Donald Brennan, the former president and CEO of Providence and Ascension, died Feb. 12, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal. He was 83.
Mr. Brennan spent 40 years in healthcare. From 1976 to 1980, he was the CEO of Group Health Cooperative, which is now part of Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente.
After that role, he became the first lay CEO of then-Sisters of Providence, which is now Renton, Wash.-based Providence. He served in that role until 1993, according to the report, and exited to co-chair the Washington Health Services Commission.
Two years later, he became CEO of Daughters of Charity National Health System in St. Louis, during which he oversaw the merger with St. Joseph Health System in Ann Arbor, Mich., to create St. Louis-based Ascension. Mr. Brennan was CEO and president of Ascension until February 2001, according to the report.
He also served on the board of Swedish Health Services in Seattle from the early 2000s until 2010.