Lynchburg-based health system Centra has selected interim leader Richard Tugman as its president and CEO, overseeing a health system that serves more than 500,000 patients in Central and Southern Virginia, operating four hospitals, five medical centers and numerous primary care and specialty practices.
Tugman had served as interim CEO since March, replacing Amy Carrier, who’d been CEO since 2021.
Asked in March about Carrier’s departure, Dr. Tom Nygaard, chairman of the health system’s board, told WSET, “We felt that it was time for the organization to move on. Take a bit of a different direction,”
Tugman also served as Centra’s interim CEO for several months before Carrier’s hiring, following the January 2021 departure of former Centra CEO Dr. Andrew Mueller, who left to become CEO of MaineHealth in Portland, Maine.
From 2016 to 2021, Tugman had been CEO of Piedmont Community Health Plan, a health insurance subsidiary of Centra Health. In April, Piedmont, which stopped offering individual health insurance in 2023, announced it would stop selling group commercial health insurance at the end of 2024. Piedmont will “wind down its business” in 2025 and “some period beyond,” according to a news release.
“For more than two years, Piedmont has explored ways to increase its critical mass to become more competitive with national insurers through potential partnerships and/or outside investments,” interim Piedmon CEO Ryan Ziemann said in an statement released in April. “While there was much outside interest in Piedmont, the company was unable to reach an agreement that would enable it to compete on a more level footing with its much larger competitors.”
Earlier in his career, Tugman was vice president and general counsel for Lynchburg’s Fleet Laboratories.
“Richard’s performance since his appointment in March 2024 as interim president [and] CEO, in addition to his leadership in the same role in 2021, validated the board’s full confidence, as well as that of our providers, caregivers and members of the communities in which Centra serves,” Nygaard said in a statement Thursday. “He has the ability to strategically guide the organization in its mission to provide access to the best health care now and into the future as we adapt to a challenging and changing health care environment.”
In late December 2023, Centra filed a $7 million lawsuit against Lynchburg Hematology-Oncology Clinic, an independent physicians group, stating that the clinic overbilled Centra for services from 2016 to 2021. In September, the case was dismissed.
The two parties “mutually and amicably resolved the lawsuit and related disputes” according to Emelyn Gwynn, a spokesperson for Centra.
LHOC’s professional services agreement with Centra expired at the end of March and LHOC providers then stopped treating patients at the Centra Alan B. Pearson Regional Cancer Center in Lynchburg, according to an announcement on the LHOC website. In April, Centra launched the Centra Hematology Oncology Clinics at the Pearson Cancer and at Centra Southside Community Hospital in Farmville.
Centra Health’s oncology department currently has two doctors in Farmville and seven in Lynchburg, with five more doctors starting “in the next few months,” according to Gwynn.
Four physicians who previously worked at LHOC now work for Centra, according to Gwynn. “Additionally, we have 12 advanced practice providers,” she said in a statement. “We are prioritizing the recruitment and interviews of more permanent providers to join CHOC. This will remain a top priority as we seek to build a long-term, sustainable team.”
Since arriving at Centra in 2021, Carrier spearheaded the development of the health system’s strategic plan and this year launched an ambitious $500 million, four-year modernization plan.
Established in 1987 through the merger of Lynchburg General Hospital and Virginia Baptist Hospital, Centra Health serves more than 500,000 people through four hospitals, five medical centers and 15 medical practices across Central and Southern Virginia.
The modernization plan includes building new behavioral health and rehabilitation hospitals, a specialty medical office building as well as a new care tower and a replacement emergency room at Lynchburg General Hospital.
Before becoming president and CEO of Centra, Carrier served as market president of Bon Secours Hampton Roads Health System for three years. She has also been chief operating officer of Bon Secours Virginia, president of WellStar Cobb Hospital and senior vice president of WellStar Health Services. She has also taught as an adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University and the University of Maryland.
Carrier received her undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University and an MBA from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She serves on the boards of the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association and the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance.
Virginia Commonwealth University’s inaugural chief operations officer is Michael Elliot, effective May 15, the system announced Monday.
