MHS Celebrates Hazel Wheldon, CEO

International Women's Day (IWD) is a global celebration of the economic, political, and social achievements of women. It’s also a time where we reflect on how we can take action in ensuring gender equality and elimination bias and discrimination. The theme of IWD this year is “Break the Bias.”

Over the next few days, we’ll highlight leaders at every level from MHS, learn more about their achievement, accomplishments, and innovations and discover how they are making inclusion a top priority in their work here at MHS.

As CEO at Multi-Health Systems (MHS), Hazel has the opportunity to engage in two of her passions – helping others and leveraging technology. MHS provides data-driven solutions that help clients evaluate, track and leverage human-centric data to realize individual potential.

Hazel's education and work experience in School Psychology provided a solid foundation in understanding the importance of well-developed and validated assessments as the basis for understanding individual behavior and creating individual change. From understanding and leveraging strengths in the workplace to diagnosing and treating disorders in school and clinical settings, Hazel has been instrumental in growing the MHS portfolio of assessments and leveraging technology to deliver assessments and has aided in creating appropriate development and intervention strategies. She has also worked in schools helping teachers and parents understand and support children with learning, behavioral and emotional needs.

How long have you been with MHS, and what has your progression through the organization looked like?

I have been with MHS for 19 years as of April. I began my career as VP of Research and Development. I was fortunate to have a boss who appreciated my contributions and found ways to continue developing me. Over the years, despite having no business experience, he included me in sales and marketing discussions, business meetings, client and partner meetings. After several years I took on sales for the Clinical and Education part of the business, then legal and operations. I became Publisher in 2008, taking on all but the finance components of the business, then in 2010 became President when my then boss retired. In 2016, the founder handed over the CEO reigns to me and took on the Chair position for the Advisory Board.

Having the support of a great boss, the owners/founders, and the rest of the executive team enabled me to grow and build my skills and confidence. I also had access to some great external coaches and mentors, which was an important part of my growth journey.

This year's theme of IWD is "Break the Bias" - as MHS' CEO, how do you make sure inclusion and fairness are at the core of your work??

?At MHS, we believe that diversity is the key to our success. As educated and as well-traveled as we may be, we can still never fully understand the world from the perspective of another culture, another race, another socio-economic class. Having people from diverse cultures, countries, socio-economic backgrounds at the management level and above allows us to benefit from their wealth of experiences and perspectives. I am proud that we continue to attract and retain both women and men from diverse backgrounds and find ways for them to grow and succeed within our business. Only by having these points of view represented, can we incorporate their perspectives into what we do, the products we develop, and the services we provide to our clients. Fairness, equity, and bias reduction are part of our key strategic aims, and in everything we do, we endeavor to provide the most equitable experiences and products in the market.

What advice do you have for other leaders on breaking bias in the workplace overall??

?It is very easy to hire people who look and think like you. The problem with this is that you hear and see the world from a singular viewpoint and thus have a limited ability to disrupt and have breakthrough moments. It is harder to hire people who challenge your assumptions and see and experience the world differently. Despite this, it is fundamental that Senior Leaders surround themselves with people who are not like them. Personally, I never want to be the smartest person in the room. I want people to challenge my ideas and assumptions, push me to think differently and see the challenges we face through different eyes. Only then can we continue to break down barriers for women and traditionally marginalized groups, both internally and with the products and services we provide.