Paul Kempinski, MS, FACHE, CEC, is a distinguished healthcare executive, board leader, advisor, and executive coach whose career spans more than four decades of leadership across some of the nation’s most respected pediatric, academic, and community healthcare organizations. Most recently serving as President and Chief Executive Officer of Children’s Mercy Kansas City, Paul has built his career around a deeply held belief that exceptional organizations are created by values-based, purpose-driven leaders who have the courage to do what is right, even when it is not easy. His experience encompasses healthcare management, medical services, organizational governance, strategic growth, operational transformation, financial performance, leadership development, quality and patient safety, and the cultivation of high-performing organizational cultures. Today, through Kempinski Consulting, LLC, he brings those lessons to executives and organizations seeking to activate their full potential.
Paul’s leadership journey began after earning his Bachelor of Science in Health Planning and Administration from Penn State University and his Master of Science in Health Systems Management from Rush University. His early career at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Chicago provided a foundation in academic medicine, ambulatory care, clinical operations, and healthcare administration. From there, he assumed progressively more senior responsibilities with South Hills Health System in Pittsburgh, ViaHealth in Rochester, New York, and Mercy Health System in the Philadelphia region. Across these organizations, Paul developed a reputation for connecting strategy with execution—advancing clinical services, improving operating performance, developing ambulatory networks, overseeing major capital projects, strengthening physician relationships, and building organizations capable of responding to changing healthcare markets.
A defining chapter of Paul’s career came during his 15 years with Nemours Children’s Health. Joining the organization in 2003, he served in senior operational leadership positions before becoming President of Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children and Enterprise Vice President of Nemours Children’s Health. His tenure included substantial improvements in financial performance, patient and family satisfaction, quality, safety, clinical programs, infrastructure, and organizational effectiveness. He helped advance continuous improvement practices based on LEAN principles, strengthened physician and leadership engagement, supported implementation of an integrated Epic electronic health record environment, and led the development of a major 450,000-square-foot hospital expansion. His work demonstrated an ability to manage the complexities of a major healthcare institution while maintaining focus on the people, patients, families, and communities at the center of its mission.
In 2018, Paul was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of Children’s Mercy Kansas City, one of the nation’s leading independent academic children’s health systems. There, he led an enterprise encompassing three hospitals, numerous sites of care, thousands of team members, hundreds of pediatric subspecialists, and a multibillion-dollar operating platform. Under his leadership, Children’s Mercy expanded clinical programs and its geographic reach, achieved national recognition across all 11 specialties evaluated by U.S. News & World Report, and opened the Children’s Mercy Research Institute, which developed into an internationally recognized force in pediatric genomics. The organization increased extramural research funding substantially while extending its reach to children and families across all 50 states and numerous countries.
Paul’s tenure at Children’s Mercy was also characterized by ambitious strategic and financial transformation. He helped lead substantial improvement in operating performance and financial reserves while overseeing the organization’s first bond rating increase in more than two decades. At the same time, he championed Illuminate, a bold, long-term strategy designed to confront the pediatric mental health crisis through significant investment in programs, infrastructure, and services. He also supported major philanthropic efforts, expanded programs throughout Kansas and Missouri, and launched the Berry Institute to cultivate high-performing leaders and strengthen organizational culture. These accomplishments were achieved while Paul and his leadership team navigated the extraordinary operational and human challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Beyond operational results, Paul’s leadership philosophy places people and culture at the heart of sustainable organizational success. He believes that a leader’s achievements are ultimately made possible by the people who bring an organization’s purpose to life every day. Throughout his career, he has focused on creating environments in which leaders and team members can perform at their highest level, pairing accountability for results with a commitment to mission, values, development, and engagement. His experience with organizational transformation includes measurable improvements in workforce engagement as well as the creation of leadership-development initiatives intended to strengthen the next generation of executives. As a Certified Executive Coach and Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, Paul now extends this philosophy through highly personalized coaching, governance, and advisory work.