“Operational excellence matters because it allows us to expand services into more communities,” Elliott said in a statement. “VCU Health is continuing an exciting journey of growth, and I am excited to strengthen our operational efficiency to better serve our patients, team members and the community at large.”
Elliott comes from Centra Health, where he is the senior vice president and chief transformation officer for Centra Health. In this role, he leads the health system’s strategy, business development, community health, government relations, and external affairs, as well as the Centra Foundation. Elliott developed and launched the system’s Community Health Department to focus on health equity and coordinated a community collaborative to carry out a regional COVID-19 vaccination and education campaign.
“Implementing this new COO role at the system level is a pivotal step as we continue to develop equitable, high-quality, cost-effective and integrated clinical programs across all our hospitals and clinics,” VCU Health System CEO Dr. Art Kellermann said in a statement. “Dr. Elliott has a strong record of improving the performance of integrated health systems that span the entire continuum of care, which made him stand out among a talented pool of candidates from across the country.”
From 2015 to 2020, Elliott served as Centra’s senior vice president and health system COO, and served as interim president and CEO for one of those years. Before that, Elliott served in several roles at Sentara Healthcare, where he started as a clinical pharmacist.
He holds a doctorate degree in pharmacy and a master’s in health administration from VCU. Elliott is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives.
Elliott serves on several boards and committees including the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities and the American Hospital Association Community and Population Health Advisory Committee.
With 13,000-plus health care employees, Carilion Clinic is the largest Roanoke Valley employer, and Agee was born to lead the health system. The Emory University and University of Virginia graduate was delivered at Roanoke Memorial, now one of Carilion’s seven hospitals. She also was a surgical nurse in the system.
Her health system experienced cash flow problems earlier this year, resulting in furloughs and senior pay cuts, but the company’s $1 billion expansion and renovation plans are still a go, including a $500 million overhaul of Roanoke Memorial that would make it one of Virginia’s largest hospitals. Agee has served as chair of the American Hospital Association and is a member of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Revenue Estimates. She and her husband, U.S. Circuit Judge G. Steven Agee, donated
$1 million in personal seed money last year toward a new cancer center on Carilion’s Roanoke campus.
Virginia Business named Agee its 2017 Virginia Business Person of the Year.
BEST ADVICE: Take your work seriously, yourself less so. It’s not about you.
NEW LIFE EXPERIENCE: Becoming a grandmother!
WHAT’S ONE THING YOU WOULD CHANGE ABOUT VIRGINIA? Economic investment and development in the less-populated areas
ANTHONY ‘TONY’ BAKER
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF PLANT MANAGEMENT, ELKTON VACCINE OPERATIONS LEADER, MERCK & CO. INC., ELKTON
Baker joined Merck & Co. in 2008, with assignments including a two-year stint in Switzerland, where he helped launch the cancer immunotherapy drug Keytruda. In 2015, Baker moved to Rockingham County, where Merck has a plant with 1,000 employees. As executive director of the Elkton plant since May 2019, Baker oversees all vaccine operations. Merck is investing $1 billion over the next three years to expand production of its human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines at the Elkton facility. Baker received his MBA from James Madison University. He enjoys fishing with his twin 12-year-old sons, as well as scuba diving, cooking and woodworking.
FIRST JOB: At age 13, I took a part-time job selling Christmas trees.
MOST RECENT BOOK READ: “The New Extraordinary Leader: Turning Good Managers into Great Leaders,” by John Zenger and Joseph Folkman
NEW LIFE EXPERIENCE: After 20 years of resistance, I finally acquiesced to my wife’s desire to have pets! We adopted a pair of male black kitties last year.
PERSON I ADMIRE: My grandfather instilled a strong confidence in my abilities and connection to a family history of hard work, lifelong learning and providing for my family.
DR. PETER F. BUCKLEY
INTERIM CEO, VCU HEALTH SYSTEM; DEAN, VCU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, RICHMOND
In addition to his ongoing duties as dean of Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Medicine, Buckley was named interim CEO of VCU Health System and interim vice president for VCU Health Sciences last year. Those interim jobs will come to an end in October, however, when Dr. Arthur L. Kellermann, the medical school dean at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, steps into the permanent roles.
