After nearly five years of serving as Synensis's chief operating officer, Frank Harris is now president, the company announced today. Stephen Powell, who has served jointly as chief executive officer and president, will retain the title of CEO while focusing his energy on Synensis's long-term growth strategy.

The change coincides with the global healthcare industry's increased commitment to improving value through higher quality, reduced harm, and reduced cost.

"We are committed to offering more value-driven patient safety, quality, and operational excellence solutions across a rapidly changing care delivery model," Harris said. "By building on our past success, and innovating and recombining proven approaches from across the broader healthcare continuum, we can help healthcare organizations make the leap to high-reliability organizations on the road to zero preventable harm."

Harris's focus on the day-to-day operations of the company will enable Powell to concentrate on the company's growth strategy while continuing to develop new markets, forge strategic business opportunities, and support alliances that result in innovations in how hospitals reduce -- and eliminate -- preventable patient harm.

"The goal of zero preventable harm has become a strategic imperative," Powell said. "Yet, it remains very elusive. While the healthcare industry has made great strides in understanding the factors that allow preventable patient harm to occur, it hasn't been nearly as successful in developing and implementing strategies that actually reduce -- much less eliminate -- patient harm in hospitals. That's the end game, and we plan on being at the forefront of this effort. Promoting Frank to president helps us get there that much faster."

Since joining Synensis in 2011, Harris's client work has focused on executing a people-centric approach to solving clients' biggest problems. By serving as a trusted advisor to senior leaders, Harris helps clients build internal capacity to drive sustainable organization-wide change and improve results.

Within Synensis, Harris leads the execution of the company's strategic plan and daily operations by utilizing his extensive experience in workforce development, strategic planning, international operations, project management, client support, resource management, and finance. Previously, Harris was a management consultant focused on business planning at the executive level. He also spent a substantial portion of his career at Sony in both its USA and Latin American operations. He holds a Master's of Business Administration in International Business from the University of Miami, as well as Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Hamilton College in upstate New York.