TAYLOR SWAAKBYSpecial to Newsday

Lenny Achan stood be-fore his office white-board in Manhattan’sHospital for SpecialSurgery on an October

morning, furiously drawingclusters of bubbles as he out-lined his latest thought processfor company structuring.

Five miles downtown, patronssettled in to eat at The CorneliaStreet Café in Greenwich Vil-lage. Surrounding them were 14canvases of spray-paintedorigami and geometric subwaymap cutouts that will be ondisplay until Monday.

They make up Achan’s mostrecent art exhibit.

The chief innovation officerand Bellmore resident is amaster of the left and right sidesof the brain — a lifelong artistrooted in graffiti and a nurseturned health care executiveand entrepreneur. Art has re-mained the constant fabric ofhis many hats.

“A lot of people see me indifferent slices: They see anexecutive, they see a health careguy, they see an entrepreneur,they see a nurse, they see theartist,” said Achan, 40. “It’s allexactly the same to me.”

Achan’s memories of artbegin at his grandmother’shouse in Brooklyn.

As early as kindergarten, hewould write with chalk onconcrete and craft origami boatsand planes to race in the gutters.

He would spend hours withpen and markers on his grade-school book report covers.

And early in his time at JohnAdams High School in OzonePark, Queens, when Achanbegan dating his wife, Kimberly,he would draw her name in alldifferent colors, sometimes withDisney characters like PrincessJasmine.

Art to Achan was — andremains — his most covetedform of communication.

Hospital executivemixes caring andcreativity in hiscanvases, career

BRUC

EGILBERT

COVERSTORY

Lenny Achan’s art often is inspired by graffiti, and his canvases can incorporate such materials as pennies, spray paint and resin.

ArtE4

NEW

SDAY

,SU

NDA

Y,OCT

OBER29,20

17newsday.co

mLILIFE

N1

“I love the free-thinking sideof it, and the ability for art notto explicitly tell you how orwhat you should feel,” saidAchan, who a few years agobegan dedicating time—mainlyon the weekends — to his art.

Growing up as a first-genera-tion American of Indian descentin Howard Beach, Queens, inthe 1980s and 1990s, Achandrew his artistic inspiration

See COVER STORY on E6

LENNYAC

HAN

COVERSTORY

In the late1990s, Achancontributedgraffiti to theoutdoor space inLong Island Citythen known asThe Fun Factory,which laterbecame5 Pointz.

from the heart

David King, left,watches Achanuse awhiteboard toillustrate pointsthat have comefrom a staffmeeting inAchan’s office atthe hospital.

Achan uses a whiteboard to create visual emphasis for plans andprocesses he’s working on at the Hospital for Special Surgery.

BRUC

EGILBERT

BRUC

EGILBERT

newsday.com/lilife E5

LILIFEN1

newsday.com

NEW

SDAY,SUN

DAY,OCTO

BER29,

2017

from the graffiti that sur-rounded him on playgroundsand subway trains. By seventhor eighth grade, Achan startedlettering and drawing charac-ters in art books and on paperbefore progressing to walls —with permission — in early highschool. He experimented withany materials he could get hishands on, often using black,gray and pastel-colored markersand spray paint to form boldwords and images.

“Access was a big part of it;not really understanding whatart was, and not being formallytrained, you kind of have tofigure it out for yourself,” hesaid. And that “actually helpedme be more innovative.”

At 16, Achan met graffitiartist and future mentor LuisLamboy while working in alocal printing factory. Achanwas unique from the beginning,

Lamboy recalled.“He was very smart and very

artistic,” said Lamboy, who nowspecializes in fine art. “Hissignature was different fromanything I’d seen. Kind of ro-botic . . . almost how an archi-tect would structure a building.”

Within a year, Lamboy andAchan had spray-painted adepiction of Jesus Christ’scrucifixion across Achan’sbedroom wall. Lamboy hadencouraged Achan to take hisartwork off paper and walls andimmortalize it on canvases, andhe had begun taking Achan toart shows, including his own.

“I just remember thinking,‘Wow, there’s hundreds of peo-ple here and art hanging on thewalls, and this guy [Lamboy]isn’t Pablo Picasso, he’s a kidfrom the Bronx,’ ” Achan said.“All of those data pointsstarted to build a matrix and a

COVER STORY from E4

See COVER STORY on E8Achan works on art with his children — who share in earnings from some works — and wife Kimberly.