Since Buckley became dean in 2017, research funding for the School of Medicine has reached a record $148 million. In July, U.S. News & World Report ranked VCU Medical Center the No. 2 hospital in the state and the No. 1 hospital in the Richmond region for the 10th consecutive year.
A professor of psychiatry, pharmacology and radiology, Buckley also is an expert on schizophrenia.
BEST ADVICE: Be engaged and show up for things.
MY HERO: My father, who was also a physician, treated every person the same and he had celebrities and the poorest people in Dublin, Ireland, as his patients. Each got the same respect and care.
FAVORITE BEVERAGE: Being a native of Ireland, I have to say Guinness.
AMY CARRIER
PRESIDENT, BON SECOURS – HAMPTON ROADS, SUFFOLK
In October 2018, Carrier became the head of Bon Secours’ $750 million regional system of five hospitals — including the recently acquired Southhampton Regional — and 17 primary care locations. The Inside Business Power List honoree has also overseen the formation of an all-female executive leadership team, the first and only for any Bon Secours market.
Before joining Bon Secours, Carrier was senior vice president and hospital president of Wellstar Cobb Hospital in Georgia. She also previously served as vice president and chief operating officer at Washington Adventist Hospital in Pennsylvania, Inova Fairfax Hospital and George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates.
She holds a bachelor’s degree from Penn State University and an MBA from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
MY PASSIONS: Travel! Also: yoga, golf, stand-up paddleboarding, kayaking and skiing.
NEW LIFE EXPERIENCE: After 18 years of marriage, my husband and I became first-time parents as the guardians of a teenage girl from Uzbekistan, who joined our family in August.
MOST RECENT BOOK READ: “The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss,” by Dr. Jason Fung
JAMES B. COLE
PRESIDENT & CEO, VIRGINIA HOSPITAL CENTER, ARLINGTON
Cole has guided Arlington’s 394-bed, not-for-profit hospital for more than 20 years, overseeing 3,260 employees and an operation with $547.4 million in 2019 revenue. When the coronavirus crisis began, VHC went into action. Part of the Mayo Clinic Care Network, it was among the first to open drive-thru testing sites and to collaborate on a national clinical trial to determine the safety and effectiveness of the antiviral drug remdesivir. VHC also participates in Mayo’s investigational convalescent plasma program. With all of that, the center is undergoing a $250 million expansion to add an outpatient pavilion, parking garage and 44 new beds.
A 2014 Arlington Business Hall of Fame inductee, Cole is a member and former chairman of the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association’s board of directors. He is a University of Virginia graduate and earned master’s degrees from the University of Washington and Georgia State University.
FAVORITE BEVERAGE: Taylor Fladgate 20-year port
FAVORITE SONG: Any song that is sung by my wife, Cynthia
MY HEROES: My children, for their devotion to service. My daughter is a pastor serving her spiritual community and my son served the country as a U.S. Navy officer and Top Gun pilot and instructor.
SEAN T. CONNAUGHTON
PRESIDENT AND CEO, VIRGINIA HOSPITAL AND HEALTHCARE ASSOCIATION, GLEN ALLEN
Connaughton believes that, in a professional career, one should gain a wide range of experience and knowledge. Now serving as the head of the powerful nonprofit trade group, which represents 26 health systems and more than 100 hospitals and medical facilities, the U.S. Naval War College graduate has seemingly been everywhere. A licensed attorney and former commissioned officer in the United States Coast Guard, Connaughton was administrator of the United States Maritime Administration and served as Virginia’s transportation secretary from 2010 to 2014. He also held elected office, serving six years on the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, which he chaired.
FIRST JOB: U.S. Coast Guard, active duty
PERSON I ADMIRE: George Washington. He was an inspirational leader who consistently put everything on the line for the greater good.
WHAT I’VE LEARNED: There’s very little black and white. Life is mostly gray.
