Matt Love, president and CEO of Nicklaus Children’s Health System, relocated to Miami with his family six years ago when he joined the organization as its CFO. He and his wife – who have been married nearly 31 years – have two children and two grandchildren, with a third on the way.
What drew Nicklaus to Miami Book Fair – how does our work support your community-building goals?
We believe that what we do is much bigger than what happens within the four walls of our facilities – it’s about the whole child. Not only being healthy from physical and emotional standpoints, but from an emotional one. Reading is really important in terms of development and growing up. Working with organizations like Miami Book Fair is just a natural fit around bringing those different environments together to help the whole child.
What are some other organizations you partner with in Miami?
Being a legacy or anchor organization – whatever you want to call it – for children’s health in South Florida, we look for folks who are mission-minded like us that focus on kids and their families. We have a wonderful program called ONE Nicklaus which includes partners such as the YMCA, Health in the Hood, and Feeding South Florida – those are the kinds of organizations we like to work with.
How does MBF’s work align with your personal thoughts on access to literary culture and experiences?
A love of reading goes way back for me. My mom was a teacher and the importance of reading and education was instilled in me at a very early age. And when I got married my wife brought something to our relationship, which was giving books away to family members, to kids. We write little notes inside every book. We did it for our kids and now we’re doing it for our grandkids. It’s a way of bringing an emotional touch to reading and books – it’s more than just paper, it’s something we’re giving our grandkids that’s special.
Can you share one of those notes you’ve written?
It’s usually something along the lines of “We picked this book out especially for you and hope that you cherish it for the rest of your life.” The grandkids are young so right now it’s mostly picture books, but that’ll change as they get older. And hopefully long after we’re gone they’ll open that book, see our note, and remember us and smile.
Nicklaus was the presenting sponsor for Children’s Alley last year – what was the experience like for you and your team?
Everything that went into the event was surrounded by a lot of excitement. I talked to the staff that was involved in setting things up and being there, and it was really just a great time. They’re looking forward to doing it again this year.
Are you reading any good books right now?
I’m actually re-reading a book that I first read around 1992, 1993, called The Goal by Eli Goldratt. I’m an engineer by training and it’s about process improvement, written in the form of a novel. It caught my eye because we’re doing some of those things here at the organization, and I was like, I have to re-read this. I didn’t appreciate it the first time around.
Someone’s writing your biography – what’s the title of the book?
I love this question!
Thanks. [both laugh]
It makes you think, right? I think it would be The Chair You Sit In. When you’re sitting in a chair as a dad you do certain things and perceive things in a certain way. Now that I’m fortunate enough to be a grandparent, I’m in a different chair with a very different perspective. Professionally, when I was CFO I viewed things one way, and now that I’m CEO I’m viewing the same things differently. So the chair you sit in actually helps define your current perspective.
If you could have a one-on-one with any author, living or dead, who would they be and what would you ask them?
I’m a huge Ohio State Buckeyes fan, and there’s a gentleman by the name of Jim Tressel who wrote a book called The Winner’s Manual. He went from being a successful head football coach to being a university president – how did that happen? I’d be amazed to hear why he did it and how he did it. That’s not a typical pathway for a university president.
Interview by Elisa Chemayne Agostinho; responses have been edited for space and clarity.
