Sarah Cannon CEO Dee Anna Smith discusses distinctiveness, leadership at Heroes of Business chapel

Dee Anna Smith is the only female, non-physician leader of a cancer company in the world. She is also the 2013 recipient of the Lipscomb University College of Business Heroes of Business Award. Business students and professionals gathered in Stowe Hall on Thursday, Oct. 31, to hear Smith discuss her leadership role of CEO of the Sarah Cannon Cancer Research Institute. “My daughter saw a bumper sticker the other day that read, ‘women who behave rarely make history,’” Smith said. “As I’ve gotten older, I’ve interpreted ‘behaving badly’ to being distinguished in what we do. “In Daniel 6, it said that Daniel distinguished himself among the officials. My desire in life is to be distinctive among,” she said. Smith, a Board Member of the Lipscomb College of Pharmacy, began her career at KPMG, one of the biggest professional audit, tax and advisory service providers in the United States. “The discipline that I got from working at that company for all those [six] years gave me a fantastic foundation to take that forward,” Smith said. “The Sarah Cannon Research Institute is in the business of advancing therapy for patients,” Smith said. “It’s a drug testing institute. We want to make sure the medication is safe for people to use. We’ve had quite a large impact in drug development.” The Sarah Cannon Institute, a Nashville-based foundation, later merged with Hospital Corporations of America (HCA), one of the biggest healthcare providers in the world, to provide healthcare for cancer patients. Together, the two merged companies are worth over $4 billion. How does Smith take control of such a large company? She says...