Bill Gates meets Willy Wonka: How Epic's 82-year-old billionaire CEO, Judy Faulkner, built her software factory

Do not spell public. Do not get oregon beryllium acquired. Software indispensable work.

These are the archetypal 3 of the 10 commandments splashed crossed bathrooms and breakrooms astatine Epic Systems' sprawling 1,670-acre campus successful Verona, Wisconsin, conscionable southwest of Madison. 

It's not the wackiest portion of moving astatine the health-care bundle giant. Once a month, astir of the company's 14,000 employees battalion into an underground auditorium called Deep Space for a mandatory unit meeting, which immoderate jokingly notation to arsenic "work church." Executives spell implicit institution quality and objectives. They besides pb a grammar lesson, specified arsenic whether it's OK to extremity sentences with a preposition and erstwhile to usage "who" oregon "whom."

Epic's CEO is 82-year-old Judy Faulkner, who started the institution successful a Wisconsin basement successful 1979 and has helmed the endeavor ever since. En way to gathering a concern with $5.7 cardinal successful yearly revenue, Faulkner has kept important region from her tech peers, some physically and otherwise. Epic is astir 2,000 miles eastbound of some Seattle and Silicon Valley, and the institution has ne'er taken wealth from task capitalists.

"I've described her arsenic a pistillate transverse betwixt Bill Gates and Willy Wonka," Dr. Eric Dickson, CEO of UMass Memorial Health, said successful an interview. The infirmary strategy is an Epic customer, Dickson said, adding that he's known Faulkner for astir 20 years.

While Wonka is, of course, a fictional character, Gates for galore years was the world's wealthiest person, acknowledgment to his tremendous involvement successful Microsoft, earlier donating his mode to 14th connected the Forbes billionaires list. At the apical of the leaderboard is Tesla's Elon Musk, followed by Oracle's Larry Ellison, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon's Jeff Bezos.

Faulkner ranks 430th, with an estimated nett worthy of $7.8 billion, based connected what Forbes says is her 43% ownership of Epic. The work lists Epic arsenic among the 5 largest backstage U.S. tech bundle and services companies by revenue. 

Epic is champion known for its dominance successful physics wellness record, oregon EHR, software. An EHR is simply a integer mentation of a patient's aesculapian past that's updated by doctors and nurses. About 42% of acute attraction hospitals successful the U.S. usage Epic, putting it mode up of Oracle Health, which is successful 2nd spot astatine 23%, according to an April study from Klas Research. Oracle acquired its mode into the marketplace with the $28 billion acquisition of Cerner, a woody that closed successful 2022. 

Epic says its exertion is utilized successful 3,300 hospitals and 71,000 clinics and by 325 cardinal patients worldwide. Starting Monday, thousands of health-care executives volition descend connected Epic's firm office for the company's Users Group Meeting, 1 of its largest yearly on-campus events.

As ubiquitous arsenic Epic's exertion is crossed overmuch of the health-care sector, doctors, infirmary administrators, startups and patients person their stock of complaints astir the software's idiosyncratic acquisition and its interoperability, oregon quality to enactment with different tools.

"With fractional a cardinal oregon truthful clinicians utilizing Epic, determination volition beryllium immoderate who find it casual and immoderate who find it difficult," an Epic spokesperson said successful a statement.

Some folks mightiness question Epic's committedness to its 3rd commandment, but there's nary doubting the company's allegiance to the archetypal one.

From Epic's aboriginal days, Faulkner has been averse to the thought of moving a nationalist institution and what she's called the "tyranny of the quarter." She said she came to that presumption aft researching nationalist companies and speechmaking shareholder comments. 

"They were vitriolic, successful galore cases, due to the fact that the lone happening they were looking astatine was instrumentality connected their investment," Faulkner told CNBC. "Sometimes, there's a batch much than that."

Without the payment of nationalist stock, Faulkner's wealthiness doesn't multiply astatine the aforesaid complaint arsenic that of her chap tech founders and CEOs. She's good with that. 

Faulkner, who seldom grants interviews, agreed to beryllium down for a half-hour chat with CNBC astatine Epic's headquarters, wherever bureau buildings are themed, with galore inspired by fiction, including "The Wizard of Oz," "Alice successful Wonderland" and the Harry Potter stories.

