10 headliners to watch in 2025

*NOT FOR EXTERNAL DISTRIBUTION*

Source: Nashville Business Journal
Author: Nikki Ross
Date: January 9, 2025

It's been a humbling stretch for anyone who claims to know what the future holds.

Whether discerning interest rates or presidential elections, crystal balls have been of little use to business leaders. Will 2025 be a return to normal? Will we even agree on what “normal” means?

Greater Nashville, of course, hasn’t seemed bothered by all the uncertainty. Last year was hardly a sleepy one for Music City, and if anything, 2025 could be busier still. There’s simply too much work to be done.

Here, then, are 10 people we plan to watch in 2025. They include new industry leaders, a covert real estate investor and an artificial intelligence guru. We’ll be keeping tabs on many more, of course, but expect those included here to impact some of the year’s most important storylines.

Mangesh Patil, chief analytics officer and vice president, HCA Healthcare’s Care Transformation and Innovation division

Artificial intelligence is booming, and Mangesh Patil has been identified as a national leader. In August, he was named one of the 100 most influential AI leaders in the country by AIM Research. The research firm’s AI100 Awards “shine a spotlight on visionaries, innovators and transformers who are shaping the future of AI and its applications in business.”

Patil is the chief analytics officer and vice president of HCA Healthcare’s Care Transformation and Innovation division, which is aimed at leveraging — and sometimes creating — technology, including AI, to make care teams more efficient, more effective and provide better outcomes for patients. He joined the health care giant in February 2023, previously holding various roles at Disney Parks.

Employed by Nashville’s largest publicly traded company and the nation’s largest health care system gives the work Patil does in the field a vast reach. In an industry that’s slowly transitioning work over to AI to help reduce physician burnout, Patil is uniquely positioned to bring about massive change to his industry.