Michael Dowling
- Former CEO, Northwell Health in New Jersey
- 2025 TIME Health List TITAN
- Ranked on Modern Healthcare's 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare
Speaker Fee 🛈
Fee Range
$20,000 - $30,000
Virtual Fee:
$15,000 - $20,000
Travels From
New Jersey
Michael Dowling Speaker Biography
Michael J. Dowling is one of health care’s most influential voices. He is an award-winning health care leader, author and national keynote speaker who takes a stand on societal issues such as gun violence, corporate social responsibility and immigration—issues many health system CEOs shy away from. As president and CEO of Northwell Health, he leads a clinical, academic and research enterprise with a workforce of more than 104,000 and annual revenue of $19.57 billion.
Northwell is the largest nonprofit health system in the Northeast, caring for more than 3 million people annually in the New York metro area, including Long Island, the Hudson Valley, western Connecticut and beyond. Northwell offers a vast network of 28 hospitals and more than 1,000 outpatient facilities, along with home care, rehabilitation and end-of-life programs.
Named a "Titan" on the 2025 TIME100 Health list, Mr. Dowling led Northwell to become the only health system on TIME's 2025 Most Influential Companies list. He has also been ranked on Modern Healthcare's 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare list for 16 consecutive years, achieving the top spot in 2022.
Mr. Dowling is an author; Leading Through a Pandemic: The Inside Story of Humanity, Innovation, and Lessons Learned During the COVID-19 Crisis (2020), After the Roof Caved In: An Immigrant's Journey from Ireland to America (2020) and The Aging Revolution: The History of Geriatric Health Care and What Really Matters to Older Adults (2024).
Mr. Dowling grew up in Limerick, Ireland.
Purpose-driven leadership
Leadership is often defined as managing the present, selectively forgetting the past and creating the future. Regardless of your profession, you should always have your eye on the future. And forward thinking is critical during a crisis—look at the lessons we learned across the health care space these past years. Leadership is about building trust and promoting unity and about getting people to believe in what you believe in. Your colleagues will follow if they feel connected to your message and the actions you take. It’s essential to so many fields, including health care. Leaders need the ability to influence the behavior of others and engage colleagues enough to follow them.
From the first floor to the C-suite: Overcoming adversity
Growing up poor in rural Ireland shaped my approach to social welfare programs and, eventually, health care. Education has played a major role in overcoming adversity. Growing up, my Irish friends seemed to imagine the stereotypical Irishman as someone struggling, laboring, toiling at the bottom of the economic ladder. But I imagined the Irishman as an intellectual, literate, as a highly educated leader in business, science, education, and the arts. That’s where my eyes were fixed. Through my perseverance and experiences, always with a foundation in social welfare, I have stayed true to that vision and course and continue to fight for equity, particularly equity in health care, for all.
Inspiring change
When health care leaders make it possible for employees to generate and share ideas and collaborate to carry out solutions to make them reality, it fosters curiosity and a collaborative mindset. It demonstrates to teams that we value their work. It helps us all grow and see possibilities, where perhaps before, we hadn’t. Leaders can encourage team members to take risks that they otherwise might not have. Innovation happens when people have an opportunity to think differently, question strategies and anticipate needs and problems.
Corporate and social responsibility
As the largest health care provider in New York, Northwell Health is committed to keeping our communities well in the most socially responsible way. That means engaging with community, industry and other partners to enhance well-being, expand access to equitable care, and take environmental responsibility. As a health care leader, Northwell is not afraid to tackle the crises that many avoid; gun violence, Black maternal health, and climate change, especially because the health care sector is a major contributor to environmental damage.
