Chutes & Ladders—Providence CEO exits; New CIO at DaVita

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.


head shot of Rod Hochman
Rod Hochman (Providence)

Providence

Providence CEO Rod Hochman announced his retirement May 15, effective at the end of 2024. Hochman spent 17 years of his 45-year career at the Catholic nonprofit health system.

“Dr. Hochman has been a transformational leader who has shaped not only Providence, but the entire healthcare sector,” Michael Murphy, chair of the Providence St. Joseph Health board of directors, said in a blog post announcing the retirement. “Thanks to his leadership, our family of organizations is working together across seven states to ensure the highest standard of care by deploying best practices and sharing healthcare resources. He has helped us envision a new model of healthcare that will ensure Providence continues to be here for our communities well into the future.”

Providence’s board shared in the post that it has begun the search for a new CEO.

Hochman is also joining Truveta, an electronic health record data company, as its new board of directors chair. Providence, via Hochman’s leadership, was a founding health system member of Truveta in 2020.


head shot of Madhu Narasimhan
Madhu Narasimhan (DaVita)

DaVita

Madhu Narasimhan was hired as chief information officer at DaVita to oversee its technology innovation strategy. She was one of 20 technology leaders invited to a discussion on artificial intelligence hosted by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.

Narasimhan previously served as the global head of innovation for Wells Fargo and led product, technology and enterprise clinical systems for Kaiser Permanente.

"I'm excited to leverage previous experiences, and DaVita's industry-leading technology to help streamline the care experience for patients with some of the most complex care needs in our healthcare system," Narasimhan said in a statement. "I look forward to helping lead transformations across DaVita to better integrate data and create efficient workflows that foster greater collaboration across sites of care." 


Rachel Pollock
Rachel Pollock (Act for NIH)

Arnold Ventures

Arnold Ventures tapped Rachel Pollock, a former National Institutes of Health (NIH) official, as its new vice president of external affairs. 

Pollock will oversee the philanthropy’s strategies for building relationships with policymakers at the local, state and federal levels and uniting coalitions with different perspectives around data-driven policy solutions.

Prior to joining Arnold Ventures, Pollock was vice president of ACT for NIH, where she led efforts to make biomedical research funding a national priority. Before that, she served in leadership positions in the NIH, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the White House Office of Management and Budget.


> North Carolina Secretary of Commerce Machelle Sanders has been appointed to the board of directors at Fortrea, a contract research organization that does phase I-IV clinical trial management, clinical pharmacology, consulting services, differentiated technology enabled trial solutions and post-approval services.

> Navitus Health Solutions announced two updates to its board of directors. Lisa Erickson, president and CEO of Medica, will be joining the board as a board member. It also appointed Joseph Swedish to the board, the former chairman, president and CEO of Anthem Inc., now known as Elevance Health.

> Boston Medical Center hired a new hospital president, Anthony Hollenberg.

> Cleveland Clinic appointed Sarah Hatchett as the new senior vice president and chief information officer, effective May 16.  Hatchett has served as interim CIO since August 2023.

> Carlton DeVooght is stepping down as president and CEO of University of Florida Health St. Johns.

> Priority Health, a Michigan nonprofit health benefits company, tapped Elif Oker, M.D., to be senior vice president and chief medical officer starting May 20.

> OSF HealthCare has hired Chris Curry as president for OSF HealthCare Transitional Care Hospital in Peoria. Curry has served as a hospital executive for several other health systems in Illinois.

> Medical City Hospital tapped Benjamin Baggi as assistant chief financial officer.

> Baptist Health appointed D. Brandon Chapman as inaugural vice president of medical affairs for two hospitals.

> Java Medical Group adds three new executives to its roster: Ray Burns as chief compliance officer, Alison Morris as chief administrative officer and Angelina Vandiver as chief human resources officer. The hospital management company partners with rural hospitals in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and New Mexico to ensure quality patient care and improve financial performance.

Managed services provider Anatomy IT hired Bob Glazer as strategic adviser.

> Pelvital, a women's health medtech company addressing urinary incontinence, announced the election of Wanda Filer to its board of directors as an independent director.

> IntelliGuard, a provider of medication management technologies appointed a new chief product officer, Rob Sobie, to increase safety for health systems and patients.

> Symplr has appointed healthcare technology veteran Justin Jacobson as managing director and senior vice president of its contract and supplier management pillar. Jacobson previously held senior leadership roles at Microsoft, Optum and Nuance. 

Data infrastructure and analytics company Kalderos announced the hiring of life sciences legal professional Daryl Todd as chief strategy officer. Todd comes to Kalderos from Johnson & Johnson, where he served as assistant general counsel.

> Know Labs, a noninvasive medical diagnostic technology company, appoints Chris Somogyi as president, international. He will lead a Know Labs research and innovation team and global patent licensing.

Law firm Holland & Knight added attorney John Saran to its healthcare transactions team.

> Tiffany Anderson was hired as vice president of operations at Southeast Primary Care Partners. She previously served as market president of VillageMD for  the past six years.

> PaceMate, a cardiac remote monitoring and cardiac data management platform, announced the appointment of JR Finkelmeier as its new chief commercial officer.

> Anumana, an AI-driven health technology company and portfolio company of nference, today announced the appointment of Harry S. Palmin as chief financial officer.