Healthcare has been moving from volume to value-based care for the past decade with the passage and implementation of the ACA; now healthcare institutions need strong leadership to navigate the changing industry tides as Congress seeks to repeal and replace the ACA while continuing to promote higher quality care at a lower cost.
Here are 100 exemplary leaders of healthcare providers, government agencies, insurers and companies with successful track records leading their organizations.
For questions or comments on this list, contact Laura Dyrda at ldyrda@beckershealthcare.com.
Nancy Howell Agee. President and CEO of Carilion Clinic (Roanoke, Va.). Ms. Agee began her career at Carilion Clinic in the 1970s as a nurse and eventually became to president and CEO in July 2011. During her tenure as executive vice president and COO of Carilion Clinic — from 2001 to 2011 — she helped lead efforts to transform the institution into a patient-centric, physician-led organization. Ms. Agee practices servant leadership, placing the institution's employees and patients as her first priorities, she told Becker's Hospital Review in an August 2015 interview. On Jan. 1, 2016, she began a three-year term on the American Hospital Association board of trustees; six months later she became the chairwoman-elect and will serve as president next year.
Rhonda Anderson. Senior Vice President and CFO of Ascension Health (St. Louis). Before joining Ascension Health in October 2014, where she provides strategic and operational financial leadership to the management team and CEO, Ms. Anderson was president and CFO of Milwaukee-based Columbia St. Mary's business development division. She also spent 20 years in various leadership positions in the industry, including senior vice president and CFO at Saint Agnes HealthCare in Baltimore. Ms. Anderson believes the key to successful leadership is looking at change as opportunity, according to a September 2015 interview with Becker's Hospital Review. She promotes flexibility in seeking strategic partners and building relationships with health systems, payers and other providers.
James Andrews, MD. Founder of Andrews Institute for Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine (Gulf Breeze, Fla.). In 2007, Dr. Andrews founded the Andrews Institute for Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine in Gulf Breeze, Fla., which now includes 40 affiliated physicians. He previously practiced in Alabama, founding the successful Andrews Sports Medicine which continues to serve patients today. He served as president of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine from 2008 to 2009 and during that time the organization launched the STOP Sports Injuries in youth athletes program. He also built a reputation for treating high-profile athletes, such as Michael Jordan and Brett Favre, and he appears on a Topps baseball training card for his work performing shoulder and elbow surgeries.
Barry S. Arbuckle, PhD. President and CEO of MemorialCare Health System (Fountain Valley, Calif.). MemorialCare Health System, a nonprofit integrated healthcare delivery system, which has five hospitals and over 200 sites of care in Southern California, has grown to report more than $2 billion in annual revenues under Dr. Arbuckle's leadership, which began in 2002. During this time, MemorialCare has experienced unprecedented growth and financial performance, growing in prominence regionally and nationally with partnerships, joint ventures and affiliations with other health systems, employers, health plans and universities. A member of the Healthcare Leadership Council in Washington, DC, he served as chair of California Hospital Association and March of Dimes-California. Dr. Arbuckle is also board chairman for MemorialCare Innovation Fund, a strategic investment vehicle associated with the health system that invests in medical device, health IT and health services companies.
Carl S. Armato. President and CEO of Novant Health (Winston-Salem, N.C.). Mr. Armato became the president and CEO of Novant Health in 2012 and currently oversees more than 1,200 physicians and 26,000 employees at outpatient facilities, medical centers and clinics. He joined the health system as vice president of finance for the Charlotte and Winston-Salem physician divisions in 1998 and worked his way up to his current role. Under his leadership, the health system gained HIMSS' Stage 7 Ambulatory Award in 2013 after a systemwide conversion to the Epic EHR system. He also serves as a member of the VHA board of directors and on the executive committee of the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce.
Mona Hanna-Attisha, MD. Director of the Pediatric Residency Program at Hurley Medical Center (Flint, Mich.). Dr. Hanna-Attisha is the director of the Michigan State University and Hurley Children's Hospital Public Health Initiative, an effort to mitigate the impact of lead in the drinking water of Flint, Mich. Dr. Hurley rose to prominence for studying lead levels in Flint's drinking water and exposing the problem in September 2015. Time named Dr. Hanna-Attisha among the 100 Influential People of the Year in 2016 and she received the Michigan State Medical Society Public Health Leadership Award last year. In addition to her public health efforts, Dr. Hanna-Attisha dedicates her career to teaching the next generation of physicians as director of Hurley Medical Center's pediatric residency program. During her tenure, she doubled the number of women faculty in the program.
Mark T. Bertolini. Chairman and CEO of Aetna (Hartford, Conn.). Mr. Bertolini assumed his CEO role at Aetna in November 2010 and the role of chairman in April 2011. The insurer reported more than $60 billion in 2015 revenue and covers around 46.5 million people. According to a New York Times profile, Mr. Bertolini had a near-death experience which inspired him to overhaul Aetna's culture; the company now offers employees free yoga and meditation to reduce stress and increase productivity. He also increased company's minimum wage from $12 to $16 in 2015, giving his lowest-paid employees a 33 percent raise.
Don Berwick, MD. President Emeritus and Senior Fellow of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (Cambridge, Mass.). Dr. Berwick is the president emeritus and senior fellow of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving healthcare around the world. He rose to national prominence as CMS administrator under President Barack Obama from 2010 to 2011, a position he took after a long career in healthcare. A pediatrician by training, Dr. Berwick has served on the faculty of Boston-based Harvard Medical School and staffs of Boston Children's Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. He also co-founded and served as co-principal investigator for the National Demonstration Project on Quality Improvement in Health Care and is a past president of the International Society for Medical Decision-Making. President Bill Clinton appointed him to the Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Healthcare Industry, where he served in 1997 and 1998.
Leah Binder. President and CEO of The Leapfrog Group (Washington, D.C.). Under her watch, the Leapfrog Group launched Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade as well as the Leapfrog Hospital Survey, which has led to innovations in healthcare. In addition to heading Leapfrog, Ms. Binder contributes to Forbes, Huffington Post and The Wall Street Journal. She has served on the Health Care Financial Management Association Leadership Advisory Committee, the Institutes of Medicine Collaboration on Patient Engagement and the AARP's Champions for Nursing Strategic Advisory Council. Ms. Binder also has experience with politics, spending time as the senior advisor for the office of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in New York City.
Lynn Britton. President and CEO of Mercy (St. Louis). Mr. Britton became the president and CEO of Mercy in 2009 after spending 18 years with the health system. The 32-hospital health system includes more than 700 physician practices and outpatient facilities. His leadership style encompasses lessons learned from the past while pursuing future goals and, according to a University of Miami School of Business report, he created a culture at the health system that stimulates innovation and encourages physician leaders to pursue new ideas that could change the industry. He continues to position Mercy for strategic partnerships and organizes roundtables in the communities the ministry serves to better understand how to care for patients.