Governance has been another important dimension of Paul’s professional life. His board and committee experience spans healthcare, business, education, and community organizations, giving him an informed understanding of both executive leadership and the responsibilities of effective directors and advisors. He has served on the Board of Trustees of the Children’s Hospital Association and chaired its Quality and Safety Committee, while also contributing to organizations including hospital associations, chambers of commerce, civic organizations, Ronald McDonald House organizations, YMCA organizations, and Penn State’s health policy and administration program. He currently brings his experience to the board of managers of medical device company ivWatch, LLC, while also serving as an executive coach and faculty member with Catalysis, Inc. This combination of operating and governance experience allows him to appreciate the critical distinction between managing an organization and governing one effectively.
Paul’s influence also extends through public speaking, mentoring, coaching, and thought leadership. A sought-after presenter, panelist, and podcast participant on healthcare and leadership topics, he is comfortable translating complex organizational challenges into clear, practical conversations for executives, boards, healthcare professionals, and broader audiences. His professional achievements have been recognized through honors including the Rush University Health Systems Management Distinguished Alumni Award, Penn State University’s Alumni Fellow Award, recognition among Ingram’s influential Kansas City business leaders, and the Rochester Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” award. In 2019, he delivered the commencement address to approximately 1,000 graduates of Penn State’s College of Health and Human Development—an especially meaningful occasion because his daughter Jennifer was among the graduates.
After retiring from Children’s Mercy in 2025, Paul launched Kempinski Consulting, LLC, marking not an end to his leadership career but a deliberate evolution of it. His consulting practice provides executive coaching, governance, and advisory services to values-based, purpose-driven leaders and organizations. Rather than pursuing scale for its own sake, Paul has envisioned a personalized practice built around meaningful relationships and the opportunity to pay forward the lessons accumulated during a remarkable career. His board interests naturally align with healthcare, medical devices, healthcare services, and private equity-backed organizations where his combination of enterprise leadership, financial stewardship, governance experience, growth strategy, culture transformation, and executive mentorship can contribute to sustainable value creation.
At this stage of his career, Paul is motivated by the opportunity to help organizations and their leaders succeed while remaining grounded in purpose and faith. He understands that an effective board member or advisor must know when to challenge, when to listen, when to ask difficult questions, and when to allow management to lead. His extensive experience on both sides of the boardroom gives him perspective on what separates meaningful governance from participation in name only. International exposure throughout his healthcare career has further broadened his perspective, while decades of leading complex institutions have reinforced his ability to consider strategic decisions through financial, operational, clinical, cultural, and human lenses.
Away from professional responsibilities, Paul is deeply family-focused and enjoys travel, golf, exercise, and spending time with family and friends. He and his wife, Maureen, have three grown children and divide their time between Bonita Springs, Florida, and Leawood, Kansas. His personal and professional lives share a common theme: investing in people, relationships, and experiences that have enduring value. Whether advising a board, coaching an executive, helping an organization navigate change, or spending time with family, Paul approaches the next chapter with the same principles that have guided his career—lead with values, remain anchored in purpose, develop people, act with courage, and use experience in service of others.
Character:
Paul exemplifies character through a leadership philosophy grounded in values, purpose, faith, accountability, and the courage to make difficult decisions in service of the greater mission. His decades of community involvement, mentorship, governance, and organizational leadership reflect a consistent commitment to leaving people and institutions stronger than he found them.
Knowledge:
Bringing more than four decades of healthcare leadership experience spanning academic medical centers, community hospitals, pediatric health systems, clinical operations, financial management, governance, strategy, quality, culture, and executive development. His progression from healthcare administrator to chief operating officer, system president, chief executive officer, board member, consultant, and executive coach gives him an unusually broad understanding of how complex organizations operate and evolve.
Strategic:
Paul has repeatedly transformed ambitious ideas into measurable organizational outcomes, from expanding clinical programs and developing major capital projects to strengthening balance sheets, advancing pediatric research, improving culture, and developing bold responses to the pediatric mental health crisis. He combines long-range vision with practical operating discipline, enabling him to evaluate opportunities through the interconnected lenses of mission, people, growth, risk, finance, and execution.
Communication:
An experienced public speaker, presenter, panelist, coach, and mentor who understands how to communicate sophisticated ideas in ways that engage diverse stakeholders. His executive and board experience has strengthened his ability to listen carefully, ask meaningful questions, create alignment, and communicate with the clarity and credibility necessary to influence leaders without losing sight of their responsibility to make and own decisions.
