Up to the Challenge: Tony Sanchez
Team Builder
Photography by Robert Schoen
The résumé of Roger Anthony (“Tony”) Sanchez reads like a laundry list of military superlatives: U.S. Naval Academy engineering major, water polo team captain, and battalion commander; Navy SEAL platoon commander with service in Mogadishu, Somalia; and captain of the U.S. Naval Pentathlon Team for the 1995 Military World Games in Rome, Italy. Yet when asked what he considers to be his life's most significant achievements, Sanchez deflects the question. “I've been very fortunate; I haven't had to deal with a lot of hardship in my life. I look at others, like my classmate Martin Gonzalez or Lance Armstrong, who have achieved so much in the face of adversity. I have a long way to go before I can measure up to their accomplishments.”
“To be an effective team leader, you have to be pretty much egoless."
Describing himself as a “quiet professional” whose strength lies in facilitating teamwork, Sanchez hopes someday to be the CEO of a medical engineering company. His interest in medical technology dates back to his boyhood in Bowling Green, Ohio, where his father, a doctor, and his mother, a nurse, took him on visits to local hos-pitals, where he sometimes observed surgeries. After leaving the military in 1997 and before coming to HBS, Sanchez worked as a manager of research and development at Stryker Leibinger, a health-care devices manufacturer in Kalamazoo, Michigan. His continued focus on the medical area while at HBS, including field studies at several local hospitals, has led to a job offer with Indiana-based Guidant Corporation, a medical devices manufacturer.
Sanchez is eager to apply his experience in team building to his future work with physicians, researchers, and engineers. “To be an effective team leader, you have to be pretty much ego-less,” notes the friendly, optimistic, and articulate Sanchez, who was voted Section C president. “I like being on the playing field with the rest of the group, trying to get the most out of our collective minds and talents.” Sanchez perfected this approach during his two SEAL platoon commands, working with each platoon to develop and execute plans for strategic reconnaissance and training missions in Africa and elsewhere. He is especially proud of his service in Hawaii as a SEAL task unit commander responsible for forty SEALs, divers, technicians, and administrative personnel. Despite their inexperience, he notes, the platoon pulled together within eigh-teen months to be evaluated as one of the best reconnaissance groups ever.
The team that figures most prominently in Sanchez's life, however, is his family — his wife, Booda, and their son, Cole, born on the first day of classes last fall. He and his wife, who suspended her own career for the couple to come to HBS, decided that he could make a greater contribution to society through a career in medical technology than by continuing with the Navy — a decision he has reflected upon considerably since September 11. Recalling his grandfather's legacy as a Navy chief petty officer and World War II submarine veteran honored for valor and bravery, Sanchez concludes, “He did what I want to do with my life. He left a better world for my son and me. Now it's my turn — I want my children and subsequent generations to have a better world because of what I do.”
— Nancy O. Perry