Brett Brodnax. President and Chief Development Officer of United Surgical Partners International (Addison, Texas). Mr. Brodnax was assistant vice president at Baylor Health Care System in Houston before joining USPI in 1999; he became president of the organization in June 2011. The organization includes more than 20 imaging centers and 265 short-stay surgical facilities with partnerships including 50 health systems and more than 4,000 physicians. Mr. Brodnax led the company through its partial sale to Tenet in March 2015; Tenet purchased 50.1 percent of the joint venture company with the intention of purchasing the remaining 49.9 percent from USPI and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe through 2020.
Marna Borgstrom. CEO of Yale New Haven Health System (New Haven, Conn.). Ms. Borgstrom became interested in healthcare early in life, as her father was a physician and she would attend house calls with him. She joined Yale New Haven Hospital in 1979 and became the CEO of the system in 2005. She also serves on the boards for VHA and the Association of American Medical Colleges. As a member of the AAMC's Women of Influence group, she participated in efforts to establish a mentorship program, according to an Advisory Board report.
Jonathan Bush. CEO, Co-founder and President of athenahealth (Watertown, Mass.). Mr. Bush co-founded athenahealth in 1997 and has been the CEO, president and chairman of the board since the company's inception. His previous experience includes time as a medical technician in New Orleans and working as a management consultant with Booz Allen & Hamilton. Last year, Boston-based Tufts Medical Center presented Mr. Bush with the Ellen M. Zane Award for Visionary Leadership for his efforts with athenahealth and his New York Times best seller Where Does it Hurt? An Entrepreneur's Guide to Fixing Healthcare. In a LinkedIn post, Mr. Bush credited his current success to learning from previous failures and having luck on his side.
Margaret Chan, MD. Director-General of World Health Organization (Geneva, Switzerland). Ms. Chan joined the Hong Kong Department of Health in 1978 to begin her career in healthcare. She became Hong Kong's director of Health in 1994 and joined the World Health Organization in 2003 as the director of the department for protection of the human environment. She was elected WHO's director-general in 2006 and again in 2012; she'll continue to serve until June 30, 2017. The WHO recently reported 1.7 million children die per year due to a polluted environment, and the organization issued recommendations for creating safer environments for children.
Mark Chassin, MD. President and CEO of The Joint Commission (Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.). As president and CEO of The Joint Commission, Dr. Chassin oversees the company's standards-setting and accrediting body. Under his leadership, the organization launched the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare in 2009 to work with hospitals and health systems to address the most critical safety and quality issues. Before joining The Joint Commission, Dr. Chassin was the Edmond A. Guggenheim Professor of Health Policy and founding chairman of the department of health policy at New York City-based Mount Sinai Medical Center where he built the quality improvement program.
Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD. Director of the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, Md.). President Barack Obama named Dr. Collins the 16th director of the National Institutes of Health in 2009, and President Donald Trump asked him to stay on indefinitely. He has a background as a physician-geneticist and was a leader of the international Human Genome project, which completed the first sequence of the human DNA instruction book in 2003. In 2007, Dr. Collins received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the National Medal of Science for his work with the Institutes of Medicine, where he was the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute from 1993 to 2008.
Liz Concordia. CEO of UCHealth (Aurora, Colo.). Ms. Concordia joined UCHealth as president and CEO in September 2014 after serving as executive vice president and president of UPMC's hospital and community services division. UCHealth has operating revenue of $3.2 billion and workforce of 17,000 people. Under her leadership, the health system is focused on fostering new innovation and technologies to provide better patient care as well as developing new care models, improving access to care and expanding its footprint in the region. Ms. Concordia is responsible for supporting the health system's academic mission and strategic partnerships as well.
David Cordani. President and CEO of Cigna (Bloomfield, Conn.). As president and CEO of Cigna, Mr. Cordani doubled the size of the company in five years, which now includes operations and capabilities in more than 30 countries. He was able to deliver 14 percent compound annual growth rate of revenue and adjusted income from operations between 2009 and 2013 as well as successfully integrate global acquisitions, including the $3.8 billion purchase of HealthSpring. In 2014, he was named to the General Mills board of directors and a year later became a member of the U.S.-India Business Council board of directors.
Steven J. Corwin, MD. President and CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian (New York City). Dr. Corwin became president and CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian in 2011; the health system has nearly doubled since then to treat more than 2 million patients per year. A cardiologist and internist by training, Dr. Corwin joined NewYork-Presbyterian in 1979 and served as senior vice president and CMO from 1998 to 2005 where he led development and implementation of 13 clinical service lines. Dr. Corwin encourages innovative approaches to patient-centered care and he oversaw the planning and construction of several care facilities, including a new ambulatory care center on Manhattan's Upper East Side scheduled to open next year.
Kim Cripe. CEO of Children's Hospital of Orange County (Orange, Calif.). Ms. Cripe became president and CEO of Children's Hospital of Orange County in 1997 during a period of financial loss. She recruited an executive team and added physician leaders to the hospital to create multiple centers of excellence and turn around the hospital's financial situation. She has dedicated her career to finding ways to improve healthcare for children and adolescents, and one of her most recent projects — a mental health inpatient center — is set to open next year. She was recently appointed to the Children's Hospital Association board of directors.
Delos "Toby" Cosgrove, MD. President and CEO of Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Cosgrove joined Cleveland Clinic in 1975 and became the chairman of the thoracic and cardiovascular surgery department in 1989. He was named president and CEO of Cleveland Clinic in 2004 after helping launch Cleveland Clinic Innovations, the health system's technology transfer and commercialization arm. Under his leadership, the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine became the first tuition-free medical school as part of his efforts to encourage students to enter any field of medicine instead of just the highest-paying specialties. President Donald Trump named Dr. Cosgrove to his panel of 16 business leaders to advise on how the government affects job and economic growth.
R. Blake Curd, MD. CEO of Sioux Falls (S.D) Specialty Hospital. In 2015, Dr. Curd became the CEO of Sioux Falls (S.D.) Specialty Hospital and continues his hand surgery practice with the Orthopedic Institute in Sioux Falls. He is serving his second term as the president of Physician Hospitals of America, a national organization dedicated to supporting and advocating for physician-owned hospitals; he was initially elected president in September 2014. In 2013, he was elected to the South Dakota Senate after serving in the state House of Representatives from 2009 to 2011. He currently serves as the South Dakota State Senate Republican majority leader. Dr. Curd also has experience as chairman of the board of directors for Surgical Management Professionals and manager for Medical Facilities Corp., both of which manage physician-owned entities.
Lloyd Dean. President and CEO of Dignity Health (San Francisco). Mr. Dean joined Dignity Health in 2000 after serving as executive vice president and COO of Advocate Health Care in Downers Grove, Ill. At Dignity Health, Mr. Dean has focused on creating a strong culture "Each of us are equal spokes on a wheel, and you need all the spokes on the wheel to turn," he said in a December 2016 interview with Becker's Hospital Review. Mr. Dean also chairs the board of directors for the San Francisco-based Committee on Jobs, focused on promoting long-term economic viability in the city.
Ronald DePinho, MD. Former President of MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston). Dr. DePinho began his appointment as the fourth president of MD Anderson Cancer Center in September 2011 and recently announced his resignation. An internal medicine physician by training, Dr. DePinho spent 14 years at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, where he was the founding director of the Belfer Institute for Applied Cancer Science, before joining MD Anderson. He plans to turn his attention next to national cancer and health policy issues and his role as the co-chair of ACT for NIH: Advancing Cures Today, a nonpartisan effort to advance biomedical research in the U.S. through National Institutes of Health funding.
