CHIEF EXECUTIVE OPTOMETRIST™

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To succeed in the rapidly changing optometry marketplace, you need more than the fundamental business skills. Success depends on having sophisticated expertise in core areas such as marketing, organizational management, and financial management. The CHIEF EXECUTIVE OPTOMETRIST TM program combines cutting-edge business strategies and tactics from renowned Wharton professors with case studies and best practices from Fortune 500 companies. This program will enable you to:

  • Distinguish your practice from your competitors and keep it top of mind in your market.
  • Build and retain an efficient, professional staff.
  • Analyze your operations to avoid common mistakes.
  • Set goals, motivate your staff, delegate tasks, and resolve conflicts.

Tuition for Philadelphia programs includes lodging and meals. Prices are subject to change. Program Consultants are available to provide more information on course specifics and discuss how this program might meet your needs. Please contact them by telephone at +1.215.898.1776 or by e-mail.


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Optometrists and ophthalmologists will boost their business acumen and learn to maximize profitability in their practice with the exclusive CHIEF EXECUTIVE OPTOMETRIST TM program. The sessions are presented by Wharton's acclaimed faculty, who share real-world case studies and best practices. The intensive four-day program teaches business management skills to help optometrists and ophthalmologists make decisions and think like successful CEOs.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OPTOMETRIST Session Topics

Critical Thinking by Dr. Kathy Pearson

  • After describing eight essential practices of critical thinkers, Dr. Pearson will lead participants through case studies and problem solving to help discover how practicing these habits lead to better decisions.

Leadership by Dr. Mario Moussa

  • Dr. Moussa will help participants practice the steps needed to gain influence, credibility, and confidence for more effective practice leadership.
  • By gaining perspective on personal tendencies, the group will be able to anticipate how others might react and adjust communication and management styles to match the needs of staff and patients.

Marketing by Dr. Patricia Williams

  • Dr. Williams will lead multiple sessions, including patient-focused branding, patient-focused marketing strategy, experiential marketing, and customer lifetime value.

Practice Management by Dr. Chatham Sullivan

  • Dr. Sullivan's session will cover the basics of organizational logic, using case studies to illustrate strategic management skills, such as goal setting, communication, conflict resolution, and motivation.

Finance by Dr. Steven Finkler

  • Dr. Finkler's sessions will cover cost analysis for decision making, breakeven analysis, capital acquisitions, leasing vs. buying, and determining the financial health of your practice.

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OPTOMETRIST™ is designed for experienced optometrists and ophthalmologists who aim to take their practices to the next level. CHIEF EXECUTIVE OPTOMETRIST™ provides executive-level education to help maximize the earning potential of an eye care practice.

Whether you own a practice now or plan to in the future, the CHIEF EXECUTIVE OPTOMETRIST™ program will help you acquire the business skills you need to successfully manage a dynamic practice. You will gain new proficiency in leadership, organizational behavior and dynamics, financial management, marketing, and human resource management.

Through this program, optometry professionals who want to build a better practice, become more profitable, manage staff and their overall business more efficiently and effectively, and prepare for marketplace changes will gain immediate perspective, acquiring the necessary techniques and skills to achieve success.

  • Create marketing strategies to brand and differentiate your practice.
  • Develop strategic financial decision-making skills to maximize profitability.
  • Motivate, lead, develop, and retain more efficient and professional staff.
  • Identify and learn how to avoid common pitfalls by practicing critical analysis.
  • Gain perspective on goal setting, delegation, conflict resolution, and motivation.

undefined KATHY PEARSON, PhD
Academic Director
Adjunct Associate Professor, Operations and Information Management Department
The Wharton School

Kathy Pearson, PhD, serves as an adjunct associate professor in the Operations and Information Management Department at the Wharton School. She has taught operations management courses in the MBA program and Executive Master’s of Technology Management program as well as probability and statistics, simulation modeling, and other courses for the department and the University of Pennsylvania. In addition, Dr. Pearson is a senior consultant and director, Executive Education, for Decision Strategies International (DSI), a management consulting firm focused on scenario-based strategic planning and decision making. She specializes in subject areas such as critical thinking, scenario planning, strategic decision making, project management, and stakeholder analysis. Dr. Pearson has also worked with executives from a wide variety of industries and has taught at CEDEP at INSEAD in Fountainebleau, France.
Steven Finkler, Phd, CPA STEVEN A. FINKLER, PhD, CPA
Professor Emeritus of Public and Health Administration, Accounting, and Financial Management
Wagner School of Public Service, New York University

Steven Finkler is an award-winning teacher and author. Among his awards are the 2002 Pioneering Spirit Award from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) and the 2003 Sigma Theta Tau International Research Award in the Health Policy and Systems category. Dr. Finkler served as a member of the National Advisory Council of the National Institute for Nursing Research at NIH from 1997 to 2001.

