Stephen P. MacMillan

Why We Chose Him: 

We honored Jon Clifton earlier this year for leading Gallup to empower people by providing knowledge to inform their decisions. Now he helps expand awareness of our Social Capital movement by nominating Steve MacMillan, CEO of Hologic, for the contribution the company is making to women’s health globally.

“As chairman, president and CEO of Hologic, Steve MacMillan is focused on championing and improving women’s health and well-being around the world through early detection and treatment. He leads about 7,000 global employees in more than 100 countries and territories with a unifying purpose to enable healthier lives for women everywhere, every day,” says Jon.

Social Capital’s focus, of course is shining a light on companies and their leaders who are making the world a better place by doing business in a way that respects people and sees people as people. Steve lives by this. “People are at the core of what we do, and what we stand for,” he says, explaining Hologic’s purpose is to “Enable Healthy Lives, Everywhere, Everyday” and its teams share a passion to be Global Champions of Women’s Health. “I and our teams of people around the world wake up every day trying to make a bigger difference in women’s health, which has also benefitted our shareholders.”

But he turns that care inward in the organization as well, as he notes with appreciation, “I view things through a very simple lens: It is our people who have invented and developed all of our industry-leading innovations, our people who manufacture these products, and our people who sell, service, and maintain our equipment for doctors, hospitals, and labs around the world which make us special.”

He notes his employees’ commitment to making the world a better place, showing up in person every day through the pandemic to develop one of the world’s first molecular tests for COVID, and then producing tens of millions of tests. “In solidarity with our team, I have also worked at our facilities -- not from home -- every day. We believe so much in the importance of supporting our team that even our board of directors met in person all through the pandemic, with only one meeting conducted virtually.”

Having this culture in which employees feel valued has allowed Hologic to make an even bigger difference in the world and emerge even stronger that before the pandemic arrived, and also fueled Hologic’s passion to partner with Gallup to develop the Hologic Global Women’s Health Index, the most comprehensive study on the state of women’s health. “This annual study is now providing a strong foundation for leaders everywhere to take action to improve the state of Women’s health,” Steve says.

Many companies talk a lot about being pro-woman; this one is actually walking the walk to make their lives better, and through an economic mode. That is Social Capital at its best.