Susan DeVore. President and CEO of Premier (Charlotte, N.C.). Ms. DeVore leads Premier, which serves around 3,750 hospitals and 130,000 other healthcare providers across the U.S. She also serves on the board of trustees of the Healthcare Leadership Council and is a board member for the Coalition to Protect America's Healthcare. Under her leadership, Premier has won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and earned the Best in KLAS title for Value-based Care Advisory Services. In 2013, Ms. DeVore helped take Premier public, raising $874 million.
Kris Doody, RN. CEO of Cary Medical Center (Caribou, Maine). Ms. Doody began working at Cary Medical Center as a certified nurse's aid when she was 15 years old and eventually was named the hospital's COO in 1994. She became CEO in 1999. Throughout her career, Ms. Doody has been an advocate for rural healthcare and received national recognition for her leadership skills. Brentwood, Tenn.-based Quorum Health Resources, CMC's parent company, named her CEO of the year last year, and software-as-a-service company SafeCare Group named CMC among the top 100 hospitals in the country for excellence in evidence-based care.
Michael Dowling. President and CEO of Northwell Health (New Hyde Park, N.Y.). Mr. Dowling has been president and CEO of Northwell Health, formerly North Shore-LIJ Health System, since 2002. He oversees the system, which includes 21 hospitals, 450 ambulatory and physician practices and four skilled nursing facilities. Before joining Northwell, he spent time as the state director of health, education and human services, deputy secretary to the governor and commissioner of the New York State Department of Social Services. He told Becker's Hospital Review in a March 2016 interview that he strives for continual improvement, constantly raising the bar to build long-term sustainability and growth in his organization.
Susan Ehrlich, MD. CEO of Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center. Dr. Ehrlich became CEO of the 397-bed Pricilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center in April 2016 after spending seven years as the CEO of San Mateo (Calif.) Medical Center overseeing a staff of nearly 1,500 and budget of $270 million. In her current role, she leads a staff and faculty of 5,400 and manages a budget of $1.1 billion. An internist by training, Dr. Ehrlich has devoted her career to caring for patients and continues to operate her practice in behavioral and developmental pediatric and adolescent medicine at the Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital Trauma Center.
David Entwistle. President and CEO of Stanford (Calif.) Health Care. Stanford Health Care named Mr. Entwistle president and CEO effective July 5, 2016, and he will lead the health system through the opening of a new Stanford Hospital in 2018. He previously served as CEO of the University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics in Salt Lake City from February 2007 to June 2016. Under his leadership, UUHC was ranked among the U.S. News & World Report's Best Hospitals list and earned the No. 1 spot on the University HealthSystem Consortium's Quality and Accountability scorecard in 2010.
Melinda Estes, MD. President and CEO of Saint Luke's Health System (Kansas City, Mo.). Dr. Estes became the president of Saint Luke's Health System in June 2011, bringing experience as president and CEO of Burlington, Vt.-based Fletcher Allen Health Care and Naples-based Cleveland Clinic Florida with her to her new role. Under her leadership, the 10-hospital system partnered with BJC HealthCare of Saint Louis, CoxHealth of Springfield, Mo., and Memorial Health System of Springfield, Ill., to form the BJC Collaborative, a collaborative focused on helping one another achieve population health management, clinical quality, financial services and information systems management.
David Fajgenbaum, MD. Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network. Dr. Fajgenbaum co-founded the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network in 2012 to accelerate research and treatment for the rare disease of the lymph nodes and related tissues. Castleman disease is similar to lymphomas and is often treated with chemotherapy or radiation therapy. As a medical student, Dr. Fajgenbaum was diagnosed with Castleman disease and he immediately became a champion of its research and cutting-edge treatment; he developed the collaborative after realizing how little research was done on the rare disease hoping to open communication channels between healthcare professionals researching and treating the disease. He is also an assistant professor of medicine in the division of translational medicine and human genetics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and a senior fellow of the university's Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics.
Judy Faulkner. CEO and Founder of Epic Systems (Verona, Wis.). In 1979, Ms. Faulkner founded Epic Systems with a $6,000 investment and grew the company into a leading EHR system, reporting $1.77 billion in 2014 gross revenue. The system received the No. 1 Best in KLAS award for overall software suite in 2017, ranking for the seventh consecutive year. Ms. Faulkner leads the company's approximately 9,000 employees to support the 190 million patient records managed on Epic systems. She demands good work from her team and enforces the corporate philosophy of keeping commitments to customers, according to a March 2016 interview with Becker's Hospital Review. In March 2016 she donated $900,000 to the private school in Moorestown, N.J., that inspired her to create the company.
David Feinberg, MD. President and CEO of Geisinger Health System (Danville, Pa.). Dr. Feinberg served as CEO and associate vice chancellor of UCLA Hospital System from 2007 until 2015, when he took over as president and CEO of Geisinger Health System. After taking on his current position at Geisinger, the health system has made several changes to become more patient-centric, including expanding Geisinger's ProvenCare portfolio of clinical protocols to include ProvenExperience, which allows patients to request a refund based on their experience at the health system.
John J. Finan Jr. President and CEO of Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System (Baton Rouge, La.). Mr. Finan leads a team of more than 14,000 members at Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System and several hundred physicians to provide care for patients in southern Louisiana. Last year the hospital held a groundbreaking for the St. Francis Medical Office Building-Ruston, the system's first campus in Lincoln Parish, which required a $4 million investment. The health system also joined the La Palma, Calif.-based Innovation Institute and submitted more than 160 ideas to reduce cost; around eight of those ideas are going into development. Mr. Finan champions accountability to achieve goals successfully, according to a March 2017 newsletter.
Halee Fischer-Wright, MD. President and CEO of Medical Group Management Association (Englewood, Colo.). MGMA named Dr. Fischer-Wright president and CEO on Feb. 20, 2015, and she is now responsible for providing strategic leadership and vision to MGMA and implementing the association's new three-year strategic plan. Her previous experience includes serving as the CMO of St. Anthony North Health Campus in Westminster, Colo., part of Centennial, Colo.-based Centura Health, where she was charged with guiding the organization's culture toward team-based and patient-centric care. She also spent 12 years as president of the Rose Medical Group in Denver and co-authored Tribal Leadership, a New York Times best-selling book.
Teri Fontenot. President and CEO of Woman's Hospital (Baton Rouge, La.). As president and CEO of 350-bed Woman's Hospital, Ms. Fontenot led the organization through opening its $340 million replacement campus in August 2012. That same year, she chaired the American Hospital Association board of trustees and she has previous experience as chair of the American College of Healthcare Executives' Chief Executive Officers Committee. In an interview with Becker's Hospital Review, Ms. Fontenot said her role as CEO is to "aspire" and "inspire"; she develops a vision and strategic plan for the hospital and then creates excitement among her team members to accomplish their goals.
