The days start early for Andrew Guarni, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Hoag. Amid the calming quiet before business hours at the General William Lyon Leadership Center on Hoag’s Newport Beach campus, he can contemplate the matters that keep the growing Hoag enterprise humming: finances. Andrew appreciates that balance isn’t just for financial sheets; he’s both a numbers and a people person.

He’s a familiar face around the hospital, community events, and builds bonds with Hoag teams beyond his purview who aim for the same goal. “We want everyone here to live their best and healthiest lives, and I want to be part of that,” he said. “I try to do whatever it takes to make Hoag the best place for the entire community.”

Finance

His career seemed almost predestined. He was a senior in high school outside of Philadelphia and didn’t know what was next. “I was lucky enough to find a volunteer job in the local hospital in their accounting department,” Andrew said.

He worked that same job every summer and winter break through college—West Chester University of Pennsylvania—where he got an accounting degree. When it came time to find a job, he would find himself again in familiar territory. “The first job offer was at a hospital system. So, I’ve been doing that ever since, and I love it,” he said. 

Future jobs took him to health systems in different parts of the country, where he learned that communities are different, but the commitment to caring about patients, staff, and their well-being is the same.

In 2012, he came to Hoag as a contractor to work on the budget and special projects, expecting to be here for three months. Each subsequent three-month extension pulled him closer to Hoag. “I basically had a six-month, on-the-job interview with Robert Braithwaite,” Andrew said of Hoag’s president and CEO. 

Food

In addition   to finances, food and family are also passion areas for Andrew. Raised in a traditional three-genera  tion, Italian home, he has enjoyed the culture of sharing meals to engage people and connect over common dedication to Hoag.

By 2019, his culinary skills were known to colleagues—so much so that one of them asked him if he would offer his chef services as a bidding item for the annual Christmas Carol Ball’s fundraiser auction in support of Hoag. He immediately accepted, and his dinner for eight people sold for $5,300. 

“I was totally blown away. Who would pay for me to cook?” Andrew said. “It turned out to be Dick and Mary Allen. Being the gracious person that he is, Dick invited the couple that he was bidding against.” Accompanied by his wife, Jennifer Cook, who also serves as his sous chef, Andrew made a spread with a main course of truffle mushroom risotto at the Allen home. What Andrew appreciated most about the dinner was that it brought him closer to Mary and Dick Allen, longtime Hoag friends and namesake of its diabetes center. “The dinner table's always been a place to meet people, greet people, and get to know them,” Andrew said.

Since then, Andrew’s meals have become a sought-after auction prize each year at the Christmas Carol Ball, selling for as much as $15,000 (so far). He remembers what he cooked for each one: grilled veal chops with prosciutto, mozzarella, and a red wine reduction; miso-glazed Chilean sea bass…each an orchestra of flavors.

Andrew’s own palate cherishes the simplest dishes: those from his childhood, cooked by and alongside his grandmother. “She was a fantastic cook. She was also a character. If someone asked for a recipe, she would leave one or two ingredients out so theirs would never taste like hers,” he remembers. “But thankfully for her grandson, she didn't do that.”

An upbringing alongside his family, particularly his grandparents, taught Andrew how to give in the simplest ways. "We didn't have anything. So, it was all about being kind to everybody," he said. Because of his grandfather, Andrew always has a handkerchief with him. "He told me that I always needed to be prepared because you never know when you're going to run into somebody who needs it because they're crying. I've given away easily a hundred handkerchiefs in my time."

Philanthropy

Inspired by and in honor of his family, Andrew is also a Hoag donor. As the chief financial officer, he sees the direct power philanthropy has on a hospital’s finances. “We get to buy things that other places have to put in their budget and maybe can't get. Donors have helped us buy surgical robots, recruit world-class physicians, and they are helping us build a new campus.” Andrew was also an early donor to the Boldly Hoag campaign, which is fueling Hoag’s expansion, starting at Hoag’s Irvine hospital on the Sun Family Campus. Buildings are rising, fortified with philanthropic dollars and community support for the vision ahead.

Andrew sees Hoag’s growth being not only physical but also an expansion of its standard of health care. “We’re building and hiring for these new spaces, but we’ll need our longtime and dedicated teammates in these facilities as well to show our new colleagues the Hoag way, so we retain the culture that makes Hoag so special,” he said. 

Generous friends of Hoag who make gifts and donate their time make Andrew’s job easier, he said. Philanthropic funds supplement hospital funding, ensuring that the most pressing needs are met, while ensuring that there are also resources available to continually elevate care. Andrew is a proud ambassador of the Hoag mission wherever he goes.

“Even when I'm not wearing it, I always have this Hoag badge on,” he said. “I feel like it’s a privilege.”

A symbol of his childhood and a source of inspiration, Andrew displays his great-grandmother's rolling pin and pasta cutter, above, in his kitchen.

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