Growing up in Los Altos, California, Kathy Ford didn’t make many choices when it came to sports.
“I played almost all the school sports, and my family showed Tennessee Walking Horses on weekends. I was really active,” she says. “I’m competitive by nature, and that’s reflected in my career path – not settling for ‘no,’ having confidence that I’ll figure it out and get it done.”
That’s part of the reason Chattanooga orthodontist Keith Dressler named Ford to serve as president and chief product officer of Rhinogram, the health care technology company he founded in 2017.
“In a startup, you’re going to have obstacles,” Dressler says. “You have to figure out how you get over, around or through those obstacles. Kathy has that can-do mindset and is focused on the goal – getting where we want to be and not letting anything stop us.”
But it was far more than Ford’s competitive bent that moved Dressler to hire her. Her resumé is dotted with multiple executive roles and stops at Siemens Healthcare and GE Healthcare. Ford also sits on the board of Women Business Leaders of the U.S. Health Care Industry Foundation.