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.
Cook County Health
Israel Rocha Jr. was named CEO of Cook County Health in the Chicago metropolitan area.
Rocha is vice president of NYC Health + Hospitals and has served as CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst since July 2016. He also serves as CEO for OneCity Health, a subsidiary of NYC Health + Hospitals.
The Chicago Tribune reported earlier this month that the Cook County Health board of directors chose Rocha for the role as CEO. Earlier this week, he received final approval from the county's board of commissioners, according to new reports.
Before joining NYC Health + Hospitals, Rocha was previously the CEO of Doctors Hospital at Renaissance (DHR) Health System in Edinburg, Texas. He also formerly worked for 10 years in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Blue Cross NC
(Blue Cross NC)
Von Nguyen, M.D., was named senior vice president and chief medical officer at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Blue Cross NC).
He'll begin the new role in November.
Nguyen joined Blue Cross NC in May 2019 as vice president of clinical operations and innovations. He has previously led numerous investigations and response for disease outbreaks at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and served as a senior adviser in the Innovation Center of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
He has already played an integral role in helping Blue Cross NC navigate the company’s response to COVID-19, officials said in a statement, and he will continue doing that in his new role.
Nguyen has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Rice University, a master’s degree in public health from the University of Texas School of Public Health and a medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. He completed his residency in internal medicine at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
Olive
(Olive)
Rohan D’Souza will take on the role of executive vice president and general manager of the new cybernetics division being launched by artificial intelligence startup Olive.
D'Souza previously led product development teams at healthcare technology companies KenSci and eClinicalWorks. He is a nationally recognized leader in interoperability and the adoption of standardized application programming interfaces across the siloed health systems, officials said.
Along with his hire, Olive brought on two additional execs: Mike Biselli as vice president of emerging technology partnerships and Tony Brancato as vice president of products for cybernetics.
Biselli will focus on executing strategic partnerships to drive Olive’s revenue growth and costs savings. He is also a partner and owner of Catalyst HTI, a 180,000-square-foot healthcare innovation campus located in downtown Denver. Prior to joining Olive, he was an executive with BurstIQ, a health-related blockchain platform.
(Olive)
Brancato will be responsible for the development of Olive’s cybernetics solutions. He joins Olive with more than 20 years of experience in building and growing digital health, direct-to-consumer and digital advertising businesses in leadership positions with Renew Health, Amazon, The New York Times and Everyday Health, officials said.
Care New England
(Care New England)
Shannon Sullivan was appointed president and chief operating officer of Care New England's Women & Infants Hospital. She had served as interim COO since June.
Sullivan has been employed with Care New England in various roles since 2002. She began her career at Women & Infants Hospital as a clinical social worker, eventually working her way up to director of patient and family support services and then to system director, care management. In 2018, Sullivan was appointed executive director of care coordination and chief access officer and was later named vice president of operations at Kent Hospital.
In early 2020, she oversaw the construction of field hospitals to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.