Laura Forese, MD. Executive Vice President and COO of NewYork-Presbyterian (New York City). Dr. Forese joined NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in 2003 as vice president of medical affairs and was named to her current role as the executive vice president and COO in 2013. She is responsible for implementing the health system's patient-centric strategic vision and achieving its operating targets. A pediatric orthopedic surgeon by training, Dr. Forese has been CMO, group senior vice president and COO for NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell, NewYork-Presbyterian/Westchester and NewYork-Presbyterian/Lower Manhattan.
Deb Gage. President and CEO of Medecision (Philadelphia). Ms. Gage oversees Medecision's mission to transform healthcare "one big app at a time" and also directs the company's growth and innovation. She sees herself as an "instigator" with the population health management solutions company and excels at assembling A-team talent to transform her strategic vision into reality. Before joining Medecision, Ms. Gage held entrepreneurial senior executive positions in the healthcare technology sector and was an early team member at Truven Healthcare. Ms. Gage also served as the chair of the Women's Leadership Council at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business in Ann Arbor for more than 10 years.
Robert Garrett. Co-CEO of Hackensack (N.J.) Meridian Health Network. Mr. Garrett served as president and CEO of Hackensack University Health Network for seven years before the health system merged with Meridian Health last June, after which he assumed his current position. He provided senior leadership to the health system through a series of acquisitions, mergers, partnerships and affiliations. He is a member of The Wall Street Journal CEO Council, a group of business leaders from around the world that gather to discuss issues shaping the future, and was named on the NJBIZ "Power 50 Health Care" list last year.
Bill and Melinda Gates. Co-Chairs of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Seattle). Mr. Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, and his wife Mrs. Gates founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to tackle critical problems for the world's most vulnerable populations. The foundation's global health division delivers supplies to developing countries, such as vaccines and drugs, to tackle health issues including AIDS. With experience building the Microsoft empire and success with his foundation, Mr. Gates advised leaders to pursue their passions, work tirelessly and look forward regardless of their missteps in an Entrepreneur report.
Atul Gawande, MD. Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Boston). Dr. Gawande wears many hats, practicing general and endocrine surgery at Boston-based Brigham and Women's Hospital in addition to his professorships and role as executive director of Ariadne Labs, a joint center between Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health for health systems innovation. He has also authored four books that appeared on the New York Times best-seller list and regularly contributes to the New Yorker, writing on healthcare-related topics. Best known for his book The Checklist Manifesto, Dr. Gawande has influenced how hospitals and healthcare providers deliver quality, cost-effective care.
Steven I. Goldstein. President and CEO of Strong Memorial Hospital (Rochester, N.Y.). Mr. Goldstein is responsible for directing all aspects of Strong Memorial Hospital's operations and efforts to succeed in a managed care environment. He also served on the American Hospital Association's board of trustees in 2009 and is a past chairman of the board for the Healthcare Association for New York State. He has been instrumental in detailing efforts hospitals could undertake to achieve savings in a value-based healthcare delivery system post-ACA and has experience as the vice president of the University of Rochester (N.Y.) Medical Center and president of URMC's long-term care division.
Larry Goodman, MD. CEO of Rush University Medical Center and CEO of Rush (Chicago). Mr. Goodman became CEO of Rush University Medical Center in 2002 and continues to hold the James A. Campbell, MD, Distinguished Service Chairmanship at Rush. Under his leadership, the hospital has consistently ranked among the U.S. News & World Report's top hospitals. He is also CEO of Rush, an academic health system. Over the past decade, the hospital has undergone a $1 billion campus transformation with Dr. Goodman at the helm, opening a new hospital in 2012 designed to improve patient outcomes. During his tenure, the enrollment at Rush University more than doubled to 2,500 students, and last year the hospital reported operating revenue that exceeded $2 billion.
Robert I. Grossman, MD. CEO of NYU Langone Medical Center (New York City). Dr. Grossman became the Saul J. Farber Dean and CEO of NYU Langone Medical Center in July 2007, and under his leadership the hospital campus has added 3.3 million square feet of clinical and research space. Since Dr. Grossman took the helm at NYU Langone Medical Center, the hospital's revenue increased by more than $3 billion, and the hospital has raised $2 billion in philanthropy. He also has experience leading through disaster; during Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the hospital evacuated 322 patients safely. For his leadership efforts, the New York Landmark Conservancy named Dr. Grossman a "Living Landmark" in 2013.
Lisa E. Harris, MD. CEO of Eskenazi Health (Indianapolis). Dr. Harris oversees more than 1,000 physicians as CEO of Eskenazi Health, formerly Wishard Health System. She was appointed CEO in 2004 after serving as CMO of the system and CMO of the primary care division of Indiana University Medical Group. She has experience as chair of America's Essential Hospitals and medical director and president-elect of the board of directors of the American Red Cross of Greater Indianapolis. In 2013, Girls Inc. named Dr. Harris among its "Imagination in Action" Touchstone Award winners for her work leading the health system and advocating on behalf of vulnerable populations on Capitol Hill.
Dean Harrison. President and CEO of Northwestern Memorial HealthCare (Chicago). Mr. Harrison joined Northwestern Memorial HealthCare in 1998 and was instrumental in creating Northwestern Medicine, an integrated academic health system anchored by Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern Medical Group. The health system includes seven hospitals, more than 100 ambulatory and diagnostic sites and 4,400-plus physicians. The U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency honored Mr. Harrison with the 2010 CEO Leadership Circle of Excellence Award for Diversity.
Marc Harrison, MD. President and CEO of Intermountain Healthcare (Salt Lake City, Utah). A pediatric critical care specialist by training, Dr. Harrison became president and CEO of Intermountain Healthcare in October 2016. He was previously the chief of international business development for Cleveland Clinic where he developed and implemented the system's international strategy. He also spent time as the CEO of Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, which added 12 institutions, five centers of excellence and 30-plus medical and surgical specialties under his leadership.
Andrew Hayek. Chairman and CEO of Surgical Care Affiliates (Deerfield, Ill.). Mr. Hayek became the president and CEO of Surgical Care Affiliates in 2008 after serving as the president of a division of Denver-based DaVita Healthcare Partners and president and COO of Alliance Healthcare Services in Newport Beach, Calif. He is an Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellow class of 2013 and chairman of SCA Medical Missions, which provides medical services for the underserved population in Honduras. Under his leadership, SCA went public and has grown to operate more than 180 surgical facilities in 34 states. Mr. Hayek also serves on the board of advisors for healthcare analytics company Sg2 and as a trustee of the Village of Glencoe, Ill.
Stephen Hemsley. CEO of UnitedHealth Group (Minnetonka, Minn.). Mr. Hemsley joined UnitedHealth Group in 1997 and became the president and CEO in November 2006. Under his leadership the company invests nearly $3.2 billion in technology and innovation annually and processes more than 750 billion digital transactions per year. Through its two platforms — health insurer UnitedHealthcare and Optum, which provides integrated solutions to hospitals and health systems to improve population health — the company provides people in all 50 states and 125 other countries with a workforce of more than 260,000 people worldwide.
