The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
With the advancement of time and human civilization, the idea of leadership has gone through its evolution at a simultaneous pace.
Scholars, philosophers, and leaders themselves have all tried to lend their definition to the term leadership. However, not one definition has been able to stand the test of time as expectations related to leadership has been fragile and ever-changing.
Case in point, in recent years, there has been a growing interest in purpose-driven leadership. Although rare, this form of leadership has been persuasively argued by academics to be the need of the hour across organizations of every scale.
Moreover, purpose is considered to be an essential need among leaders to navigate the complex, convoluted, and ambiguous world that we face today.
Alexander M. Kayne, Chief Legal Officer at CarepathRx, is one such purpose-driven leader who is dedicated towards contributing to a mission that far-exceeds his own needs and expectations.
A transformational leader in every right, Alexander Kayne, referred to as Aly, features as the Cover Story in Exeleon Magazine to share his story of purpose-driven leadership and more.
The Direction
For Aly Kayne, the path was always clear to him. He believed and still to this day believes the role of a state or federal judge to be one of the most honorable and prestigious professions.
“At an early age I wanted to be a judge and went into litigation thinking courtrooms would be the place I would learn the most about law,” he recalls.
After earning his JD from Yale Law School in 1997, Aly started practicing law with the intention of becoming a judge one day.
He began this journey working as a law clerk for the Honorable Raymond J. Dearie in the Eastern District of New York. After his clerkship, he went into private practice at a prestigious international law firm based in New York. This opportunity enabled Aly to work alongside some amazing lawyers as well as notable corporate clients.
He claims, “I learned our clients’ businesses to be the best advocate possible.”
As Aly continued to learn more and more from these corporate clients, his career direction also went through a gradual change.
“I started to move away from thinking my future would be serving as a judge, and instead became more and more interested in the impact of leading industry clients toward better outcomes.”
Gaining Expertise in Healthcare
Aly’s entry into the healthcare space was never a planned direction for him. However, over the years, he has garnered unmatched legal expertise in the healthcare space owing to his experiences spearheading executive positions at various leading companies in the industry.
Following his appointment as Omnicare’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Aly built a reputation of excellence within the industry. Omnicare, Inc. was a Fortune 500 publicly traded company when Aly joined it in 2011.
Now a subsidiary of CVS Health, Omnicare is one of leading providers of comprehensive pharmaceutical services to patients and providers across the United States. At Omnicare, Aly was positioned to help develop a corporate legal team from the ground up. He advised the Senior Management and Executives on all things related corporate governance and securities. Moreover, he played a crucial role in helping the company through its merger with CVS Health.
Following Omnicare, Aly joined Genoa Healthcare, which is the largest provider of behavioral health pharmacy and medication management services for individuals with behavioral health and other complex, chronic health conditions in the U.S.
After Genoa Healthcare was acquired by OptumRx, a subsidiary of United Health Group, Aly joined CarepathRx as the Chief Legal Officer.
CarepathRx provides the industry’s most comprehensive hospital pharmacy care delivery model, providing support across the patient’s complete healthcare journey—across multiple care settings, from hospital to home, no matter the patient’s acuity level.
Since joining CarepathRx, Aly has been executing effective strategies that position the company for smooth operations, and his expert guidance on everything from acquisitions to health care regulations has played a key role in the company’s continued success.
His approach to seeing every problem from a narrowed-down lens enables him to find actionable pointers that help mitigate and solve the problem. Owing to these contributions, Aly was named as the New York Stock Exchange’s General Counsel to Watch award.
Chief Legal Officer
For Aly Kayne, the role of a Chief Legal Officer is like holding an office. This includes making various key decisions and judgments.
He mentions that having good judgment is a key character trait for the job, and it is imperative to remain calm in difficult situations, as there will be a multitude of difficult situations.
“For me as a chief legal officer, it means becoming the person that all parts of the business can’t do without. Whether it be operations, finance, strategy, or human capital. The importance of this role is not limited to regulatory and compliance decisions.”
This further echoes Aly’s views on transformational leadership. “Transformational leaders are the ones who move the goalposts on what confines their role by becoming integral to all aspects of an organization — particularly those that are farthest from the role you are in.”
According to Aly, CarepathRx is an amazing company that is built on the premise that patient care is of paramount importance. Moreover, the company believes hospital systems being able to continuously service their patients through their own pharmacy network results in better outcomes and clinical service for the patients.
This overarching mission to improve the healthcare system and patient health makes Aly proud to be involved in supporting and working for CarepathRx.
Taking a page out of his journey, he advises young aspiring leaders to always keep searching for the next difficult fulfilling assignment.
“Think big… and when you think you are thinking big, think bigger! I tell this to my kids all the time… my mother Frances Rodriguez told me this all the time when I was growing up.” Today, this learning from his mother has laid the foundation for Aly’s success and he hopes the leaders of tomorrow will follow this same advice.
Driven by a Mission
At CarepathRx, Aly is involved in all aspects of the business. “I am integral to counseling our CEO and Board of Directors on all legal matters, but I am also heavily involved in major strategy decisions.”
He further adds, “I work with our Chief Compliance Officer on all regulatory matters and employee training. I also spend a good deal of time with our operators working through how to best serve our hospital clients in a compliant manner.”
Aly is driven by the mission that CarepathRx holds. He believes this mission is “critical to our nation’s success — one that ensures better healthcare for all of our people.”
Being able to be part of this mission is one that is not only exciting for him but also fulfilling. He claims, “Being responsible for at least a portion of the solution to our healthcare concerns is a wonderful, fulfilling endeavor.”
Going forward, CarepathRx will continue its growth trajectory and expand its services to nearly all hospital systems nationwide.
“I hope to continue as a steward of that growth to bring better patient health to our nation” he concludes.
