Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of hirings, firings and retirings throughout the industry. Please submit the good news—or the bad—from your shop, and we will feature it here at the end of each week.
Hims & Hers
(Hims & Hers)
Yemi Okupe has been named as the new chief financial officer of virtual consumer health and wellness company Hims & Hers, effective Jan. 24.
The tech industry veteran steps up to the plate from half a year in a similar role at online marketplace Hipcamp. Prior to that, he was a divisional chief financial officer at Uber, initially in charge of its food delivery platform UberEats and later its global mobility unit.
Looking further back, Okupe held financial leadership positions at eBay, PayPal and Google, serving as the finance lead for Google Payments and Google Express at the latter role.
Hims & Hers leadership said Okupe’s track record of elevating high-growth B2C companies is a clear fit as the company hopes to expand its brand for the long haul.
Alongside Okupe’s appointment, Hims & Hers announced that Patrick Carroll, M.D., the company’s chief medical officer, will transition to the board of directors and see his day-to-day responsibilities taken up by Senior Vice Presidents Peter Stahl, M.D., and Aimee Paik, M.D.
UCSF Health
(UCSF Health)
Suresh Gunasekaran has gotten the nod as the next president and CEO of UCSF Health. Approved Wednesday by the University of California’s board, the appointment takes effect March 1.
Gunasekaran is currently the CEO of University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics, a $2 billion, 11,000-person academic medical center. He’s also a senior associate vice president at the University of Iowa Health Care, which encompasses the medical center, a college of medicine and a group practice.
The executive’s path to UCSF Health included IT and operations leadership roles at the University of Texas Southwestern Health System and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He was also an analyst for Gartner and IBM/Healthlink.
Gunasekaran will claim a base salary of $1.85 million, according to the announcement. He is succeeding Mark Laret, who retired on Dec. 31 after a 21-year stint at UCSF.
Humana
(Humana)
Andrew Agwunobi, M.D., has been tapped as the president of Humana’s Home Solutions business.
He joins the insurer from the University of Connecticut, where he currently serves as interim university president as well as CEO of the UConn Health System.
Prior to that, Agwunobi was the chief operating officer of St. Joseph Health System and the CEO of Providence Health Care System.
He’ll be bringing his clinical background to Humana’s big-ticket push into the home health market, having acquired Kindred at Home and its 550,000 annual patients for $5.7 billion last year.
The position is effective Feb. 21 and will see Agwunobi reporting directly to CEO Bruce Broussard.
UPMC
(UPMC)
Randy Jernejcic, M.D., will play a key role in UPMC’s international push as CEO of the first Chinese hospital being managed by the health system.
He will step into the top role at Chengdu, China-based Chengdu Wanda UPMC International Hospital.
Jernejcic has held executive positions at University Hospitals of Cleveland since 2017, most recently stepping into the role of vice president of ambulatory quality and clinical transformation.
Adding to his international resume is a few years as the chief medical officer of United Family Hospital in Beijing, where he was responsible for quality, safety, risk management, accreditation and other medical staff functions. He’s also the founder of Clinical Quality Consultants, a consultancy that specializes in assisting international healthcare organizations.
Jernejcic’s new 500-bed hospital will be the first hospital in China managed by and modeled after an American academic medical center. It will be owned by Chinese conglomerate Wanda Group.
> PatientsLikeMe, part of UnitedHealth Group, announced that Atul Dhir joined the company as its CEO. Dhir has been in the position since August, according to his LinkedIn profile. The online patient community and health management platform also named five new members to its board of directors: Optum Ventures’ Larry Renfro as chairman, SVB Leerink’s Jeff Leerink, Alta Partners’ Pete Hudson, M.D., PBM Capital’s Paul Manning and WR Hambrecht and Co.’s Bill Hambrecht.
> Nym Health, an autonomous medical coding company, brought on Or Peles as vice president of research and development.
> UPMC Children’s Hospital appointed Diane Hupp as its new president.
> UNC Hospitals promoted Latonya Brown to the role of chief financial officer, succeeding Will Bryant.
> Norwest Venture Partners picked up Tiba Aynechi as a general partner to lead its biotech practice.
> QliqSOFT, maker of a conversational AI for healthcare, added Edward Marx to its advisory board as chief transformation officer.
> Dignity Health’s Woodland Memorial Hospital will see Gena Bravo step into the roles of president and CEO.
> Goshen Health named Lisa Wine as chief financial officer of the Indiana organization.
> BehaVR, a virtual reality therapeutics company, tapped Risa Weisberg as its chief clinical officer.
> Tenet Healthcare’s Saint Vincent Hospital appointed Jay Prosser as chief nursing officer.
> MobileSmith Health, a digital patient engagement company, will see Chris Caramanico step up as CEO on Jan. 31. Caramanico is succeeding Jerry Lepore, who held the role for two years.
> St. Clair Health Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Richard Chesnos will retire April 1, with Vice President of Finance Eric Luttringer succeeding him.
> Virginia Hospital Center tapped Christopher Lane as president and CEO.
> Glassbeam appointed Stanford University Medical School’s Peter Fitzgerald, M.D., and MultiCare Health System’s Bradd Busick to its advisory board.
> Patient Discovery Solutions named former Boston Children’s Hospital CEO Sandra Fenwick to its board of directors.