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Neal Patterson is chairman of the board chief executive officer and co-founder of Cerner. Neal grew up on his family’s farm near Manchester Oklahoma. He earned his bachelor’s degree in finance and his master’s degree in business administration from Oklahoma State University in 1971 and 1972 respectively. In 1973 Neal began his professional career as an information system consultant with Arthur Andersen & Co.
His entrepreneurial journey began in late 1979 when he and two Arthur Andersen colleagues Cliff Illig and Paul Gorup formed Cerner. As CEO Neal has spearheaded more than a quarter century of Cerner’s growth from its inception to its current position as the largest stand-alone healthcare information technology company. Few companies have been able to sustain internally generated growth for such a long period as Cerner.
Widely respected for his vision and strategic thinking Neal has the unique ability to articulate how information technology will transform healthcare. His commitment to this vision creates value for health systems and their communities by reducing healthcare costs increasing efficiencies and enabling improvements in healthcare quality and patient safety.
The associates of Cerner extol Neal for his passion and foresight about healthcare and information technology solutions his ability to drive change within organizations his entrepreneurial spirit and his often candid uninhibited conversation style. Above all Neal is respected for his courage to bet the future of Cerner in the 1990s on the $400 million investment needed to develop its person-centric information architecture Cerner Millennium®.
Neal speaks nationally on healthcare information systems and trends has four times been named as one of Modern Healthcare’s 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare and is a frequent panelist and presenter for healthcare conferences and forums. He serves as a trustee of the Midwest Research Institute serves on the advisory board of RAND Health and is active in healthcare leadership networks and local entrepreneurial organizations. Neal is co-founder and serves on the executive board of the First Hand Foundation (www.firsthandfoundation.org) Cerner’s non-profit foundation that provides financial assistance to children with critical healthcare needs. In keeping with his agrarian interests Neal also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors for the 107-year-old American Royal. | 