About
Michael Antoniades
My family came to the United States from Piraeus, the main port of Greece, just outside Athens. After we lost my dad to cancer, my brother, my mother and I all worked to support our family. I pumped gas after school at stations along Route 4 East in Fort Lee, New Jersey. I worked clerical jobs with The Pilgrim Group. In the late ’80s, my brother, our partner and I built a business importing European kitchens.
Life was hard in those years. We grew up without the advice only a dad can give, and temptations were all around us. My mom kept my brother and me on the right path, even while she spent 12 to 15 hours a day cleaning houses. Challenges build character. They also build a hunger for growth, the kind you only learn by being hungry. My story is not unlike that of millions of people across this country and the world, immigrants or not.
In 1992 I started in healthcare at entry level, as a storeroom coordinator for the engineering department at a major academic medical center in New York City. Over more than three decades I worked my way up through operations and into executive leadership, eventually serving as President and CEO of hospitals in the Northeast and Midwest. Along the way I earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Phoenix and a Master of Public Administration from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
Work has always been a part of my life, and an enjoyable one, even in the hardest times. I’ve had the privilege of working in wonderful organizations, with people who invested in my development when they didn’t have to. True leaders, at every level, make it a point to develop those around them. I earned every promotion well before I got it on paper, and I never plan to stop earning it, because I never want to stop growing.
For many of us, our work is our life and our life is our work. That doesn’t mean we aren’t invested in our families. It means our careers shape so much of who we become. My professional life needs my personal life, and my personal life needs my professional life. That is how I define balance.
Leadership is a balance too: a set of skills built over time, through experience and investment. The more you invest, the better the return. Forged lays out the foundational skills every leader needs and the evolutionary skills many go on to build. There is no expectation to be perfect at all of them. But the foundation gives you the best chance to become the kind of leader you’d follow.
Because leadership is about people. A title is not leadership. It opens the door for you to become a leader. Leadership is built. It is forged. And my goal is to forge the leader in you.
Connect with Michael on LinkedInFollow Forged on LinkedIninfo@forged-framework.com