Among his publications are 18 books and more than 200 journal articles. His books include Budgeting Concepts for Nurse Managers, 3rd edition; Financial Management for Nurse Managers and Executives, 2nd edition (with Chris Kovner); and Accounting Fundamentals for Health Care Management (with David Ward). He has published articles in Nursing Economics, the Journal of Nursing Administration, the Western Journal of Nursing Research, Nursing Administration Quarterly, the New England Journal of Medicine, and other leading journals.

He is currently working on the 3rd edition of Financial Management for Nurse Managers and Executives (with Chris Kovner and Cheryl Jones), and the 4th edition of Budgeting Concepts for Nurse Managers (with Mary McHugh).

He received a BS and MS from the Wharton School, where he majored in accounting and finance. His master's degree in economics and PhD in business administration were awarded by Stanford University. Dr. Finkler, who is also a CPA, worked for several years as an auditor with Ernst and Young and was on the Wharton faculty before joining New York University.
Mario Moussa, PhD MARIO MOUSSA, PhD
Principal, CFAR (Center for Applied Research), Inc.
Senior Fellow, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Care Economics
University of Pennsylvania

Co-author of The Art of Woo: Using Strategic Persuasion to Sell Your Ideas, Mario Moussa directs and teaches programs for hospital leaders and physicians, corporate security managers, and energy and banking executives. He teaches negotiation, influence, strategy, change, and corporate culture and is co-director of Wharton's Essentials of Management program. He is also a principal at CFAR, Inc., a management consulting firm that began as a Wharton research center. A specialist in large-scale organizational change initiatives, he has consulted to many of the world's leading corporations, universities, and foundations, including United Health Group, PNC Bank, the Georgetown University Medical Center, and State Farm Insurance. He has published widely in the field of organizational dynamics, power, and influence.
undefined PATRICIA WILLIAMS, PhD
Associate Professor of Marketing
The Wharton School

Patti Williams is Associate Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School. She currently teaches courses on advertising/marketing communications to both undergraduates and MBA students at Wharton, and has also taught on marketing and the Internet. She is the recipient of an Excellence in Teaching Award.

Her research interests include the role of emotions in persuasion and consumer decision making and automatic and effortful processes in consumer behavior. Her papers have appeared in the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Marketing Research, among others. She serves on the Editorial Review Board for the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Consumer Psychology.

Prior to joining the Wharton School in 2000, Dr. Williams was an assistant professor at the Stern School of Business at NYU. She received a BA in communications from Stanford University and an MBA and PhD in marketing from UCLA.

“I was very impressed with this great program because it was created by optometrists for optometrists. I've already put several things I learned into practice in the following areas: Overall communication, staff development, conflict resolution, and profitability. I also appreciated having this opportunity to get acquainted with so many unique, intelligent people with the same goals and aspirations as mine. The whole experience is motivating me to get back to focusing on practice management.”
— Charles F. Paglia, OD, Filutowski Cataract and Lasik Institute, Orlando, FL

“Almost immediately on my return from the Wharton Chief Executive Optometrist Program, the skills I learned paid big dividends. I recently attended a long-anticipated meeting between two groups with opposing points of view. One faction became aggressive and accusatory in their stance, and predictably, the other group became more defensive. As the meeting's tone deteriorated, I took an opportunity to restate the two sides' positions using a process learned and practiced during the Wharton program. As a result, the groups soon reached a consensus and successfully moved forward.”
— Tim Petito, OD, FAAO, Petito Eyecare, St. Petersburg, FL

“In order to provide complete care to our patients and maintain a profit in a health care field that is demanding price containment, we needed to look for new business models. The Wharton School's CHIEF EXECUTIVE OPTOMETRIST™ program helped us to see our practice in a new way and develop strategies that will allow us to continually adapt in this rapidly changing environment.”
— Robert Sorrell, OD, FAAO, Middletown Eyecare, Middletown, OH

“Because the CHIEF EXECUTIVE OPTOMETRIST™ program is tailored specifically to the eye-care industry, I have incorporated much of what I learned into my practice. For example, I'm handling staff meetings differently, making them more inclusive and less autocratic. And I'm seeing positive reactions from my staff. Another benefit of the program was the opportunity to network and share ideas with the other doctors attending. The program made me assess the business person that I am and realize the executive that I can be.”
— Paula Newsome, OD, MS, FAAO, Advantage Vision Center, Charlotte, NC

“Within the first week after attending the CHIEF EXECUTIVE OPTOMETRIST™ program, I changed the way I was making decisions in my practice. I am now taking marketing, branding, and staff involvement into consideration because all these factors impact the business. I wholeheartedly encourage my peers to attend this program.”
— Paul Karpecki, OD, FAAO, Cincinnati Eye Institute, Edgewood, KY