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.
RWJBarnabas Health
Two executives are joining RWJBarnabas Health, the state of New Jersey’s largest private employer and comprehensive health system.
George Helmy will be the company’s newest executive vice president of chief external affairs, and Marcie Ordowich has been hired as COO for RWJBarnabas Health Medical Group. Helmy will oversee all interactions with federal, state and local governments as well as governmental agencies and associates and will manage regulatory issues. Ordowich will help strengthen the group’s partnership with Rutgers Health, among other priorities.
She most recently served as vice president for service line operations at Penn Medicine in the University of Pennsylvania Health System, while Helmy served as state director to Sen. Cory Booker for two years.
GuideWell
GuideWell, a mutual insurance holding company, has appointed Jeffrey Goddard as executive vice president and CFO, effective Oct. 2.
He will succeed Thurman Justice, who assumed leadership of the managed care business at GuideWell subsidiary Triple-S Management earlier this year as president of Triple-S Salud and Triple-S Advantage.
Goddard previously served as senior vice president and CFO for CVS Caremark, interim CFO at Aetna and president and COO for Meritain Health. Earlier in his career he worked for Travelers Insurance Co. and PwC.
Northwestern Medicine
Northwestern Medicine has hired its first chief health equity executive. In the new position, Dinee Simpson, M.D., will lead the formation of health equity initiatives across the communities Northwestern Medicine serves.
Simpson founded the Northwestern Medicine African American Transplant Access Program in 2018 to increase equitable access to transplantation and help patients address cultural concerns and institutional barriers, according to a news release.
She also sits on the board of directors for the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois and is a former DEI adviser for the American Society of Transplant Surgeons.
> Independence Blue Cross, a health insurance organization in southeastern Pennsylvania, has tapped Tony Toury as vice president of total rewards.
> Keck Hospital of the University of Southern California has appointed Ceonne Houston-Raasikh as the hospital’s newest chief nursing officer.
> UVA Health in Charlottesville, Virginia, has named Peter Paige, M.D., as the group’s inaugural chief clinical officer.
> New York City-based Mount Sinai has hired Michael Murray, M.D., as system chief of the division of genomic medicine and clinical director of the Institute for Genomic Health.
> Advocate Health has named Kevan Mabbut as its new chief marketing, communications and consumer experience officer.
> The O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University has hired Michele Bratcher Goodwin as co-faculty director.
> InterAction, an alliance of international NGOs and partners in the U.S., has named Tom Hart as the new president and CEO, joining the company from ONE Campaign.
> Faeth Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company targeting cancer metabolism, has selected Debbie Chirmomas, M.D., as chief medical officer.
> ThedaCare, a hospital system in northeast Wisconsin, has announced Will Flett as its newest CFO.
> Wolters Kluwer Health, a global information company with software solutions for legal, tax, finance and healthcare professionals, has tapped Rafael Sidi as senior vice president and general manager of the health research segment.
> The board of directors at Bartlett Regional Hospital in Arkansas selected Ian Worden as interim CEO.
> NeuroFlow, a healthcare company removing barriers to integrating behavioral and physical health, has named Phil Vecchiolli as chief revenue officer and Robert Capobianco as chief commercial officer.
> Cone Health, a nonprofit network of healthcare providers in central North Carolina, has tapped Suresh Krishnan as a new vice president and chief technology officer.
> Main Line Health, a nonprofit health system serving Pennsylvania and its suburbs, has named Leigh Ehrlich as the company’s first new CFO in 25 years.
> UnityPoint Health – Dubuque has announced Jennifer Havens as market president, effective Oct. 23.
> MediaLab, a provider of quality management software for clinical laboratories and health systems, has appointed Tom Ormondroyd as CEO.
> Ontada, a Boston-based provider leveraging oncology data and evidence under McKesson Corporation, has announced Christine Davis as its new president.
> The North Carolina Healthcare Association has selected Stephen Lawler as president and CEO, effective Dec. 31.