Floyd Loop, MD, former chairman and CEO of Cleveland Clinic and predecessor of current chief Delos M. Cosgrove, MD, died on Thursday of sarcoma. He was 78.
Dr. Loop joined Cleveland Clinic in 1970 as a cardiac surgeon and served as chairman and CEO from 1989 to 2004. During his time as CEO, Dr. Loop helped lead Cleveland Clinic through a financial turnaround despite his lack of formal business training, according to a Cleveland.com report.
Over the course of his time at Cleveland Clinic, he performed over 12,000 heart surgeries and published 350 papers, according to a Fox 8 report. Following his retirement in 2004, Dr. Loop continued to serve on various boards and act as a mentor. In 2009, he published "Leadership and Medicine."
"The legacy of Dr. Loop is all around us. We can never forget all he's done to make Cleveland Clinic one of the world's great medical centers," Dr. Cosgrove said in a statement.