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.
Envision Healthcare
James Rechtin was appointed president and CEO of Envision Healthcare, one of the nation's largest facility-based care provider groups and ambulatory surgery center operators. Rechtin previously served as president of OptumCare.
He was also previously regional president of DaVita Medical Group. He will join Envision’s board of directors.
Before DaVita, Rechtin was a partner in the healthcare practice of global consulting firm Bain & Company, where he focused on supporting hospital systems and other providers in the shift to value and in their development of physician network strategies.
Earlier in his career, Rechtin managed a nonprofit that provided healthcare services to the homeless in Indianapolis. He spent two and a half years directing a public health project as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Congo.
Rechtin has a bachelor’s degree from DePauw University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.
Cigna
Kristen Lauria was named global chief marketing officer at Cigna.
Lauria will take the role on March 23 and report to Cigna President and CEO David Cordani. She will serve as a member of the Enterprise Leadership Team.
Lauria will oversee the development and execution of Cigna's global marketing strategies, including marketing analytics and customer insights, brand and advertising, sponsorships as well as digital and social programming, officials said.
Lauria comes to Cigna from IBM, where she most recently served as general manager for IBM Watson Media and The Weather Company solutions. She also served as vice president of strategy and business development for IBM Analytics Group and as chief marketing officer for IBM's Global Business Services.
She also previously held technical and corporate development roles at Xerox Corporation and Akamai Technologies. Lauria holds an MBA degree from MIT Sloan School of Management, a master's degree in biomechanical engineering from the University of Rochester and a Bachelor of Science in engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
LifeOmic
Ed Simcox became chief strategy officer at Indianapolis-based software company LifeOmic, which is focused on using artificial intelligence to bring together disparate data sources.
Simcox was previously chief technology officer and acting chief information officer at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Simcox was among several recent departures from HHS' CTO office. In January, Mona Siddiqui, M.D., left her position as chief data officer in the Office of the CTO to join insurance giant Humana. Sandeep Patel, KidneyX director and HHS' open innovation manager, announced in a blog post that he was leaving the agency. Margeaux Akazawa, director of internal innovation programs at the CTO office, also recently left, according to Politico.
> Teladoc Health announced the appointment of Catherine Jacobson—who is president and CEO of Milwaukee-based integrated delivery system Froedtert Health—to its board of directors.
> Robin Roberts, award-winning anchor of ABC's "Good Morning America," was elected by the Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees to be a public trustee.
> Jonathan Bush, co-founder and former CEO of Athenahealth, joined the board of Innovaccer, a San Francisco-based, fast-growing healthcare technology company.