Just under a decade ago, I was at a crossroads. I had worked at Merrill Lynch, York Capital, and Ion Asset Management, and I assumed I would spend my career in finance. But I wanted my work to have real meaning for me personally and to impact others. So I applied to business school with the hope of charting a new course I longed for but could not yet envision. Choosing Wharton kick-started what has been the most invaluable experience of my life. The process of getting accepted to the program was as daunting as it was thrilling. Then, just 10 days into my Wharton journey, I got an opportunity to buy an outpatient surgery center in Queens, New York. I found myself directly applying what I was learning at Wharton to my new business, in real time. I was commuting four days a week between New York and Philadelphia, leaving accounting classes and then figuring out a real receivables problem. At Wharton, I learned about impact investing and how to be the kind of entrepreneur who can make a positive difference in the community. I eventually launched EMU Health, an integrated outpatient health-care delivery system in Queens that’s committed to improving the health-care struggle for so many people there. In one of my first health-care management classes, with Legal Studies and Business Ethics Professor Arnold Rosoff, we learned about William Kissick’s “Iron Triangle of Health Care” theory, which says that cost, quality, and access are fundamental—and you can’t mess with one without screwing up the others. I think you can provide better quality and access without high costs, and I’m out to prove it. —Daniel Lowy, Chief Executive Officer, EMU Health
Published as “An Unlikely Health-Care Crusader’” in the Spring/Summer 2018 issue of Wharton Magazine.