The interrogation took spot successful the Andromeda gathering successful a league country called The Cottage, which is connected to her office. Two of the walls are plastered with quotes specified arsenic "The geek shall inherit the Earth" and "All lasting concern is built connected friendship." Faulkner's canine Tundra, a fluffy Samoyed, besides made an appearance.

Faulkner celebrated her 82nd day Monday. While she has yet to publically disclose erstwhile she plans to measurement down from her role, Faulkner confirmed that she has a succession program successful spot that ensures Epic volition stay privately held and constructed firmly arsenic she envisioned agelong aft she's gone. 

Faulkner has ne'er sold immoderate of her voting shares, and that banal volition beryllium transferred into a spot aft her death, according to Faulkner and Epic. The program for present is that the spot volition beryllium governed by a voting committee made up of Faulkner's husband, Dr. Gordon Faulkner, a retired pediatrician; her 3 children, and 5 longtime Epic employees, though Faulkner said she mightiness see immoderate further staffers to marque definite capable voices are represented. 

Members of the committee can't ballot for the institution to spell nationalist oregon beryllium acquired, among different rules, arsenic she has antecedently disclosed. Some of the provisions are little consequential, specified arsenic a proposal that the trust's telephone clasp euphony should beryllium classical. 

"I similar classical music," she said. "I deliberation erstwhile I was a kid that it was played successful our location a lot, conscionable connected the radio, conscionable connected the grounds player." 

For further safekeeping, Faulkner established an oversight committee called "The Trust Protector Committee," Epic said, consisting of 3 health-care leaders — each Epic users. Its occupation is to writer members of the trust's voting committee if they don't travel the rules. 

The names of members of the voting committee and oversight committee won't beryllium released, Faulkner told CNBC, but she said she's identified who she would similar to participate. 

After moving Epic for the past 46 years, Faulkner has amassed her just stock of admirers and critics, with immoderate successful the second campy adjacent taking Epic to court.

But Faulkner continues to flout accepted concern practices and has built Epic, contempt its flaws and complexities, into the astir almighty exertion institution successful U.S. wellness care. 

Reflecting connected her attack to enactment and decision-making, Faulkner said, "Just person the guts to bash what you cognize is the close happening to do." 

CNBC spoke with 2 twelve Epic customers, erstwhile Epic employees, manufacture experts and radical adjacent to Faulkner for this article, immoderate of whom asked not to beryllium named successful bid to talk freely. Details astir Faulkner's personal, acquisition and nonrecreational past were obtained from Faulkner directly, her Epic website testimonials, Epic, obituaries, quality reports and publically disposable records.

Faulkner and her 2 siblings grew up successful Erlton, New Jersey, present a portion of Cherry Hill. Her father, Louis Greenfield, was an autarkic pharmacist who ran his ain store, implicit with a soda fountain. Her mother, Del Greenfield, was a bid activistic who was progressive with the South Jersey Peace Center and the Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, which shared successful the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize for its enactment successful preventing atomic war. 

"Sometimes erstwhile I bash thing that's tough, I deliberation of my mother, who went to jailhouse successful her 80s for protesting astatine a atomic arms site, and I think, 'I'm my mother's daughter,'" Faulkner said. 

Faulkner's parents, who some died successful 2007, are honored astatine Epic's campus. Employees tin get crystal pick astatine Lou's Soda Fountain, portion Del's Nobel Prize certificate hangs successful the hallway crossed from The Cottage.

Faulkner discovered a emotion of mathematics arsenic a seventh grader, erstwhile her teacher would permission puzzles connected the blackboard each day, she said successful 1 of her testimonials, the abbreviated stories and anecdotes she shares erstwhile a period connected Epic's website. She earned her undergraduate grade successful mathematics from Dickinson College successful 1965.

After learning however to programme during a summertime job, Faulkner past enrolled successful the University of Wisconsin–Madison's nascent machine subject programme and was successful graduate school determination until 1970.

At UW–Madison, Faulkner took a people astir computing successful medicine that was taught by a pioneering physician, Dr. Warner Slack, 1 of the archetypal radical to admit the committedness of the exertion wrong wellness care.

Faulkner began moving with Slack and his team, and she was tasked with processing a strategy that could support way of diligent accusation implicit time. She yet built what would go the kernel for Epic, though it took years of urging from imaginable users earlier she would really motorboat the institution successful 1979. In the interim, she taught college-level machine science.

When Faulkner yet opened Epic for business, she did truthful with a tiny magnitude of currency from immoderate colleagues astatine an archetypal valuation of $70,000. Now the institution is worthy galore billions of dollars, though estimates of its valuation differ.

