About

Steve Kadish is a Senior Fellow at the Burnes Center for Social Change where he supports InnovateMA and the AI for Impact co-op program.  He is an executive problem-solver who has worked in the public and private sectors as COO, CFO, and big projects lead for over 30 years. 

Kadish served as Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s first Chief of Staff, where his particular focus was tackling the most urgent  policy and operational problems and building the organizational capacity to do so.  He recently stepped down after five years as a Senior Research Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Taubman Center for State and Local Government.  

Steve and Governor Baker co-authored: Results Getting Beyond Politics to Get Important Work Done: A Leader’s Guide to Executing Change and Delivering Results, published in May 2022 by Harvard Business Review Press.

Kadish has worked in a number of roles in the public and private sectors, including Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Northeastern University, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Dartmouth College, Director of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts Undersecretary for Health & Human Services, Massachusetts Assistant Secretary for Administration and Finance, Senior Vice President for Administration at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Associate Vice Chancellor of Operations at UMass Medical School, and Assistant Commissioner for Operations at Massachusetts Division of Medical Assistance (Medicaid). 

Steve was a Special Advisor to the Massachusetts COVID-19 Command Center.  Previously, he was appointed chairman of the Massachusetts Commission on the Future of Transportation.

Steve has served on local boards related to mental health services and homelessness.  He has also worked as an advisor/consultant to World Bank and the World Health Organization on strategic initiatives and organizational development issues.  

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Tufts University and a Master of City Planning degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Steve and his wife, Linda Snyder, have three children and two grandchildren.