About Gentry Zacheis
President, CEO & Co-Founder of Academic Med
Gentry Zacheis is a dynamic executive search leader and trusted advisor to university presidents, medical school deans, health system CEOs, department chairs, and other senior institutional leaders. With 16 years of executive search experience and more than 500 searches personally led, Gentry helps academic medical centers, medical schools, health systems, and research institutions recruit the physicians, scientists, and senior executives who shape clinical care, medical education, research, and organizational strategy.
As President, CEO, and Co-Founder of Academic Med, Gentry leads the firm’s strategy, client relationships, team development, search processes, and operational execution. He remains directly involved throughout the search lifecycle, working with institutional leaders and search committees to define their objectives, understand the competitive candidate market, position each opportunity effectively, evaluate prospective leaders, and guide searches toward successful outcomes.
Executive Search Experience at a Glance
- 16 years of executive search experience, beginning in 2010
- More than 500 searches personally led for physicians, scientists, faculty members, and healthcare executives
- President, CEO, and Co-Founder of Academic Med, established in 2012
- Extensive experience leading department chair, division chief, associate dean, center director, physician executive, and research leadership searches
- Trusted relationships with university presidents, medical school deans, health system CEOs, department chairs, and other senior academic and healthcare leaders
- Expertise in data-informed search strategy, candidate-market analysis, leadership recruitment, organizational positioning, and strategic program building
Leadership at Academic Med
Gentry co-founded Academic Med with a focused mission: to bring a more specialized, consultative, and precise approach to executive search within academic medicine. Under his leadership, the firm has developed enduring relationships with nationally respected universities, medical schools, academic medical centers, and health systems.
His responsibilities extend across the organization. Gentry leads the company, builds and develops its teams, designs and refines its processes, manages senior client relationships, and maintains responsibility for end-to-end search success. His work is centered on understanding what each institution is trying to accomplish and translating that vision into a focused recruitment strategy capable of identifying and attracting leaders with the experience, credibility, and alignment to advance it.
Gentry approaches executive search as a strategic advisory engagement rather than a transactional recruiting exercise. He works closely with institutional leadership to understand organizational culture, stakeholder expectations, competitive dynamics, and long-term priorities before taking a position to market. This enables Academic Med to present opportunities authentically, engage candidates more effectively, and help clients make well-informed leadership decisions.
A Systems-Based Approach to Executive Search
A systems-level thinker by nature, Gentry is deeply interested in understanding how complex organizations and processes work—and how they can be improved. He created Academic Med’s proprietary Six P’s Search Strategy, a disciplined framework that brings structure, precision, accountability, and consistency to every phase of an executive search.
The strategy reflects Gentry’s belief that successful leadership recruitment requires more than identifying qualified individuals. It requires alignment around institutional priorities, a detailed understanding of the candidate landscape, compelling market positioning, disciplined candidate engagement, thoughtful assessment, and close coordination through selection and placement.
Gentry has also been an early and effective adopter of technology and data within executive search. He applies technology, candidate intelligence, market data, and structured evaluation processes to improve market mapping, expand access to prospective candidates, strengthen communication, and give clients clearer information for comparing and selecting leaders.
This combination of strategy, data, technology, and personal engagement allows Gentry and the Academic Med team to deliver sophisticated academic medicine executive search and recruitment services while maintaining the discretion and high-touch counsel required for consequential leadership appointments.
Representative Search and Institutional Experience
Throughout his career, Gentry has personally led more than 500 searches spanning academic physician leadership, healthcare administration, scientific research, faculty recruitment, and program building. His experience includes multiple searches for department chairs, division chiefs, associate deans, center directors, physician executives, and other leaders whose responsibilities influence clinical care, education, research, and institutional growth.
Gentry has developed trusted relationships with senior leaders at institutions including the University of Minnesota, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, and Tulane University, among others. These engagements have required close collaboration with institutional executives, medical school leaders, department chairs, search committees, faculty members, and other key stakeholders.
His search experience encompasses academic leadership and program development across oncology, neuroscience, surgery, internal medicine, pediatrics, cardiovascular medicine, women’s health, precision medicine, regenerative medicine, and the biomedical sciences. He has also supported institutions building disease-focused centers of excellence, research programs, clinical service lines, and interdisciplinary initiatives requiring coordinated leadership and faculty recruitment.
Regardless of specialty or title, Gentry’s objective remains consistent: to help each client identify and recruit a leader whose experience, values, and vision align with the institution’s mission and future direction.
Education and Early Career
Gentry graduated from Texas Christian University in 2009 with a Bachelor of Business Administration from the M.J. Neeley School of Business, completing a double major in Marketing and Entrepreneurial Management.
Entrepreneurship was a deliberate part of his professional plan from the beginning. Gentry chose to study both disciplines with the goal of eventually building a company and applying sophisticated marketing strategies to position and grow its services. That combination of entrepreneurial thinking and marketing expertise continues to inform his leadership of Academic Med and his approach to positioning institutions and leadership opportunities in competitive national markets.
Gentry began his executive search career in 2010 with Kaye/Bassman International, where he served as an Executive Search Consultant and Project Director specializing in healthcare and physician recruitment. In 2011, he was recognized as Project Consultant of the Year, an award presented to the firm’s top-producing project consultant.
In 2012, Gentry co-founded Academic Med and began building a firm dedicated to the unique leadership and recruitment needs of academic medicine. He is based in the Dallas–Fort Worth area and continues to work directly with clients and candidates across the United States.
Connect With Gentry Zacheis
University presidents, medical school deans, health system CEOs, department chairs, and other institutional leaders are invited to contact Gentry to discuss an upcoming leadership search, program-building initiative, or complex recruitment need.