Some of the archetypal shareholders yet sold their banal backmost to the company.

"They got precise bully returns," Faulkner wrote successful a testimonial.

Faulkner has publically described herself arsenic "the accidental CEO." 

She told CNBC she work books and took daylong oregon multiday courses to larn much astir management, concern and leadership. But she didn't ever travel their advice. 

"I ne'er got an MBA, which I deliberation is simply a truly bully thing," Faulkner said. "They would person taught me, 'Here's however you bash task capital.' We didn't bash it. 'Here's however you spell public.' We didn't bash it. 'Here's however you bash budgets.' We don't person budgets. We say, if you request it, bargain it. If you don't request it, don't bargain it."

At the company's Users Group Meeting past year, Faulkner took the signifier dressed arsenic a swan, with a plume of feathers successful her hair. Every UGM gathering has a taxable — this 1 was "storytime." In costume, Faulkner told the thousands of health-care executives successful attendance astir her aversion to the nationalist market. 

"Why beryllium owned by radical whose involvement is chiefly instrumentality of equity?" she said. 

She's arsenic opposed to selling the business, which she makes wide successful the company's 2nd commandment.

That hasn't stopped different executives from trying to alteration her mind.  

In 2017, astatine the Digital Healthcare Innovation Summit successful Boston, erstwhile General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt revealed that he'd spoken with Faulkner astir acquiring Epic.

Faulkner unopen him down immediately.

"It was a five-minute gathering — possibly the shortest successful history," Immelt said, according to a study from Healthcare IT News. The study said he'd also considered buying Cerner.

Faulkner confirmed the brushwood with CNBC.

"Others person asked to travel and transportation us, and I've heard our unit accidental to them, 'Just permission your car running,'" she said.

Faulkner has said successful testimonials that she's avoided buyers successful bid to stay autarkic and sphere Epic's unsocial culture, and she doesn't marque acquisitions, calling them a distraction.

But nary substance however overmuch she loves her institution and her job, astatine immoderate point, idiosyncratic other is going to person to tally Epic.

Faulkner has remained mum astir who volition beryllium her eventual successor, different than to accidental that the idiosyncratic volition person to beryllium a bundle developer and a longtime Epic employee.

The evident choice, according to 10 erstwhile Epic employees who spoke with CNBC, is Sumit Rana, who was named president of the institution past August. The 49-year-old joined Epic close retired of assemblage successful 1998 and helped physique the company's diligent portal called MyChart. 

Rana, who was a toddler erstwhile Faulkner founded Epic, has been participating successful much high-profile speaking engagements of late, including representing the institution during the opening sheet astatine the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Quality Conference successful July.

Faulkner declined to accidental whether Rana is the apical contender for the job. 

"That's the company's business," she said. "Sumit is simply a fantastic employee, and helium would marque a bully CEO, but we're not publically announcing anything."

While Faulkner doesn't accidental overmuch astir the company's succession plans, she hasn't been shy astir her plans for her idiosyncratic wealth.

In 2015, she signed The Giving Pledge and agreed to donate 99% of her assets to charity, a determination that was inspired successful portion by a meal she had with Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett that year.

Buffett created The Giving Pledge with Bill Gates and Gates' past wife, Melinda French Gates, successful 2010, encouraging the world's richest radical to springiness distant the bulk of their wealth. 

Following Faulkner's pledge, she launched a household instauration called Roots & Wings with her hubby successful 2020. Roots & Wings provides grants to nonprofits that enactment low-income children and families. Faulkner's daughter, Shana Dall'Osto, serves arsenic enforcement manager of the organization. 

Faulkner has been selling her nonvoting shares backmost to the company, giving the proceeds straight to Roots & Wings. 

"I've ne'er cashed a azygous stock for myself," Faulkner told CNBC.

Installing an EHR is an highly analyzable and costly task for wellness systems. If it doesn't spell well, it could "blow up" the full business, Dr. Robert Grossman, CEO of NYU Langone Health, told CNBC successful an interview. 

"We stake the ranch connected Epic, let's beryllium precise honest," helium said.

Fans of Epic accidental the institution is afloat tuned successful to its customers' needs.

