Senior Vice President, External Affairs – Northwestern Memorial HealthCare
Robert Christie joined Northwestern Memorial Hospital (NMH) in May of 2001 as Vice President of Government and Legislative Relations. In this role, he is responsible for the hospital’s advocacy and lobbying activities at the local, state, and federal, levels of government. In 2010, Mr. Christie was promoted to Vice President External Affairs which combines Community Relations and Community Services with the previous Government and Legislative Relations and functions into one department. Mr. Christie is active in the American Hospital Association and the Illinois Hospital Association advocacy programs and he is the past chair of the Government Relations Steering Committee of the American Association of Medical Colleges. In 2007 he was named as the Illinois recipient of the AHA Grassroots Champion Award for his outstanding advocacy efforts on behalf of the hospital industry.
Prior to joining NMH, he spent 14 years as the director of public affairs at FMC Corporation and 6 years as director of government relations at Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO). Mr. Christie has been active in a number of state and national organizations including the National Governors Association corporate fellow’s steering committee. He is a board member of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and is the immediate past chair of their political action committee and serves on the boards of the Civic Federation, Illinois Issues public policy magazine and Metropolitan Family Service of DuPage county. He earned a BA in political science from Western Illinois University in 1976.