BRUC

EGILBERT

Compassion and creativityLenny Achan works at his Bellmore home with an arrangement of canvases spread on a table, each ready to be filled with new artwork.

BRUC

EGILBERT

COVERSTORYE6

NEW

SDAY

,SU

NDA

Y,OCT

OBER29,20

17newsday.co

mLILIFE

N1

Very littlehas taughtme more

about how preciouslife is than nursingdid. This profession gaveme the foundation blocksand continues to developme in all aspects of my life.It was one of the bestdecisions I ever made tobecome a nurse.

I am an artist because of allof the things that makemewho I am.My profes-sional work is a craft,my children are mygreatest creations, mywriting to self-reflectand sharewhat I havelearned through success andfailure is an art to me.Men-toring and building otherpeople with strong founda-tions is no different thanarchitecture or sculpturingand shaping what I wouldhope they will continue togive back to others.

Everyone asks where I findthe time to do what I do. Ioften reply: Do you play golfor watch Netflix all week-end?Well, I don’t. Point

being that everyone hastime to do as much asanyone else can. Theychoose to use time differ-ently than I do.At the endof the day, peoplemake time for whatthey want to.

Graffiti is ancient andstarted long beforespray paint was cre-ated. . . . The cultureitself, however, is overshad-owed by competition, whichnever allows it to evolve as itshould and be recognized bythemasses as an art form.

Everything I do is for family.To do that, it is critical tomake sure thatmy family isinvolved in all that I do andvice versa. I couldn’t bewho I am without myparents, sisters, wifeand in-laws.Nomatterwhat I have achieved in life,my family has been thereand their names (althoughinvisible) are on every aca-demic degree and piece ofart or article or award I haveever received. There is nosuch thing as a self-mademan, inmy opinion.

At one site, Achan works with paint that uses sugar cane-made alcoholinstead of petroleum solvents to be more environmentally friendly.

Achan incorporated penniesin a 2015 work.

LENNYAC

HAN

An Achan work, “Up Up and Away,” hangs in the office ofthe chief executive of the Hospital for Special Surgery.

LENNYAC

HAN

❝Achan’s children Lenny III, 9, and Katherine, 6, appear in “Onward,” an Achan-Lamboy collaboration.

COVERSTORY

Achan’s origami-inspired work hangs in a Manhattancafe show, above. At left, a Rapidograph pen drawingmade by Achan as a teen already shows a deft hand.

Theworld accordingtoLenny Achan

LENNYAC

HAN

BRUC

EGILBERT

LENNYAC

HAN

newsday.com/lilife

BRUC

EGILBERT

E7

LILIFEN1

newsday.com

NEW

SDAY,SUN

DAY,OCTO

BER29,

2017

LENNYAC

HAN

Achansketched keyconceptsthat aroseduring abusinessmeeting in aManhattanrestaurant,right. Below,at 16, Achanpainted amural on hisbedroomwall.

LUISLA

MBO

Y

scenario in my head around,‘OK, I could do this.’ ”

Inspired by compassionBeing an artist wasn’t

Achan’s career trajectory,though. He also harbored adream of being a male nurse.

At age 9, Achan sustainedsevere injuries in a car crashwhile returning from DisneyWorld in Orlando, Florida,with his family. Being sand-wiched between luggage likelysaved his life — along with hismother and grandmother’slives — when a drunken driverrear-ended them going 85 mph.

When Achan looks back athis week in the hospital, hesaid it isn’t tests or his wheel-chair that he remembers. Itwas the compassion of hismale nurse.

“The power of that singleinteraction, an introductionresulting from a disaster andchaos, was all wiped clean bycompassion,” Achan said.“That is what ultimately mademe a nurse.”

Achan began attendingAdelphi University in 1996 fornursing, and despite shoulder-ing a failing grade in his firstnursing class, secured hisdegree three years later anddove into clinical work. As hiscareer gained momentum, hisartwork would fall by thewayside for more than adecade.

Achan worked for two yearsas a nurse in the intensive careunit at Mount Sinai QueensHospital in Long Island Citybefore an award and recogni-tion from upper-level officialspropelled him to the businessside, where he has been ahealth care executive for 16years. His positions have in-cluded being vice president ofinternational business develop-ment and chief communica-tions officer for the MountSinai Health System, as well aschief innovation officer for theHospital for Special Surgeryfor the past 18 months. Achanalso became the first nurseappointed to Adelphi’s boardof trustees, and he holds a slewof degrees and has createdabout five apps — some regard-ing health care and medicine,

COVER STORY from E6

See COVER STORY on E10

COVERSTORY

LUISLA

MBO

Y

Achan worked on origami-inspired art in this Bronx studio in 2014.

