The Leadership Institute

What The Leadership Institute does

The Leadership Institute (LI) is a nonprofit, invitation-only membership organization founded in 1992 and headquartered in San Francisco, California. It serves senior leadership teams—primarily CEOs and C-suite executives—from 45+ advanced, provider-sponsored, nonprofit health systems representing 40 U.S. states and including marquee institutions such as Kaiser Permanente, Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, and Mount Sinai Health System. Membership is structured into three exclusive geographic clusters (Founding Group, Millennium Group established 2000, Horizon Group established 2004), with each cluster being exclusive within its market to prevent direct competition among member systems, and growth occurs exclusively through referrals and sponsorship by existing members.

LI's product suite centers on highly interactive in-person Leadership Roundtables and Virtual Forums as the core delivery mechanisms, supplemented by Monthly Peer Forums, a Webinar Series, and a Daily Literature Service. A specialized sub-product, the LI National Behavioral Health Forum, addresses addiction and mental illness collaboration among member systems. The organization employs 1-10 staff per firmographic data, operates without any disclosed proprietary technology stack or API surface, and delivers services through password-protected member portals. The company does not disclose any AI, machine-learning, or automation capabilities; its content appears human-curated.

Revenue is generated through recurring annual membership fees from member health systems; pricing is not publicly disclosed and is established by invitation. The organization is founder-controlled, with co-founder Rebecca Harrington serving as CEO since inception, and it operates without external equity, venture, or institutional investment. A January 2026 leadership addition—Carly Grant, PhD, as Vice President of Member Programs and Services, recruited from UCSF's innovation ecosystem—signals continued investment in programmatic depth rather than scale expansion.

Name

The Leadership Institute

Legal name

The Leadership Institute

Website

https://theleadershipinstitute.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1992

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Leadership Institute is a nonprofit, invitation-only membership organization founded in 1992 that provides executive leadership development programming—including roundtables, peer forums, webinars, and a daily literature service—to senior leadership teams from 45+ advanced nonprofit health systems across 40 U.S. states.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Healthcare Leadership Membership Services

NAICS

Business Associations (813910), Professional Organizations (813920), Voluntary Health Organizations (813212)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600), Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Management Services (8741)

akta.pro primary industry

Executive Leadership & C-Suite Development (EDABAAAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Team & Group Executive Coaching (Leadership Teams) (EDABANAF), Talent Management & Leadership Advisory (Succession, Performance, Culture) (BPACAJAH), Executive Leadership Summits (C-Suite, Board, Strategy Offsites) (THAHAMAA)

Keywords

• Healthcare leadership membership
• Executive peer learning
• Health system roundtables
• Leadership development programs
• Executive peer forums

Headquarters

HQ city

Plantation

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Membership Fees: The Leadership Institute generates revenue through annual membership fees from its member health systems. Members include 45+ health systems representing 55+ of the most preeminent nonprofit health systems in the country. The organization offers exclusive membership groups (Founding Group, Millennium Group, and Horizon Group) with each cluster being exclusive for each geographic market.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels1 record

Core offering

The Leadership Institute is an invitation-only membership organization for senior leadership teams of nonprofit, advanced care delivery health systems. It provides a curated portfolio of approximately two dozen member services including annual Leadership Roundtables, monthly peer forums, virtual forums, webinar series, and a daily literature service that together create a confidential peer-learning environment for healthcare executives.

Product overview

The Leadership Institute offers a comprehensive suite of member services organized around its core product architecture: highly interactive Leadership Roundtables and Virtual Forums as the primary delivery mechanisms, supplemented by Monthly Peer Forums, Webinar Series, and a Daily Literature Service. The organization also operates a specialized sub-product, the LI National Behavioral Health Forum, dedicated to addiction and mental health collaboration. Together, these approximately two dozen services are designed to enhance the capacity of executive leadership teams from provider-sponsored, nonprofit health systems to govern and manage, facilitating open exchange of ideas and knowledge among members in similar key decision-making roles.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• LI National Behavioral Health Forum: A forum established by LI for member health systems to collaborate in treating addiction and mental illness.

Products and services

• Leadership Roundtables

Quantifiable outcome

• Members receive candid, detailed perspectives and depth of insight that cannot be obtained elsewhere according to member testimonials.

Named customers45 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• The Health Management Academy: The Health Management Academy (THMA) operates a peer-learning membership network for C-suite executives of the largest US health systems. Directly comparable to LI's invitation-only, executive-team model, though THMA tends to lean more heavily on research, data products, and executive development cohorts.
• Health Evolution: Health Evolution convenes health system CEOs and senior executives through curated forums, roundtables, and summits on industry transformation. Closely mirrors LI's deliberative, peer-to-peer engagement format with comparable invitation-style access.
• Scottsdale Institute: Scottsdale Institute is a nonprofit membership organization that brings together executive teams from leading health systems to share best practices and benchmark performance — directly aligned with LI's nonprofit, peer-network model for healthcare executives.
• Healthcare Executive Group (HCEG): HCEG is a national membership organization for healthcare executives focused on industry transformation, education, and peer exchange. Smaller in scale but functionally similar to LI's deliberative, peer-based programming for senior healthcare leaders.

Emerging players

• The Beryl Institute: The Beryl Institute is a global community of practice focused on improving the patient experience, engaging healthcare leaders across multiple functions. Comparable as a peer-network community for healthcare executives, though its content domain (PX) is narrower than LI's strategic-governance focus.

Broad incumbents

• American Hospital Association (AHA): AHA is the largest national membership organization representing US hospitals and health systems, providing advocacy, education, and executive programming. Overlaps with LI on leadership development but is far broader in scope and constituency than LI's exclusive CEO-team peer model.
• Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC): HLC is an advocacy-focused association of health system CEOs and executives. Comparable executive audience to LI, but HLC's value proposition is policy advocacy rather than the deliberative peer learning LI provides.
• Premier Inc. Premier is a large healthcare alliance serving a broad membership of US health systems, combining supply-chain, performance services, and peer networking. Comparable audience but a much larger, public-company-scale incumbent relative to LI's niche peer community.
• Vizient (formerly VHA): Vizient is a major member-driven performance and analytics company serving nonprofit academic medical centers and health systems. Comparable membership base and nonprofit orientation to LI, though its scale, scope, and analytics-led value proposition are far broader.
• The Advisory Board Company (Optum): The Advisory Board provides research, executive education, and peer programming to health system leaders, now part of Optum. Comparable audience and adjacent services to LI but with a much larger research-and-advisory infrastructure rather than an exclusive peer-network delivery model.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Leadership Institute