Preslar’s career at North Carolina Baptist Hospital (NCBH), which partnered with Wake Forest University School of Medicine to form what is now Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, spanned 38 years of service, beginning while he was a Wake Forest student in 1969. He was NCBH’s vice president for finance for 13 years before becoming president and CEO in 1988. At his retirement in 2007, his 19-year tenure as CEO was the longest of any NCBH president.
In his finance roles, he developed NCBH’s first comprehensive budget and financial planning processes. NCBH achieved national financial performance among the top 5% and an AA-bond credit rating, lowering debt cost and increasing net worth five-fold during his tenure as CEO.
While he was CEO, NCBH developed a 125-bed children’s hospital, a center on aging for complex care of the frail elderly, converted all inpatient rooms to private beds, constructed an outpatient Comprehensive Cancer Center and initiated its AirCare emergency transport service. Notable technology additions included Gamma Knife, Positron Emission Tomography, Radiation Simulation Therapy, robotics for prescription labeling, digital radiology and anesthesia planning simulation. When Forsyth County’s primary indigent care program was at risk of closing, he negotiated its transfer to NCBH and constructed the Downtown Health Plaza to house indigent primary care.
Throughout his CEO tenure, he sought to strengthen NCBH’s relationship with the School of Medicine and its faculty. He added faculty to the NCBH Board, engaged faculty in budgetary and capital planning processes, joined the University Healthcare Consortium, initiated developmental technology grants to faculty and expanded the Medical Center’s array of consolidated administrative functions.
He was the primary author of a new Affiliation Agreement with the school, designed to align strategic goals and elevate medical center performance. The agreement incorporated noteworthy increases in funding for medical education and an innovative profit share with the school. He personally negotiated a unique institutional relationship with its founding entity, the Baptist State Convention of N.C., achieving organizational independence and enabling NCBH trustees to evolve the organization’s relationship with the school and university as they believed best. Upon his retirement, Preslar was awarded the North Carolina Baptist Heritage Award by the Baptist State Convention.
Following his retirement, he led the development of health care management curriculum at Wake Forest University School of Business, where he was an adjunct professor and distinguished professor of practice. While there, he developed and led an annual, national Biotechnology Conference and Case Competition, engaging with medical and MBA biotechnology students and biotechnology companies to promote innovation and entrepreneurship.
Preslar has a BA in economics from Wake Forest University and an MBA in finance from UNC Greensboro. He has served on many professional and community boards, including chair of the N.C. Hospital Association, and board member with N.C. Institute of Medicine, Council of Teaching Hospitals, University Healthcare Consortium, Governor’s Advisory Committee on Cancer Control, Governor’s Task Force on Health Objectives, United Way of Forsyth County, Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce and Forsyth Futures Board. He is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives.
He remains active at Knollwood Baptist Church. His favorite retirement activities include gardening, golf, pickleball, travel, time with his wife, Jodi, and family, and managing his apiary as a certified beekeeper.