LENNYAC

HAN

Lenny Achan and his children, Lenny III and Katherine, work on one of many art projects in the family’s Bellmore backyard.

BRUC

EGILBERT

Drawing from many ideasnewsday.com/lilifeE8

NEW

SDAY

,SU

NDA

Y,OCT

OBER29,20

17newsday.co

mLILIFE

N1

Achan paints astylized sharkas part of amural createdwith LuisLamboy inBushwick,Brooklyn, in2016 on theoutside wall ofan art supplystore. Left,travelers onthe roadsbetween NewYork City andNorth Carolinamight seeAchan andLamboy’s workon the sides ofan 18-wheelerthat regularlyruns the truckroutes betweenthose states.

some not — through side ven-tures.

His success “is amazing, andI think it’s even more incrediblebecause I’ve been there fromthe beginning,” said KimberlyAchan, a speech pathologist inEast Meadow who works withchildren on the autism spec-trum. She met her husbandthrough a cousin, and later sheand Achan began dating in 1993while in high school. “Everysingle thing he’s wanted to do,he’s achieved.”

Amid this ascent, though,Achan said, he thought he hadabandoned art. It took him timeto realize that in actuality hehad only developed a differentway of using it.

Achan uses art to put peopleat ease and brighten their days.As an ICU nurse, he assumedthat role directly, acting as“anyone they needed me to bein that moment” to comfortthem, he said.

He also uses it to break downsocioeconomic barriers. As anentrepreneur, Achan inventedRateMyHospital, an app thatempowers patients from everyacademic medical center inNew York City and 14 healthsystems nationwide to sharetheir experiences. And as chiefinnovation officer at the Hospi-tal for Special Surgery, he col-laborates with inventors, bio-mechanical engineers andscientists to design and com-mercialize products and ser-vices that improve health careglobally.

Achan uses art to bring to lifewhat is stuck in his head—sometimes for aweek, some-times a year. As a health careexecutive and leader, businessideas or processes are alwaysvisualized for his colleagues:first with a circle, then a “rippleeffect” of subsequent bubbles.Meetings sans fervent drawingonwhiteboards are few and farbetween.

This ability to innovate andmake complexities simple israre for the industry, said Con-nie Kristine-Klepper, who hasworked with Achan in theMount Sinai Health System forabout 13 years.

“When somebody says that he

thinks outside of the box, inLenny’s head it’s like, ‘Whatbox?’ ” said Kristine-Klepper,senior vice president in thecontracts office. “The universeof intelligence is Lenny’s play-ground.”

With increased autonomy andwith encouragement fromLam-boy, Achan brought that play-ground back to canvas in 2012.

The bulk of his recent workare spray-painted or cutoutorigami animals, boats andplanes, many ofwhich aremadewith pieces of subwaymaps,

with the intent to alleviate theviewer’s stress and elicitmemo-ries of innocence and childhood.

Art merging history,science, math

Achan also thinks moreabout history and the underly-ing mathematical and scientificcomplexity of art following hiseducation and career. His threeportraits of Abraham Lincoln,for example — all wood can-vases lined with pennies,doused in resin, torched and

spray-painted — speak to thechanges in money’s value overtime and nature’s indeliblepresence in everyday life.

The portraits are a few of themore than 100 pieces Achan hassold since 2015. Seventy-fivepercent of the pieces in TheCornelia Street Café exhibit soldoutwithin the first hour ofopening night in September.Prices for his art usually rangefrom$2,000 to $3,000.

As Achan churns out newartwork in anticipation of ajoint New York show with

Lamboy in January, his chil-dren, Lenny III, 9, and Kather-ine, 6, will continue to be hishelpers. They shake his spraycans, help choose colors andget 10 percent of the earningswhen paintings they contributeto sell.

About 25 canvases sit onAchan’s dining room table,waiting to be filled. Maybe hewould make progress the fol-lowing morning, he said, beforeheading to work.

“I’m really happy,” Achansaid. “I’m happy just being me.”

COVER STORY from E8

LENNYAC

HAN

LENNYAC

HAN

COVERSTORY

Innovatorwearingmany hats

newsday.com/lilifeE10

NEW

SDAY

,SU

NDA

Y,OCT

OBER29,20

17newsday.co

mLILIFE

N1