Rodney F. Hochman, MD. President and CEO of Providence St. Joseph Health (Renton, Wash.). A rheumatology and internal medicine physician by training, Dr. Hochman is responsible for leading Providence St. Joseph Health, a health system with 50 hospitals and more than 23,000 physicians. Dr. Hochman has extensive leadership experience, serving as president and CEO of Seattle-based Swedish Health Services and executive vice president of Sentara Healthcare in Norfolk, Va. Under Dr. Hochman's leadership, Sentara Norfolk General Hospital won the American Hospital Association's Quest for Quality national award in 2002. Modern Physician magazine has honored Dr. Hochman twice as one of its "50 Most Powerful Physician Executives in Healthcare."
Regina Herzlinger, PhD. Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School (Boston). Dr. Herzlinger was the first female among Harvard Business School's tenured and chaired professors and the first women to serve on various healthcare and medical technology boards at the institution. She has published various books on healthcare, earning reverence as the "godmother" of consumer-driven healthcare. Dr. Herzlinger says other nations have successful healthcare systems due to ability to innovate, and she launched the nonprofit Global Educators Network for Health Care Innovation Education, which supports the various institutions that established courses and programs focused on promoting healthcare innovation.
Christopher Holden. President and CEO of Envision Healthcare Corp. (Greenwood Village, Colo.). Mr. Holden was director and president and CEO of Nashville, Tenn.-based AmSurg from 2007 until the company finalized its merger with Envision Healthcare in 2016. He is currently the president and CEO of Envision, which has a net worth of $10 billion following its deal with AmSurg. Mr. Holden has more than three decades of healthcare industry experience and was Mr. Holden was among the founding members and officers of Plano, Texas-based Triad Hospitals in May 1999, where he went on to serve as senior vice president and division president.
Anupam B. Jena, MD, PhD. Ruth L. Newhouse Associate Professor of Healthcare Policy at Harvard Medical School (Boston). Dr. Jena has conducted research on various facets of healthcare including the economics of physician behavior, physician workforce, healthcare productivity and medical innovation. The National Institutes of Health granted Dr. Jena the Director's Early Independence Award for his research on the physician determinants of healthcare spending, quality and patient outcomes. Dr. Jena's research found women physicians earn an average of $20,000 per year less than their male counterparts, according to a study JAMA Internal Medicine published in 2016. The International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research awarded Dr. Jena the New Investigator Award in 2015.
R. Milton Johnson. Chairman and CEO of Hospital Corporation of America (Nashville, Tenn.). Mr. Johnson oversees 171 hospitals and 118 freestanding surgery centers throughout the United States and the United Kingdom as chairman and CEO of HCA. HCA offered an estimated $2.7 billion in uncompensated care and invested $2.4 billion in capital spending in 2016 to expand or offer new services to communities throughout the nation. Joining HCA in 1982, Mr. Johnson has held numerous leadership positions including CFO, executive vice president and director. He became president in 2011 and CEO in January 2014. The Federation of American Hospitals named Mr. Johnson chairman-elect in 2016.
Larry Kaiser, MD. President and CEO of Temple University Health System (Philadelphia). Dr. Kaiser leads Temple Health System, a $1.6 billion academic health system that includes more than 1,000 physicians and scientists. He has served as president and CEO since 2011. A practicing thoracic surgeon, Dr. Kaiser also fills other leadership positions such as dean of Lewis Katz School of Medicine. In a June 2015 interview with Becker's Hospital Review, Dr. Kaiser said his greatest accomplishment at Temple has been the major transformation over the past five years, such as amending various financial challenges and implementing strong research and clinical programs.
Howard Kern. President and CEO of Sentara Healthcare (Norfolk, Va.). Serving as Sentara's president and CEO since March 4, Mr. Kern is responsible for overseeing the nonprofit organization that has $5.1 billion in net revenue and more than 1,000 physicians in its four medical groups. Throughout his more than 35-year executive management career, Mr. Kern has served as COO of Sentara and has experience in the hospital, managed health insurance and ambulatory services settings in addition to healthcare finance. Mr. Kern is a board member of various corporate and community boards such as St. Paul, Minn.-based HealthEast, a nonprofit integrated delivery system.
Stephen K. Klasko, MD. President and CEO of Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health (Philadelphia). Dr. Klasko has led Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health since 2013 and has played a key role in the system's expansion. The health system expanded from a three-hospital academic medical center in 2014 to transforming into an eight-hospital system. He is the author of several books including We CAN Fix Healthcare in America, published in 2016. He said in a November 2014 interview with Becker's Hospital Review that his greatest achievement at Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health was receiving a $110 million gift from the Sidney Kimmel Foundation, the largest gift in the health system's history.
Sarah Krevans. President and CEO of Sutter Health (Sacramento). Ms. Krevans has held various leadership positions since joining Sutter in 1999 as the organization's senior vice president of managed care. From 2000 to 2011, she was the regional executive officer and president of the Sutter Health Sacramento Sierra Region and then served as the COO of the 24-hospital system from 2012 to 2015. She holds an MBA and a master's in public health from the University of California, Berkeley.
Mark R. Laret. CEO of UCSF Medical Center (San Francisco). Mr. Laret oversaw the reversal of a $60 million annual loss to a $70 million annual gain in five years when he took the reins as UCSF Medical Center's CEO in 2000. With nearly three decades of healthcare management experience, he has served in numerous leadership positions at UCLA Medical Center. Mr. Laret led an initiative to build a $1.5 billion UCSF hospital complex at the medical center's Mission Bay campus, which opened in November 2014 and is comprised of hospitals for children, women's services and cancer. He helped raised $600 million in private contributions for the new facility.
Vivian Lee, MD, PhD. CEO of University of Utah Health Care (Salt Lake City). Dr. Lee oversees a $3.3 billion annual budget for the University of Utah Health Care, which includes four hospitals, 12 community clinics, the Huntsman Cancer Institute, Moran Eye Center, a health insurance plan and five colleges. She has served as senior vice president for health sciences at the University of Utah, dean of the University's School of Medicine and CEO of University of Utah Health Care since July 2011. Dr. Lee worked with the state legislature and government for additional state funding in 2013 that bolstered the medical school's class size by more than 50 percent in two years.
James Leonard, MD. President and CEO of The Carle Foundation (Urbana, Ill.). Dr. Leonard has led The Carle Foundation, the nonprofit parent company of Carle Foundation Hospital, Carle Physician Group and Health Alliance Medical Plans, for more than 15 years. He has helped the organization expand to cover more than 400,000 heath plan members, among other accomplishments. In 1984, Dr. Leonard launched his career at The Carle Foundation as a primary care physician, which he says contributes to his leadership style. Dr. Leonard has said he makes significant medical and business decisions based on the community's needs, as opposed to a specific patient, according to a May 2012 interview with Becker's Hospital Review.
Kevin Lofton. CEO of Catholic Health Initiatives (Englewood, Colo.). Mr. Lofton has led Catholic Health Initiatives, one of the largest U.S. health systems, since 2003. Under Mr. Lofton’s leadership, Catholic Health Initiatives reported operating revenues of $15.9 billion in fiscal year 2016 and provided more than $2 billion in financial assistance and community benefit, including unpaid Medicare costs. He has said he learned the most about the healthcare industry when his mother was ill; seeing her as a patient and the challenges she faced fueled his drive to better the delivery of care.
