Meet the Author, Eric Rieseberg

In high school, Eric Rieseberg’s parents were advised their son should pursue a trade rather than go to college. Eight years later, at age twenty-six, he became the youngest-ever CEO of a community hospital. With a B.S. in Health Administration from Ithaca College, and a Masters in Public Health and Epidemiology from The University of Pittsburgh, Eric spend over forty years in health care administration and has had operational responsibility for more than one hundred hospitals and healthcare facilities.

To what does Eric attribute his success? He sums it up in one word: “heroes.”

Eric grew up in a dysfunctional family with a military dad and a mom who suffered from mental illness. By the time his family moved to Manhasset, New York, a hamlet on the north shore of Long Island, Eric had moved seven times. He never particularly cared for textbooks, wasn’t a studious kid, and never brought home a report card with an A on it. Manhasset High School has always ranked in the top one hundred high schools in the country, and the year Eric entered Manhasset High, it was ranked in the top ten. There he was: a non-academic young man who was suddenly injected into one of the best high schools in America.

At Manhasset High, Eric was introduced to lacrosse, and played on the school’s championship team. As a lacrosse player, he endured the first of many “face plants,” (literally and figuratively) he would have throughout his life. And it was also through lacrosse that Eric met his first hero. Throughout his life, Eric has been blessed to have five men in his life, his heroes, to whom he attributes his ability to recover from his many face plants. Each of my heroes came along at a tipping point in his life, and helped him overcome the odds and change the outcome that might have been.

Eric is an active sportsman, sailor, certified scuba diver, and avid traveler. His favorite roles, however, are father of an exceptional daughter, and grandfather of two young grandsons— whom he hopes are future lacrosse players. Eric lives in Naples, Florida.