Gina Gallagher '85
Gina Gallagher '85 paves a path to success for businesses.
Gallagher is the President of Pathfinders International, a business development consulting firm she joined in 2008. Prior to joining Pathfinders, Gallagher has held several senior level positions at EDS (HP), DynCorp (CSC), and Titan (L3). Gallagher also holds the Vice President of Sales and Marketing position at Systems Made Simple (SMS), a company that is an industry leader in the delivery of leading-edge solutions that leverage information technology in the Healthcare domain. SMS strives to improve, increase, enable and ensure the exchange and interoperability of information between patients, providers, and payers. "We have become one of the fastest-growing healthcare technology services firms in the federal space. We strive to deliver solutions of high-quality and efficiently to improve healthcare administration and health services," says Gallagher.
After the birth of her fourth child, Gallagher decided to bring her corporate experience into the consulting world. "Systems Made Simple (SMS) was one of Pathfinders’ clients. With the help of the firm, SMS won a $12 billion ceiling VA contract," says Gallagher. After this achievement, SMS hired Gallagher as a full time employee. "I am the Program Manager for the contract and handle all the partner relationships as well as help with marketing and the commercial sector part of the company,” says Gallagher. She also works with several organizations within SMS such as operations to ensure performance metrics are met, human resources, to ensure certain positions are filled by subcontractors to meet small business participation goals, and finance to always makes sure we are profitable. "I am consistently making sure we are always moving forward on tasks and asking the question, 'can do we better?’" says Gallagher.
Because of her work with Systems Made Simple, Gallagher says Pathfinders sits on the back burner. "Mentoring and consulting will always be a passion" says Gallagher. She refers back to her Radford roots every day. "In a marketing class I took at RU, we created a cereal box and presented how we'd make people want to buy our cereal. When I meet with companies, I find myself asking, ‘what makes them different? How can I make their cereal box sell?’" says Gallagher.
Gallagher encourages students to never pass up an opportunity. "If you are offered a job, take it. No matter where you want to be, you have to prove yourself before you get there. Nothing is more important than building a good reputation in the business world and improving your skills," says Gallagher.