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.
BetterUp
Tom Van Gilder, M.D., has been named the first chief medical officer of BetterUp, the company announced Wednesday.
The mental fitness coaching company announced earlier this year plans to expand its services with BetterUp Care, an integrated mental fitness offering. Van Gilder will work on expanding that program’s expertise, as well as BetterUp’s overall, and will support behavioral health research. He is joining most recently from Walmart, where as CMO he led and developed clinical organization for Walmart Health. He also led its clinical analytics team, and designed and led Walmart’s COVID-19 response.
Before Walmart, Van Gilder was CMO and vice president at Humana’s population health company, Transcend Insights. He was also Humana’s national medical director for wellness.
The appointment comes at a time when companies are focused on addressing their employees’ mental well-being. While BetterUp already employs academicians and scientists who design and study the impact of the company’s offerings, Van Gilder’s experience touches the realms of healthcare, public health and innovation, the company said in a statement.
Current Health
Chris Pilkington has been selected chief strategy officer of Current Health.
He will help with the company’s scalability, growth and overall commercial success. Pilkington has co-founded several digital health ventures and served briefly as executive vice president of payer innovation at Apertiva. He has also advised investors, payers and providers, state governments and Fortune 500 companies.
Joining Current Health also is Sarah Joyce as chief customer officer, where she’ll head up implementation, customer success and support.
Joyce comes from HealthCareSource, where she was chief client officer. Prior to that, she was vice president of client experience at NantHealth and NaviNet, and held several director roles at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island.
Lauren Levinsky has been promoted at Current Health from director to vice president of marketing.
She was initially brought on in spring of 2020 but promoted for her skill in developing campaigns that drive company growth. Previously, she was a senior product marketing manager at Kyruus.
All three receive assignments during a “pivotal” period for the company as it looks to expand its services to providers and pharma companies globally.
(Allina Health Aetna)
Allina Health Aetna
Monica Nierengarten has been named chief operations officer of Allina Health Aetna.
She will help strengthen relationships between the two parent companies involved in the joint venture.
She joins from CVS Health, where she was senior director of transformation for HealthHUBs. There, she helped build out and scale retail healthcare products and services. She also helped launch the new Allina Health Aetna health plan as the organization’s director.
In the past, Nierengarten has worked for a number of payers, including Humana and Prime Therapeutics.
> Kit Check has tapped Michelle Wood as senior vice president of hospital commercial.
> Mayo Clinic chief administrative officer Jeff Bolton will retire Nov. 30.
> Emory Healthcare tapped Ildemaro Gonzalez as its first chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer.
> Medical Center of South Arkansas CEO Scott Street resigned.
> Meridian Medical Center has named Brie Sandow COO and chief nursing officer.
> St. Luke's Nampa Medical Center appointed Misty Robertson as COO and chief nursing officer.
> RabbleHealth, a digital patient engagement company, added Brad Power to its advisory board.
> LifeStance Health, a behavioral health care company, has appointed Seema Verma to its board of directors.
> Curebase, a clinical trial software company, named Jane Myles as its vice president of clinical trial innovation.
> Care New England Health System named Raymond Powrie, M.D., its chief clinical officer.
> BJC Healthcare and Encompass Health’s future inpatient rehab hospital appointed Cassidy Hoelscher as CEO.
> Manatee Memorial Hospital named Tom McDougal CEO and managing director.
> Dina, an at-home care platform, added Maryann Lauletta, M.D., as chief medical officer, as well as Robert Maluso as chief growth officer.