SOMETHING I’LL NEVER DO AGAIN: Run for lieutenant governor of Virginia
WILLIAM B. ‘BILL’DOWNEY
CEO, RIVERSIDE HEALTH SYSTEM, NEWPORT NEWS
Named this year as one of Virginia Business’ 50 Most Influential Virginians, Downey got his start at Riverside Health nearly 40 years ago as an administrative extern. A graduate of James Madison and Virginia Commonwealth universities, he became Riverside chief in 2012, having previously led Salem’s Lewis-Gale Medical Center and Hudson, Florida’s Regional Medical Center Bayonet Point.
Riverside has a wide reach across Hampton Roads and the Eastern Shore, with eight hospitals —five acute, two specialty and one behavioral. One recent achievement under Downey’s watch was the $55 million expansion of Gloucester’s Riverside Walter Reed Hospital. He’s also been a proponent of bill forgiveness as Riverside has adopted a policy of writing off billing totals that exceed a patient’s annual household income.
For that, and his work in promoting racial, ethnic and religious diversity, he was recognized with a Peninsula Humanitarian Award in 2018 by the Peninsula chapter of the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities.
DR. ERIC EDWARDS
CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, PHLOW CORP., RICHMOND
Edwards made national news earlier this year when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services chose his Richmond-based pharmaceutical startup for a $354 million, four-year contract to manufacture generic medicines and pharmaceutical ingredients needed to treat COVID-19, creating a U.S. supply chain. Although Phlow was incorporated only in January, Edwards is a co-founder — with his twin brother, Evan — of Kaléo Inc., another Richmond pharma company, which produces an injectable pen for allergy emergencies, an invention the two came up with as teenagers with deadly allergies.
Edwards also is a three-degree holder from Virginia Commonwealth University, including medical and doctoral degrees in pharmaceutical science. He chairs VCU’s School of Pharmacy Graduate Advisory Board. Phlow’s contract with the federal Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) could be extended to 10 years and $812 million. The company will collaborate with VCU’s Medicines for All Institute and AMPAC Fine Chemicals, which has a plant in Petersburg. Edwards also served as chief science officer and chief medical officer at Kaléo, which he and his brother left in 2019.
W. HEYWOOD FRALIN
CHAIRMAN, MEDICAL FACILITIES OF AMERICA INC.; CHAIRMAN, RETIREMENT UNLIMITED INC., ROANOKE
Fralin’s name is well known in Virginia, even to those who don’t know about his work leading two of the commonwealth’s major resources for elder care — MFA Inc., which offers skilled nursing and rehabilitation services, and Retirement Unlimited, a 10-facility network of senior living communities. He serves on the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia as well as the Virginia Business Higher Education Council. Fralin also has been a member of the boards of visitors for both the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech, and his charitable philanthropy has impacted everything from medical research to the arts.
U.Va.’s art museum was renamed to honor Fralin and his wife Cynthia after the couple donated to the museum their 40-piece collection of American art, including works by John Singer Sargent and Mary Cassatt. Similarly, at Virginia Tech, the family’s $50 million gift to the Carilion Research Institute led to a name change: The Fralin Biomedical Research Institute now has 27 research teams working on basic, translational and clinical medical research. The Fralins also were major donors to Tech’s Fralin Life Sciences Institute.
MICHAEL J.FRIEDLANDER
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FRALIN BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE AT VTC, ROANOKE
In 2010, Friedlander founded Virginia Tech’s Roanoke-based biomedical research institute, where more than two dozen research teams are studying cancer, neuroscience, addiction and other topics. The center is funded by more than $125 million in federal research grants and $50 million from the Fralin family.
Friedlander also is senior dean for research at Tech’s Carilion School of Medicine and is vice president for health sciences and technology, teaching at Tech’s colleges of science and engineering. In April, Friedlander led an initiative to develop in-house COVID-19 testing kits and processing, helping Southwest Virginia health departments to increase testing. He also leads the Friedlander Lab at Virginia Tech, which focuses on synapses between neurons, especially in response to brain injury.
Friedlander received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Virginia. Before joining Virginia Tech, he was a neuroscience professor at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
MIKE GRISHAM
PRESIDENT AND CEO, VIRGINIA CATALYST, RICHMOND
Grisham has led the research-funding nonprofit organization — previously known as Virginia Biosciences Health Research Corp. — since its beginning in 2013. He spent more than 20 years working in biosciences, having founded several diagnostic and health care companies, including biomedical tech firm GPB Scientific LLC, based in California and Richmond, for which he remains CEO.