"They don't conscionable run and dial in," said Michael Mayo, CEO of ​​Baptist Health successful northeast Florida. "They sojourn our campus. They're immersed here. They cognize our teams crossed our IT [information technology] constituent and our caregivers. They are successful our facilities. And erstwhile we went live, which is simply a beauteous scary time, they were successful afloat unit here."

Each wellness strategy that uses Epic has a constituent idiosyncratic called a "BFF," oregon "best person forever," who is disposable to reply questions and assistance lick problems. Epic doesn't outsource immoderate incoming calls to 3rd parties, the institution says, truthful unit members are liable for picking up the telephone 24/7.

Faulkner besides makes herself easy accessible to customers, executives said.

Mike Slubowski, CEO of Trinity Health, which operates 93 hospitals crossed 26 states, said Faulkner ever answers his emails wrong the day, if not the hour. 

She holds recurring meetings with elder health-care executives by telephone oregon video telephone to reply questions and speech done an organization's circumstantial needs and ideas. Executives told CNBC that Faulkner takes copious notes and is receptive to feedback. If she doesn't person an answer, she promptly calls idiosyncratic who does. 

"She'll halt close determination and say, 'Get so-and-so connected the phone,'" said Dickson, of UMass Memorial Health. "I don't cognize what so-and-so was doing anterior to getting the call, but it's wide that erstwhile Judy calls, you driblet what you're doing."

Pete Durlach, firm vice president for wellness and beingness sciences astatine Microsoft, said he's been successful meetings with Epic staffers who person gotten these impromptu calls. Microsoft and Epic person been adjacent partners for astir 2 decades, a narration that's gotten tighter arsenic unreality and artificial intelligence technologies person advanced, helium said. 

"People decidedly reply the telephone erstwhile Judy calls," Durlach said.

Epic doesn't advertise oregon person a accepted selling department; the institution has relied heavy connected connection of mouth. Faulkner has besides proven to beryllium an effectual salesperson. 

Ardent Health CEO Marty Bonick said that erstwhile helium was debating whether to person immoderate of his hospitals to utilizing Epic products, Faulkner yet helped sway him.

Ardent Health owns 30 hospitals and 280 outpatient attraction sites crossed six states. When Bonick joined Ardent successful 2020, helium said, astir two-thirds of Ardent's hospitals were utilizing Epic. Bonick said he'd ne'er worked with Epic and wanted to marque definite that switching implicit the remainder of Ardent's hospitals would beryllium worthwhile. 

Bonick said helium told Faulkner that he'd heard Epic's merchandise was costly and hard to implement.

"She came backmost with a presumption that she delivered personally, and spent astir apt implicit 90 minutes," said Bonick, who was yet sold connected the conversion. "I had to say, 'OK, clip out. I've got different gathering to spell to,' but she truly was not watching the clock."

Epic is utilized by each 20 of the apical hospitals from the U.S. News & World Report rankings, and by the country's 7 largest wellness plans, according to the company.

Its dominance has travel with plentifulness of controversy. 

Epic faces accusations of anticompetitive practices successful 2 lawsuits from the past year. One was filed successful September by information startup Particle Health, which alleges that Epic has utilized its EHR marketplace powerfulness to "snuff out" contention successful different emerging health-care markets.

Epic said successful effect it would "vigorously support itself against Particle's meritless claims."

The 2nd suit was filed successful May by CureIS Healthcare, a managed attraction services institution that claims Epic has engaged successful a "multi-prong strategy to destroy" CureIS' business. CureIS alleges Epic has interfered with its lawsuit relationships, blocked entree to indispensable information and raised unfounded information concerns, according to a complaint.

An Epic spokesperson told CNBC astatine the clip of the filing that the institution "believes successful escaped and just competition, and we besides judge our customers are successful the champion presumption to take the close solutions to conscionable their needs — whether with Epic oregon by adopting different products and services." 

Epic's competitors person besides agelong accused the institution of being territorial implicit its information and impeding efforts to stock diligent accusation betwixt vendors. 

In a blog post past year, Oracle Executive Vice President Ken Glueck wrote that "everyone successful the manufacture understands that Epic's CEO Judy Faulkner is the azygous biggest obstacle to EHR interoperability." 

Interoperability, successful this case, refers to the speech of physics wellness information from 1 health-care enactment to another. Since wellness information is siloed, stored crossed dozens of formats and protected by national laws specified arsenic the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, oregon HIPAA, it's a analyzable undertaking.

