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.
Providence
(Providence)
Greg Hoffman was named chief financial officer at Renton, Washington-based Providence health system effective immediately. Hoffman has been serving as interim CFO since August.
Hoffman most recently served as chief transformation officer at Providence, and officials credited him with effectively shepherding the health system's financials in the second half of 2020 amid challenges presented by COVID-19.
Providence also announced two new regional leadership roles responsible for the northern and southern portions of Providence's seven-state footprint to report to Rod Hochman, M.D., president and CEO of Providence.
Lisa Vance, chief executive of Oregon, will take on a new role as president of operations and strategy for the northern regions that Providence serves: Alaska, Oregon, Washington and Montana. She will continue to serve as chief executive of Oregon.
Erik Wexler, chief executive of Southern California, will take on the role of president of operations and strategy for the southern regions Providence serves: Northern California, Southern California, Texas and New Mexico. Given the complexity of Southern California and the magnitude of the COVID-19 crisis in that region, Providence backfilled Wexler's position. Effective March 1, Kevin Manemann, chief executive, physician enterprise, will become the chief executive of Southern California.
Cerner
(Cerner)
Mark Erceg will join Cerner as chief financial officer and executive vice president effective Feb. 22.
Erceg will succeed Marc Naughton, who is departing from Cerner at the end of the first quarter. Naughton will serve as an executive adviser to ensure a smooth transition. Last October, Cerner announced longtime CFO Marc Naughton would leave the company after 30 years.
Erceg has previously held three successive CFO roles at Masonite International Corporation, Canadian Pacific Railway and Tiffany & Company.
Erceg holds a Bachelor of Science in accounting and an MBA in finance from Indiana University and is a chartered financial analyst.
Cerner also announced Travis Dalton, who leads Cerner Government Services (CGS), would become chief client and services officer. He is succeeding John Peterzalek, who is leaving Cerner.
Dan Devers, who leads Cerner’s cloud strategy and intellectual property group, will become chief legal officer as Randy Sims leaves Cerner.
CVS Health
(CVS Health)
Kyu Rhee, M.D., was named chief medical officer and senior vice president of Aetna.
Rhee will report to Troyen A. Brennan, M.D., who is executive vice president and chief medical officer of CVS Health, parent company to Aetna. Rhee will oversee all clinical capabilities at Aetna and will lead the innovative design and implementation of new integrated health care management strategies and population health solutions, officials said in a release. He will also focus on better integrating evidence-based medicine into key medical and personalized management strategies, they said.
Rhee joins CVS Health from IBM, where he served for a decade as vice president and chief health officer and was the lead physician, public health and clinical executive leader for IBM’s global workforce of over 350,000 in 170 countries.
Rhee also formerly served as chief public health officer at the Health Resources and Services Administration and director of innovation at the National Institutes of Health.
Rhee earned his dual medical residency training in internal medicine and pediatrics from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, his medical degree from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, a master’s degree in healthcare policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a Bachelor of Science in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University.
Cleo
(Cleo)
Natasha Prasad was named chief customer officer of family benefits platform Cleo.
Prasad was formerly senior vice president of operations and customer success. In her new role, she'll continue working with members and clients, driving company strategy and operations, officials said in a statement.
Prior to Cleo, Natasha served as country manager for ClassPass in Australia, where she built and oversaw regional operations, including sales, success and marketing. Previously, she was the founder and CEO of a fitness technology startup that was acquired by ClassPass and held product management roles at enterprise and consumer technology companies, most recently Atlassian in Sydney.
Natasha spent her early career as an investor in the private equity group at Goldman Sachs in London and New York. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and degrees in economics and mathematics from Cambridge University and Delhi University, respectively.
> Anthem Inc. announced Stephen Tanal has been named vice president of investor relations effective Feb. 1.
> RWJBarnabas Health appointed Karen Marhefka its deputy chief information officer and vice president of information technology for the Combined Medical Group of RWJBarnabas Health and Rutgers Health.
> Tyler Munson was named senior vice president of operations of Southwestern Health Resources.
> LifePoint Health recently announced that Elmer Polite has been named chief financial officer of its Eastern Division.
> Chris Gallagher and Jeff Snyder both left director roles at CGI to join new payment integrity and auditing venture Penstock.
> Healthcare Outcomes Performance Company brought on former Cleveland Clinic Chief Operating Officer Osmel “Ozzie” Delgado as its COO.
> Envision Healthcare named Patrick Velliky its new vice president of government affairs effective Feb. 1.
> The American Hospital Association (AHA) elected Russ Gronewold to fill a vacancy on its board of trustees and act as chairman of its Regional Policy Board 6. Gronewold is CEO of Bryan Health.