and education for the journal, and seemed to enjoy her conversation with Dr. Decker. They "talked for an hour … in front of about 50 business executives," she says. "I have to say it was quite an amazing experience. I learned so much about Mayo’s leader, and I hope our audience did, too."
Gonzales and the audience seemed particularly interested in Dr. Decker's career path -- which included being part of Mayo's leadership development program and being early to enroll in an MBA program -- and entrepreneurial spirit. Not to mention his talent for recruiting "top-notch physicians from the nation." When asked about this, Gonzales writes, Dr. Decker "revealed that he is known among Mayo’s top leadership back in Rochester, Minn., as 'the Raider.'"
The biz journal, as they say in the biz, also did a video interview with Dr. Decker, which you can find with the Reporter's Notebook story. There he discusses Mayo's commitment to patient safety, the new cancer center and proton beam facility, and the biomedical corridor, and how they'll contribute to the community. "We're anticipating … bringing on board about 1,000 high tech jobs over the next 10 years," he says. The biomedical corridor, he notes, will be a "world-class biomedical medical health sciences park" that will have "real offerings for patients," and will be a center for biotech businesses and scientific research. "That will bring economic development and high tech jobs to our region as well," he says.
We're told that the conversation continued after the event, with lots of interest and "chatting up." You can elbow your way into the conversation by sharing a comment below.