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.
American Academy of Family Physicians
Tochi Iroku-Malize, M.D., has been inducted as the advocacy group’s new president. In the role at the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), Iroku-Malize will advocate for physicians and medical students across the country.
Iroku-Malize is a family physician from Long Island, New York, and serves as founding chair and professor of family medicine at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell in Hempstead, New York. She also holds the position of senior vice president and chair of the family medicine service line for Northwell Health.
With 127,600 members, AAFP is one of the largest national medical organizations. The group works to advocate on behalf of family physicians who perform 1 in 5 office visits, according to the AAFP, many of which take place in underserved and rural areas.
AAFP also recently announced its board of directors who will guide the organization for the 2022-23 term. In addition to Iroku-Malize, the board will include Steven Furr, M.D.; Sterling Ransone Jr., M.D.; Russell Kohl, M.D., and Daron Gersch, M.D.
Walgreens Boots Alliance
President John Standley announced his departure from the U.S. business segment of Walgreens Boots Alliance this Tuesday. His responsibilities will be divided between pharmacy, led by Lee Cooper, and retail led by Tracey Brown. Both will report to WBA CEO Roz Brewer and will serve on the executive leadership team.
Cooper will be joining the company as senior vice president beginning Oct. 1. Cooper previously held the role of CEO at Shields Health Solutions, which is to be acquired by WBA for $1.37 billion. Shields will function as a distinct business within Walgreens with the role of CEO filled by John Lucey, co-founder and current president of Shields.
Brown will lead the retail branch in her current position as president of Walgreens retail products and chief customer officer. She previously served as CEO of the American Diabetes Association and chief experience officer at Sam’s Club.
Standley will depart WBA on Nov. 1 with the hopes of ensuring a smooth transition. WBA previously controlled 71% of Shields’ holdings and intends to complete its purchase of the remaining shares by the end of the year.
MetroHealth System
Airica Steed was named the next president and CEO of MetroHealth System, effective Jan. 1. Steed will succeed Akram Boutros, M.D., who has worked with the health system since 2013 and announced plans to retire at the end of this year.
During Boutros’ tenure, he opened two hospitals, three emergency departments and 10 community health centers and grew the system’s revenue from $785 million to more than $1.5 billion annually.
Steed currently holds the position of executive vice president and system chief operating officer at Sinai Chicago Health System and president of the system's flagship, Mount Sinai and Sinai Children's Hospital.
Steed was chosen to lead the system serving 1.5 million patients throughout Chicago after a nationwide search ending in a unanimous vote. She will be responsible for overseeing the opening of the system’s new hospital, the Glick Center.
Amwell
Amwell has announced that it will expand its technology leadership team with Vaughn Paunovich as executive vice president of enterprise platform and Matthew McAllister as chief product officer at the digital care company.
Paunovich will manage technological delivery and innovation, including Amwell’s enterprise grade digital care delivery platform, Converge. His most recent experience was at UnitedHealth Group where he held myriad positions including senior vice president of OptumLabs and chief information officer for both OptumHealth and OptumCare.
McAllister will be responsible for product management and design. His most recent position was at Amazon where he worked for 12 years leading product and UX design, engineering, marketing and analytics teams.
“We are experiencing a time of great transformation for Amwell and for our industry,” said Roy Schoenberg, CEO of Amwell. “Customers today no longer want to buy features. They want a partner who can assimilate deep knowledge, experience, and interoperable technology to solve for their current and future digital aspirations. As we complete some of the most strategic aspects of the build-out of Converge, our digital care delivery platform, we are excited to have Paunovich and McAllister join our executive team.”
> MyMichigan Health promoted Lydia Watson to president and CEO of the health system.
> The Alliance of Community Health Plans has tapped Mathew Gulick to lead its communications department as communications director of the firm, which represents not-for-profit health insurance companies.
> Quartet Health has brought on Michael Lipp as chief medical officer and Sherry Dubester as the new chief clinical strategy and quality officer of the mental health company.
> The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association unveiled David Merritt as senior vice president of policy and advocacy.
> Wolters Kluwer Health announced the appointment of Christopher Sullivan as vice president and general manager of the commercial segment for clinical effectiveness at the healthcare payments company.
> Athenahealth, an electronic health record and software services company, brought Stacy Simpson on as its new chief marketing officer.
> Getlabs, a provider of remote healthcare delivery infrastructure, added Scott Albrecht as vice president of finance, Amanda Souders as vice president of people and Karen Maher as general counsel.
> Essence Healthcare, Lumeris’ affiliated Medicare advantage plan, appointed Umar Farooq as president.
> Eleos Health, a tech company documenting behavioral health conversations via natural language processing, welcomed Dale Klatzker and Susan Blue to its community advisory board.
> El Camino Health added Deanna Dudley as the new chief human resources officer of the California health system.
> Atavistik Bio, a preclinical biotechnology company, announced the formation of a scientific advisory board to be filled by Ralph DeBerardinis, Ph.D., M.D., Jared Rutter, Ph.D., Karen Allen, Ph.D., Kivanc Birsoy, Ph.D., and Benjamin Cravatt, Ph.D.
> P3 Health Partners Inc., a health management company, named Allen Pate as president of P3 Health Partners-Nevada, LLC, a Nevada-based health system.
> Sesame, a direct-to-patient platform, hired its first chief revenue officer, David Deane.
> Parallel Learning, a digital health platform for students with learning challenges, appointed A. Jordan Wright as chief clinical officer, Armaan Gandhi as vice president of marketing and Ryan McFarlane as senior vice president of K-12 revenue.
> Lifelink Systems, a conversational AI company, added Justin Mardjuki as chief operating officer.
> BDC Advisors welcomed Mitchell Morris, M.D. as senior adviser at the healthcare strategy consulting firm.