Dr. Guy Fish has been named as the new president and CEO of Greater Lawrence Family Health Center, which operates primary care centers and pharmacies in Lawrence, Haverhill and Methuen.
Fish’s extensive health care experience as a physician and consultant in numerous executive leadership roles encompasses both the for-profit and nonprofit health care sectors.
“The board is pleased to be able to draw on Guy’s significant history of leadership and innovation to guide our health center on the next phase of its journey to expand access and care to our patient community in Lawrence and throughout the Merrimack Valley,” said board Chair Charlie Zanazzi.
Fish takes the helm next Tuesday, July 6, from John M. Silva. After more than 40 years as an innovator and leader at community health centers across the country, Silva retired Wednesday.
Fish called Greater Lawrence Family Health Center “a remarkable, nationally recognized institution which provides excellent care for the residents of the Lawrence area,” adding the organization “sustainably fulfills the vision of Federally Qualified Health Centers, as established by the late Drs. Jack Geiger and Count Gibson.” He explained health centers’ pursuit of “medical civil rights,” what is now call health equity, has “expanded to include addressing social determinants of health.”
Most recently, Fish was acting CEO of Nextstage Therapeutics—a Spanish company with exosome technologies. Prior to that, he was CEO of Cellanyx Diagnostics, which uses artificial intelligence to predict which cancers are aggressive and which are not.
Before Cellanyx, Fish was a leader with profit and loss responsibilities for 17 years at the health care strategy consulting firm Fletcher Spaght. His market assessments, due diligence in acquisitions, fundraising and strategic growth planning for a wide range of medical services and products resulted in substantial value creation over the last 10 years. These engagements spanned health services, med tech, life science tools, diagnostics, imaging, biotech and digital health—all seeking to improve health with new innovations. Simultaneously, Fish was a central figure at Fletcher Spaght Ventures in its management of two health care venture funds. At FSV, he served on the board of many companies including Phase Bio, BioTrove, Biocius and Metabolon. He was also a board observer at Proteus Digital Health, Othera, and Decision Biomarkers.
Fish graduated from Harvard University with an AB degree in biochemistry and earned his medical degree from Yale University. After completing his Internal Medicine Residency at Case Western, where he served the inner-city population at Cleveland MetroHealth, Fish and his wife opened a solo internal medicine practice in rural Delaware. His practice ranged from house calls to critical ICU patients, and services were occasionally paid in corn, peaches and chickens.
Frustrated by health economics intruding into patient care, they left their thriving practice to pursue his MBA at Yale School of Management. Upon completing his MBA, Fish began a multi-faceted career. He became a health care consultant at the Boston Consulting Group, then a sell-side analyst on Wall Street at Sanford C. Bernstein and, next, vice president of business development at Collagenesis in Beverly.
In the nonprofit sector, Fish is chairman of the Board of Trustees at health care think-tank Altarum Institute which is focused on improving the health for marginalized communities. As treasurer of the Harvard Alumni Association, he spearheaded initiatives to advance social justice and anti-racism. Fish is also a Lay Trustee of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and has chaired both the Patient Care Committee and the Medical Education Committee. He is an ardent supporter of the Bowdoin Street Health Center, serving marginalized communities in Dorchester, and twice ran the Boston Marathon to fundraise for them.
In previous years, Fish served on the Board of Registration in Medicine for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts under Govs. Mitt Romney and Deval Patrick and chaired the inaugural Licensing Board and Appeals Board in Dubai Health Care City. In addition to chairing the board of the Hydrocephalus Association Scientific Advisory Board, Fish teaches and mentors, and is often a panelist, presenter or lecturer at medical courses and conferences. He is co-author on several patents and publications.
Fish and his wife live in North Cambridge; their three children reside in San Francisco, Brooklyn, and Berlin.