Stephen Mansfield, PhD. President and CEO of Methodist Health System (Dallas). Since 2006, Dr. Mansfield has led Methodist Health System as president and CEO, with his healthcare career beginning in the late 1960s. His other leadership positions include serving as president and CEO of the five-hospital St. Vincent Health System, based in Little Rock, Ark. Dr. Mansfield said in an April 2015 interview with Becker's Hospital Review that leaders can thrive if they are honest, forward-looking, inspiring and competent. He believes a successful team is built around those four cornerstones of leadership.
Edward Marx. Executive Vice President of the Advisory Board Consulting's Clinovations and Information Technology Leader at NYC Health + Hospitals. In his roles at Clinovations, a health IT company Advisory Board acquired in 2015, and at NYC Health + Hospitals, Mr. Marx is charged with EHR implementation and helping health IT leaders drive optimal business and clinical outcomes. In addition to these roles, which he has held since 2015, Mr. Marx serves as the governor-appointed chairman of the Texas Health Services Authority. Prior to launching his healthcare career, he served as a combat medic and combat engineer officer in the Army Reserve.
John Mazziotta, MD, PhD. Vice Chancellor of UCLA Health Sciences CEO of UCLA Health. Joining UCLA in 1983, Dr. Mazziotta became vice chancellor of UCLA Health Services and dean of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in 2015. His past leadership roles include serving as director of UCLA's Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, which he founded. Dr. Mazziotta, a neurologist, has received many awards such as the American Academy of Neurology’s Wartenberg Prize. He has published more than 260 research papers and he completed nuclear medicine training at UCLA.
Redonda Miller, MD. President of The Johns Hopkins Hospital (Baltimore). When Dr. Miller was named president of the hospital in May 2016, she became the first female president in Johns Hopkins Hospital's 127-year history. Dr. Miller centers her academic and clinical career on medical education and women's health and is a founding editor of The Johns Hopkins Internal Medicine Board Review. The Daily Record twice named Dr. Miller to its list of Maryland's Top 100 Women.
Ralph Muller. CEO of the University of Pennsylvania Health System (Philadelphia). Serving as CEO since 2003, Mr. Muller oversees six acute care hospitals, a faculty practice plan, a primary care provider network as well as multispecialty satellite facilities, home care, hospice care, long-term care and rehabilitation care. He was president and CEO of the University of Chicago Hospitals and Health System from 1985 to 2001. He serves on the National Committee for Quality Assurance's board of directors.
Elizabeth Nabel, MD. President of Brigham Health (Boston). Dr. Nabel has been president at Brigham Health — which includes Brigham and Women's Hospital, Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital and Brigham and Women's Physicians Organization — since 2010 in addition to serving as a professor of medicine at Boston-based Harvard Medical School. A cardiologist, she served as director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute from 2005 to 2009 and established centers of excellence in developing countries to fight cardiovascular and lung disease. In 2015, the NFL named Dr. Nabel to the newly created position of chief heath and medical advisor, where she advises on the league's medical, health and scientific efforts and works to better player safety, care and treatment.
Mark R. Neaman. President and CEO of NorthShore University HealthSystem (Evanston, Ill.). Mr. Neaman began his healthcare career at NorthShore, joining the health system in 1974. He has served as CEO and president since 1992. Mr. Neaman is a member of the Healthcare Leadership Council, previously serving as board chairman. The American College of Healthcare Executives awarded him the Gold Medal Award, the organization's highest recognition in 2009.
Janice Nevin, MD. President and CEO of Christiana Care Health System (Wilmington, Del.). Since Dr. Nevin was appointed to her positions in 2014, Christiana Care has won several awards, including being named one of the American Hospital Association's "Most Wired" hospitals in 2016. Christina Care was awarded the designation for its integration of care and technology. Dr. Nevin established a clinical service line structure at Christiana Care with the goal of supporting safe, high quality care across the continuum. At Christiana Care, Dr. Nevin makes patient- and family-centered care a priority with more patient and family advisers participating in Christiana Care programs and projects, according to a 2012 Pioneer Presswith Becker's Hospital Review.
John Noseworthy, MD. President and CEO of Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minn.). Dr. Noseworthy is responsible for Mayo Clinic's research, clinical and educational operations across five states as president and CEO, positions he has held since 2009. A neurologist specializing in multiple sclerosis, he is the author of more than 150 research papers, chapters and editorials as well as several books. Dr. Noseworthy has advocated for telemedicine reform, publishing an op-ed in the Pioneer Press in June 2016, saying telemedicine's growth is being stifled by regulatory barriers and that failure to update the regulations will impede patient access to affordable care.
Randy Oostra. President and CEO of ProMedica (Toledo, Ohio). Mr. Oostra is responsible for ProMedica, a nonprofit healthcare system with 15,000 employees who serve almost 4 million patient encounters annually at more than 300 sites. He held numerous other roles at ProMedica such as COO, regional president and corporate vice president of strategic business development, before he became president and CEO in 2009. Going forward into 2017, Mr. Oosta said in a January interview with Becker's Hospital Review that ProMedica is aiming to improve patient, physician and staff engagement.
Neal Patterson. Chairman of the Board, CEO and Co-Founder of Cerner (Kansas City, Mo.). Mr. Patterson co-founded Cerner in 1979 with two colleagues. The company has since expanded to become a large independent health IT company with 2015 revenue of $4.4 billion. Forbes ranked Cerner as one of the "World’s Most Innovative Companies" in 2015. Mr. Patterson is also the co-founder and an executive board member of First Hand Foundation, a nonprofit that provides care to children with critical healthcare needs.
Richard J. Pollack. President and CEO of American Hospital Association (Chicago). Mr. Pollack was named president and CEO of AHA in May 2015. He has served as the association's executive vice president for advocacy and public policy since 1991. His healthcare experience is extensive, including working as a lobbyist with the American Nurses Association and later becoming a member of AHA's Washington, D.C., office's advocacy team as vice president for federal relations and deputy director. Mr. Pollack is the 11th president and CEO of AHA in its 117-year history.
Tom Price, MD. Secretary of HHS. Dr. Price became the secretary of HHS in February. He is responsible for a $1 trillion annual budget as HHS head and is the first physician to serve in the role since Louis W. Sullivan, MD, during former President George H.W. Bush's administration. Previously, Dr. Price was a Republican representative from Georgia. Dr. Price, an orthopedic surgeon, has maintained access is vital to healthcare reform and pledged to work with every Congressional member to ensure Americans have access to affordable, high-quality care during a Senate Finance Committee hearing in January.
Ian C. Read. CEO and Chairman of the Board of Pfizer (New York City). Serving as Pfizer's CEO since 2010, Mr. Read is responsible for the global research-based biopharmaceutical company which has approximately 96,500 employees and reported $52.8 billion in 2016 revenue. He launched his career with the company in 1978 as an operational auditor and has held positions in the company's operations such as Pfizer Mexico and Pfizer Brazil. He also was president of the company's global biopharmaceutical business before taking over as CEO.
