Jacob Plummer '00

At the University of Chicago, you took a department that had been losing money for 15 years and turned it around, earning a profit within the first year. Why did you leave?

Making a difference within one hospital department, or one hospital, wasn't my ultimate goal. I saw that one healthcare sector that was having a huge impact on a large scale was healthcare software. If you make one piece of software that really works and gets people excited, it can change the world. Which led me to Allscripts.

What do you do as vice president of global business development for the healthcare IT company?

If there's a project happening overseas—England, Singapore, Australia, and Canada—I'll be engaged with it, and if it's new and innovative within the United States, then I'll be engaged with it. I'm very much a facilitator. What I've found is that people have really good ideas, but they have a problem with communication. I sit down with everyone, understand what they do, and help them communicate in a way that gets them the support they need. It's the most rewarding feeling. I had no idea that this kind of job existed, but it's exactly what I like doing.