Over the years, startups specified arsenic Practice Fusion and DrChrono person tried to ace the EHR marketplace with promises of greater openness and much user-friendly products, but they person ne'er go much than niche offerings. Some failed completely.  

Epic promotes its ain interoperability tools specified arsenic Care Everywhere and EpicCare Link, which allows customers and their affiliates to speech information with 1 another. Epic besides participates successful larger information speech networks.

One of Epic's biggest feats successful its 46 years is managing to pull high-level tech endowment acold distant from the nation's engineering and concern hubs, particularly fixed the harsh Midwestern winters successful Wisconsin. 

That's wherever Epic's headquarters comes into play. It's a field that manufacture executives and erstwhile employees likened to a techie's Disney World. 

All 28 bureau buildings are themed. They're clustered into mini-campuses, with names specified arsenic Prairie Campus, Wizards Academy Campus and Storybook Campus. 

The offices are designed by architecture steadfast Cuningham, which has besides worked connected projects astatine Disney taxable parks each implicit the world. John Cuningham, the laminitis of the firm, said he's worked with Faulkner for 30 years, and that she's ever been precise progressive successful the process. 

Epic's archetypal campus, for instance, has much than 80 bathrooms, and Faulkner wanted to cognize the details of each of them. 

"Each one," helium said. "Light fixtures, faucets, mirrors, wallpaper, tile, sinks. I mean, I was thinking, 'Oh, she'll past for 10.' She did each 85, and she inactive does that," helium said. 

On Epic's grounds, a metallic wizard stands successful the courtyard of a castle, elephantine cocoa chips people the entryway to a faux cocoa factory, and a hanging span leads to the company's precise ain treehouse. 

Inside a gathering inspired by "Alice successful Wonderland," there's a descent that takes employees into a tiny country wherever everything is upside down. It's fashionable with visitors. 

"I was benignant of blown away," Warner Thomas, CEO of Sutter Health, a nonprofit wellness strategy successful Northern California, told CNBC astir his archetypal travel to Epic's campus. "I went down the slide, similar everybody."

The buildings are brimming with trinkets, ceramics, mosaics and paintings that Epic employees get to assistance source. Faulkner recruits a tiny radical of volunteers to spell with her to section creation fairs and bargain decorations for the campus. Some pieces outgo thousands of dollars, according to erstwhile employees.  

Faulkner said she had conscionable returned from an creation just up of her interrogation with CNBC.

Despite the fantastical themes on-site, employees are tasked with precise existent responsibilities. Since Faulkner places specified a beardown accent connected supporting her customers, she holds her unit to precocious standards. 

Most employees enactment successful idiosyncratic 5 days a week. Hours tin beryllium agelong and burnout is common, erstwhile employees say. In June, The Economist analyzed 900 companies crossed 19 industries, and recovered that Epic had the worst work-life equilibrium successful the bundle and IT services category. Several erstwhile employees told CNBC their enactment astatine Epic was all-consuming. 

Epic said the mean worker works betwixt 44 and 45 hours a week, based connected monthly clip expanse submissions betwixt June 2024 and June 2025. The institution said its turnover complaint past twelvemonth was 7%.

"People astatine Epic are dedicated and enactment hard," an Epic spokesperson said successful a statement.

Epic workers are entrusted with large projects, expected to interact straight with customers and mostly instrumentality connected a batch of responsibility. For immoderate employees, that includes moving alongside hospitals arsenic they instrumentality Epic's technology.

"Some of these implementations truly sucked," said Brendan Keeler, a erstwhile Epic worker who often blogs astir the institution online. "So overmuch of the occurrence of an implementation was conscionable a relation of the authorities of the hospital."

Epic recruits the immense bulk of its employees consecutive retired of college, truthful its unit is comparatively young. All caller staffers spell done extended training, including a five-hour firm doctrine people wherever they're taught however to beryllium a palmy employee.

Faulkner said she utilized to thatch the people by herself but that she present has assistance from 1 oregon 2 different people.

Faulkner's power is contiguous successful each country of Epic's campus, successful its merchandise and crossed overmuch of the health-care industry.

"Everybody knows Judy Faulkner," said Thomas, of Sutter Health. 

She's inactive got a batch to do. The health-care manufacture is reckoning with rising costs, staffing shortages, the interaction of AI and the Trump administration's hefty cuts successful the areas of aesculapian subject and research. 

And Faulkner isn't acceptable to quit.

"It's absorbing and it's challenging and it's worthwhile," Faulkner said.

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