Larry Renfro. CEO of Optum (Eden Prairie, Minn.). Joining Optum's team in 2009 as CEO of the public and senior markets group, Mr. Renfro has held the overall CEO position since 2011. As CEO of Optum, he is responsible for UnitedHealth Group's health services platform, which includes OptumInsight, OptumHealth and Optum Rx. He has previously served as senior executive officer at Boston-based Fidelity Investments.
James L. Robinson III, PsyD. Senior Vice President and CEO of Methodist South (Memphis, Tenn.). Dr. Robinson has served as senior vice president and CEO of Methodist South, a 156-bed community hospital, since 2012. He had a 21-year career with the Department of Veterans Affairs, launching his VA career as a staff psychologist and later becoming a member of the agency's Senior Executive Services. He previously served as the CEO of the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Memphis, which serves more than 196,000 veterans in western Tennessee, northern Mississippi and northwest Arkansas.
Jeffrey A. Romoff. President and CEO of UPMC (Pittsburgh). Mr. Romoff is responsible for the $14 billion health system as CEO and president, positions he has held since 1992. UPMC is the largest non-governmental employer in Pennsylvania, with a nearly 65,000-member staff. Mr. Romoff has held numerous leadership roles throughout his career, including executive vice president of UPMC and vice president for health science at the University of Pittsburgh.
Paul B. Rothman, MD. Vice President of Medicine of John Hopkins University and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine (Baltimore). Dr. Rothman is responsible for the Johns Hopkins medical school and health system, which includes six hospitals, a self-funded health plan and hundreds of physicians. He has served as CEO and dean of the medical school since 2011. He is the second CEO of John Hopkins Medicine and the 14th dean of the medical school. Dr. Rothman signed a memorandum of understanding in 2015 that teamed up Johns Hopkins Medicine with Chinese company DIAN Diagnostics to spread DIAN's pathology lab services across the United States.
Richard Rothman, MD, PhD. Founder of Rothman Institute (Philadelphia). In 1970, Dr. Rothman founded Rothman Institute with the vision of developing a large academic orthopedic practice. Since then, the practice has grown to include more than 130 physicians who engage in research, teaching and innovation in addition to their clinical practices. Rothman Institute is the official orthopedic provider for the Philadelphia Phillies, Eagles, Flyers and 76ers professional athletic teams. An orthopedic surgeon by training, Dr. Rothman is a professor of orthopedic surgery at Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. He was a founder and past chairman of the board of the Specialty Care Network, now known as Healthgrades, and serves on the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons board. Dr. Rothman is a trustee of Thomas Jefferson University and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Mike Russell, MD. Founder of Texas Spine & Joint Hospital (Tyler). Dr. Russell is a founder and past board chairman of the Texas Spine & Joint Hospital in Tyler and a practicing spine surgeon with Azalea Orthopaedics in Tyler, Texas. He served as president of Physician Hospitals of America, a national trade organization representing physician-owned hospitals, from 2010 to 2012 and remains an active supporter of the industry. He was instrumental in advocating on Capitol Hill and at the state level for the ability to develop new and expand existing physician-owned hospitals after the ACA imposed a moratorium on such facilities.
Susan Salka. President, CEO and Director at AMN Healthcare (San Diego). AMN Healthcare, a healthcare workforce solutions and staffing services company, named Ms. Salka president in 2003; she took on the CEO role two years later in 2005. Under her tenure, the company expanded its offers to include managed services programs, recruitment process outsourcing, vendor management systems, predictive analytics for patient demand and staffing need, executive and interim leadership placement and advanced digital processes for sourcing healthcare professionals. In an August 2016 interview with Becker's Hospital Review, she said successful leaders know the importance of evolution and also have a strong vision that guides their organization through change.
William Sanger. Executive Chairman of the Board of Envision Healthcare (Greenwood Village, Colo.). Mr. Sanger is the executive chairman of the board of Envision Healthcare, a healthcare services provider which includes three branches: American Medical Response, which provides community-based medical transportation services; EmCare, which provides integrated facility-based physician services; and Evolution Health, which develops customized healthcare solutions for providers. Envision completed a $10 billion merger with Nashville, Tenn.-based AmSurg in 2016. Mr. Sanger is a co-founder of West Palm Beach, Fla.-based Bidon Companies, which he founded alongside Don Harvey in 1996. He is a managing partner at the company in addition to his role at Envision Healthcare.
Thomas J. Sadvary. CEO of HonorHealth (Scottsdale, Ariz.). Mr. Sadvary has led HonorHealth as CEO since June 2005 and is responsible for the healthcare system's five acute care hospitals as well as outpatient services, research and teaching programs in addition to other facilities. Mr. Sadvary played a key role in the formation of HonorHealth after Phoenix-based John C. Lincoln Health Network and Scottsdale Healthcare affiliated in 2013, finalized a merger in 2014 and announced the name of HonorHealth in 2015. Scottsdale's History Hall of Fame, which honors individuals that contribute to Scottsdale's history, inducted Mr. Sadvary in 2015.
John Jay Shannon, MD. CEO of Cook County Health & Hospitals System (Chicago). Cook County Health & Hospitals System named Dr. Shannon CEO in June 2014 after he served as interim CEO for three months and as chief of clinical integration. He spent a large portion of his healthcare at John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital of Cook County before leaving in 2007 to be executive vice president and CMO of Parkland Health & Hospital System in Dallas, where he stayed until 2012 before rejoining CCHHS in 2013. In a 2015 interview with Becker's Hospital Review, Dr. Shannon said his greatest achievement at CCHHS is the strong leadership team he assembled, noting the group is "gelling, talented and has good experience from in our system and outside our system that can address huge complexities coming in healthcare in next couple of years."
Louis Shapiro. President and CEO of Hospital for Special Surgery (New York City). Mr. Shapiro has served as Hospital for Special Surgery's president and CEO since 2006. Dr. Shapiro leads the 215-bed hospital which performs more hip surgeries and knee replacements than any other U.S. hospital. In 2017 interview with Becker's Hospital Review, Dr. Shapiro discussed the importance of the hospital's culture; while some say "culture eats strategy for lunch," Dr. Shapiro disagrees. "Culture is a strategy that if deployed correctly allows organizations to achieve a level of performance that is otherwise unattainable."
Peter Slavin, MD. President of Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston). Dr. Slavin has served as MGH's president since 2003. As president of MGH, he is responsible for the first and largest teaching hospital of Boston-based Harvard Medical School, where he is a professor of healthcare policy. Between 1999 and 2003, Dr. Slavin was chairman and CEO of the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization, comprised of more than 1,700 physicians. He was CMO at MGH from 1994 to 1997 and completed his internal medicine training at the hospital.
Johnese Spisso. President of UCLA Health and CEO of UCLA Hospital System. Ms. Spisso took over as president of UCLA Health and CEO of UCLA Hospital System as well as associate vice chancellor of UCLA Health Sciences in February 2016. Equipped with more than 30 years of experience, she is responsible for overseeing all operations of UCLA's hospitals, clinics and the system's regional outreach strategy. She was chief health system officer and vice president of medical affairs for Seattle-based University of Washington before joining UCLA and was integral in expanding UW Medicine's collaborations with regional hospitals and the operational integration of two community hospitals into UW Medicine.
