Profile: Bill McGinley

Bill McGinley

CEO

American College of Health Care Administrators

What do the titles of airman, priest and physician all have in common?

They’re all career choices that Bill McGinley, head of the American College of Health Care Administrators, considered before embarking on a path as a nursing home administrator.

The oldest of six children, McGinley’s father was “career military,” retiring from the U.S. Air Force as a senior master sergeant. After a spinal problem kept McGinley himself out of the Air Force Academy, he received a calling to join the Catholic priesthood.

But two years into St. John’s Seminary in Brighton, MA, McGinley realized “this is just not the thing for me.”

“I think what drew me in there was a genuine desire to make the world a better place. I came to a realization I can do that outside of the priesthood,” he reflects.

As he worked on his bachelor’s degree in biology at the University of Massachusetts, McGinley gave thoughts to going on a pre-med track. When he graduated, he turned to healthcare administration.

He became a plant manager at Greenery Nursing Home in Brighton, overseeing housekeeping, maintenance and laundry, then an assistant administrator in 1982. By 1992, he was the vice president of operations.

But the work took a toll. McGinley had married Susan, a physical therapist, in 1984, and after his first daughter was born, he began to re-evaluate his work as it had devolved into “constant travel.”

“This was before email and cell phones and even fax machines,” he recalls. By 1992, when his daughter was a toddler, “I was missing those early milestones. We were thinking about having another child and it was unsustainable. There was no light at the end of the tunnel.”

A few years after leaving, in a twist of fate, McGinley could see a building rising from his back window.

“It was Whitney Place and it was a nursing home in my backyard,” he says. Soon, the facility opened a child care center. They enrolled his younger daughter, and the pair would walk to work. McGinley stayed at the organization for 17 years. It was there that Matt Salmon met McGinley, working under him as the director of rehab.

McGinley “would turn complex problems into simple ones that were easy to solve,” Salmon, now the CEO of Salmon Health and Retirement, says. “He could take in all of the facts and make a decision from that.”

In 2017, McGinley left his job at Brightview Senior Living after it was sold. He gave some thought to moving into retirement, but then heard about the ACHCA position.

“A light bulb went off,” he says, especially as the organization wanted someone with a nursing home background. He was named CEO in December. His goal, he said, is to “reinvigorate the college and to build a better value for our members.”

McGinley is collaborative, says Robert W. Lane, ACHCA chairman. When he makes a decision “he thinks through it critically and about who it affects,” Lane says.

When McGinley, 65, thinks about his accomplishments, he said he’s proudest of 34 years of marriage and his daughters. Sarah, now 27, is the head of human resources for a Framingham, MA, brewery and Marie, 25, is a day care center teacher. McGinley remains close to his family, with three of his siblings in New England. His mother has been gone for two decades, but his father died on Super Bowl Sunday.

“He was singing Irish songs and cracking jokes the hour before he died,” McGinley recalls. “My dad in many ways was a pretty simple guy — do the right thing, work hard, show up on time. He was a no-nonsense hard-working guy, and that’s what I took away from him.”

Resume

1978

Completes bachelor’s degree at University of Massachusetts-Boston

1988

Finishes MBA at Boston University

1992

After 12 years, leaves Greenery Rehabilitation Group as vice president of operations

1998

Starts as administrator and executive director at Whitney Place/Beaumont Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center in Natick, MA

2002

Becomes a founding board member of Kids Connect, a nonprofit tutoring program in Natick

2015