CityView Magazine

58 | July/August 2019 Nagowski speaks at CityView's business breakfast in February 2019 halls here and see people and what they give and how hard they work, it's really special." Nagowski said he also credits Kim, his wife of 34 years for running the family side of his life. "She carries the load, evening and morning," Nagowski said of his wife. e couple met and started dating in high school in their hometown of Buffalo, New York. Back then, neither had any inkling of where life would take them. College wasn't a consideration for Mike, one of four boys in a working-class family. When he graduated from high school in 1983, his parents expected him either to go straight to work or to join the military. He chose the latter, enlisting in the Marine Corps because he wanted a challenge and believed it would be the toughest of the services. Scoring highly on his entrance exams for the Corps, he got his pick of military operational specialties. He chose an emerging field – computer science – and earned a bachelor's degree in the subject during his four-and-a- half years of military service. He might have stayed longer in the military but he and Kim, married by then, decided they'd rather move back home. In Buffalo, Nagowski worked as a computer programmer for a bank, then as director of marketing for a science company, earning a master's degree in business administration along the way. His jump to healthcare came by chance. A trusted mentor asked him to be director of marketing at a hospital in Buffalo. Nagowski agreed. Within a matter of weeks, he said, his role had grown to include heading the hospital's rehabilitation services. "A month later, I was running radiology," he said. "en one thing led to another and before I knew it, I was running hospitals." It was never a plan then. "I think what happens is you do something and someone says, 'at's a pretty good job, how about going and doing this thing too?'" Nagowski said. "As a Marine, you just say, 'Yes, sir!' And you never really think about it, you're just supposed to give it your all." Each job came with additional responsibilities and opportunities. All were embraced by the former Marine, who relished the challenge to improve healthcare wherever he was. His continuing successes pointed to his abilities for running things, working with people, seeing both the big picture and the small details, and directing positive changes. By 2006, Nagowski was president of Buffalo's largest hospital, Buffalo General, which had 350 beds and about $400 million in revenues. A recruiter called, telling him about a CEO job at a hospital in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Nagowski said he turned the recruiter down politely. He was president of the biggest hospital in his hometown. What more could he want? Some time later, a recruiter called again about the hospital in Fayetteville. By then, Nagowski's in-laws had moved to Charlotte and he and Kim were now interested in moving south. "When we came and visited, we were just blown away," he said. "What we saw was a very strong health system with a board of directors who wanted to grow and develop. ey wanted more for their community. And we saw a community that wanted more for itself." And they really liked Fayetteville. "is really fit well for us," he said. He said it still does. While the Nagowskis' adult son lives in Texas, the rest of his immediate family is here, including an adult daughter, a 12-year-old daughter and two young grandchildren. Visits to Buffalo are just a plane flight away. And Nagowski still has a long list of things to do at Cape Fear Valley and he means to tackle it. "We still have a lot of growth and a lot of things we continue to work on," he said. "Our work is by no means done. Whenever there are opportunities to help people, we will look at that."

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