David Strong. President and CEO of Orlando (Fla.) Health. In April 2015, Mr. Strong became president and CEO of Orlando Health, a $2.6 billion nonprofit healthcare system operating since 1918. He is responsible for overseeing the system which includes more than 2,000 physicians with privileges at the hospital and has 100,000-plus inpatient admissions per year. Mr. Strong was president of Raleigh, N.C.-based Rex Healthcare and COO of system affiliations for University of North Carolina Health Care in Chapel Hill prior to joining Orlando Health.
Joseph Swedish. Chairman, President and CEO of Anthem (Indianapolis). Anthem's membership has increased 11 percent, by 4 million members, since Mr. Swedish joined the health insurer's team as president and CEO in March 2013. He became Anthem's chairman of the board in December 2015. In his roles, Mr. Swedish has worked to meet the specific needs of Anthem's diverse members, with Anthem currently having operating revenue exceeding $84 billion. He has more than 44 years of healthcare leadership experience, including serving as CEO of Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health.
Marilyn Tavenner, BSN, RN. President and CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans (Washington, D.C.). Ms. Tavenner oversees AHIP, which provides health and supplemental benefits to 200 million Americans through employer-sponsored coverage, the individual insurance market and public programs. Before joining AHIP in 2015, Ms. Tavenner was CMS' administrator/principal deputy administrator for five years. She played a key role in implementing the ACA during her time at CMS, with the United States having historically low growth in overall healthcare spending when she was CMS head.
Spence Taylor, MD. President of Greenville (S.C.) Health System. Dr. Taylor became president of Greenville Health System in June 2016, previously serving as vice president of physician engagement, president and chief academic officer for GHS Clinical University and senior associate dean for academic affairs and diversity at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville. He was instrumental in the opening of USC School of Medicine Greenville in 2012. The American Board of Surgery named Dr. Taylor to serve as vice chair from 2017 to 2018.
Anthony Tersigni, EdD. President and CEO of Ascension (St. Louis). Dr. Tersigni became the first president and CEO of Ascension, the largest nonprofit U.S. health system and the world's largest Catholic health system, in 2012. From 1995 to 2000, Dr. Tersigni was president and CEO of St. John Health, currently known as St. John Providence Health System, based in Warren, Mich. During his tenure, Dr. Tersigni and his team developed the Call to Action, initiative, created in 2012 as a promise to provide safe and accessible healthcare to everyone in Ascension-served communities. In March 2017, he penned an article in Becker's Hospital Review arguing collaboration and value are essential to reimagining care.
Kent Thiry. Chairman and CEO of DaVita and CEO of Davita Medical Group (Denver). Mr. Thiry has served as DaVita's CEO since October 1999 and chairman of the board since June 2015. He has been the CEO of DaVita Medical Group since October 2014. He oversees DaVita, which includes DaVita Kidney Care and Health Care Partners, a DaVita Medical Group. DaVita has more than 70,000 employees and serves 2,000-plus local communities around the world.
David Torchiana, MD. CEO of Partners HealthCare (Boston). Partners HealthCare named Dr. Torchiana president and CEO in February 2015. A heart surgeon by training, Dr. Torchiana also holds an associate professorship of surgery at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Throughout his career, he has held numerous leadership positions including CEO of the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization in Boston and chief of cardiac surgery of Massachusetts General Hospital. During his tenure at MGH, Dr. Torchiana launched the Care Management Program, in which the hospital devised strategies to enhance healthcare delivery for high-risk patients, those with multiple health conditions and chronic disease.
Bernard Tyson. Chairman and CEO of Kaiser Permanente (Oakland, Calif.). As chairman and CEO, Mr. Tyson is responsible for leading Kaiser Permanente, which has annual operating revenue of nearly $65 billion and serves 11.7 million in eight states and Washington, D.C. He became CEO in 2013 and chairman in January 2014. The day after Donald Trump won the presidential election, Mr. Tyson posted a letter on LinkedIn titled "Our continued call for leadership" in which he reiterated Kaiser Permanente's commitment to providing high-quality, affordable and accessible care.
Michael Ugwueke, DHA. President and CEO of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare (Memphis). Dr. Ugwueke, who holds a doctorate in health administration and leadership, took over as Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare's president and CEO in January. He also serves as the COO of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare and provides strategic and operational leadership for the system's five adult inpatient hospitals. Dr. Ugwueke said in a January interview with Becker's Hospital Review that he is a goal-oriented and results-driven leader and encourages healthcare leaders to stay humble and be aware of people's expectations.
Chris Van Gorder. President and CEO of Scripps Health (San Diego). Serving as president and CEO of Scripps Health since 2000, Mr. Van Gorder is responsible for the health system's $2.6 billion restructuring to pave the way for healthcare reform. When Mr. Van Gorder took over, the system was losing $15 million each year. Through a strategy comprised of streamlining business operations and focusing on internal efficiencies, he was able to turnaround the system. As a leader, he ensures his employees see and interact with him and hosts monthly Q&As, during which employees can ask him questions directly.
Seema Verma. Administrator of CMS (Baltimore). The Senate confirmed Seema Verma, president, CEO and founder of national health policy consulting company SVC, as CMS administrator on March 14. Ms. Verma was the key architect of the Healthy Indiana Plan — the state's version of Medicaid expansion under the ACA. Her other leadership roles include vice president of the Health & Hospital Corporation of Marion County in Indiana and director with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials in Washington, D.C.
Kevin Vermeer. CEO and President of UnityPoint Health (West Des Moines, Iowa). Mr. Vermeer oversees UnityPoint Health, a network of hospitals, clinics and home care services in Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin. He has served president since March 2015 and took on the CEO role in January 2016. Within UnityPoint, his previous leadership roles include executive vice president, chief strategy officer and CEO of UnityPoint Health Partners, UnityPoint Health's ACO
Mitch Wasden. Executive Vice President and CEO of Oregon Health & Science University (Portland). Oregon Health & Science University named Mr. Wasden executive vice president and CEO in December 2016. In his new role, Mr. Wasden manages OHSU's daily operations, executing its strategy and developing the vision and goals of OHSU Partners, a management company overseeing OHSU Health Care's clinical programs. Established in 1974, Oregon Health & Science University is the state's only public academic health center. Prior to joining Oregon Health & Science University, he was the CEO of University of Missouri Health Care, based in Columbia.
Eugene Woods. President and CEO of Carolinas HealthCare System (Charlotte, N.C.). Mr. Woods oversees nearly 60,000 full- and part-time employees as president and CEO of Carolinas HealthCare System, which has 11.5 million patient encounters annually at its more than 900 locations in North Carolina and South Carolina. He has served in his roles since April 2016. Before joining Carolinas HealthCare System, Mr. Woods was the president and COO of Irving, Texas-based Christus Health, where he oversaw the health system's 50 hospitals and long-term care facilities, 175 clinics and outpatient centers and 30,000 associates. He is also currently chairman of the American Hospital Association.