A University of California, Berkeley and Stanford Graduate School of Business alumnus, Grisham excels in raising venture funding capital, having raised more than $30 million in matching funds from private companies and $130 million in follow-on funding between 2014 and 2018 at Virginia Catalyst. He also received more than $41 million from investors for GPB, which focuses on cell therapies for cancer patients.
Virginia Catalyst has partnered with seven universities in Virginia and is funded by the state government. It has granted $19.1 million to 43 projects in the life sciences across the commonwealth. In April, the organization started its 11th round of grant funding, aiding projects focused on the treatment of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.
DR. J. STEPHEN JONES
PRESIDENT AND CEO, INOVA HEALTH SYSTEM, FALLS CHURCH
Jones leads a double life. As the overseer of Inova, the Washington, D.C., region’s largest nonprofit health care system, the University of Arkansas graduate oversees five regional hospitals and several ambulatory programs. But Jones also is a celebrated doctor — Castle Connolly Medical Ltd., a health care research and information company, ranks him among the top 1% of the nation’s cancer physicians and urologists.
Jones is a professor of urology at the University of Virginia, which has partnered with Inova for a special undergraduate medical program at the Inova Fairfax Medical Campus. In May, Jones announced that the 1,927-bed Inova, which employs more than 18,000 and serves 2 million patients annually, will expand into the Springfield market with a new hospital.
Somehow Jones found the time to publish more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, contributing to more than 40 books (including two of his own) and serves as editor of the American Urological Association’s journal, Urology Practice.
Before joining Inova, Jones was president of Cleveland Clinic Regional Hospitals and Family Health Centers and was a professor of surgery at Case Western Reserve University.
DR. K. CRAIG KENT
INTERIM CEO, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA MEDICAL CENTER; EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT FOR HEALTH AFFAIRS, U.VA. CHARLOTTESVILLE
Kent was hired in February to fill two important positions within the U.Va. Health System, which posted approximately $3 billion in revenue last year despite an embarrassing billing scandal that led to the establishment of a community-led billing and collections advisory council.
A respected physician and administrator with a sterling reputation, Kent had quite a journey getting here, from herding cattle at his family’s Nevada ranch to becoming one of the nation’s top vascular surgeons to landing top faculty and leadership positions at, among others, Harvard Medical School, Cornell, Columbia and The Ohio State University. At the latter, he served as president of its college of medicine and oversaw a seven-year strategic plan that included investing more than $3 billion in new research facilities.
WHAT WOULD A COMPETITOR SAY ABOUT YOU? “Great integrity, straightforward, resolute”
HOBBIES: Running/exercise/cycling — or anything my kids enjoy
NEW LIFE EXPERIENCE RECENTLY: Hiking in Virginia — spectacular and beautiful. Creating a financial mitigation plan — heart-wrenching.
FAVORITE VACATION:A road trip with my family through the Southwest in a Mustang convertible
HOWARD P. KERN
PRESIDENT AND CEO, SENTARA HEALTHCARE, NORFOLK
Leading a health care organization during a pandemic is not something Kern ever thought he’d be doing, especially while overseeing the opening of a $96.3 million cancer center in Norfolk. But Kern has been on top of it. Sentara was the first health system in the state to provide drive-thru COVID-19 testing and reacted early to the pandemic, investing $30 million in protective equipment for its doctors and nurses while quickly expanding virtual patient visits. In April, Sentara struck a deal with VCU Health System and became majority owner of the Virginia Premier health plan. And in August, Sentara announced plans to merge with Greensboro, North Carolina-based Cone Health. Kern will oversee the new, larger company, with $11.5 billion in combined revenues.
BEST ADVICE: Be willing to take some risk but never bet the farm.
WHAT WOULD A COMPETITOR SAY ABOUT YOU? “He is tough but fair.”
WHAT’S YOUR PASSION? Scuba diving and underwater photography
MOST RECENT BOOK READ: “Boards That Lead: When to Take Charge, When to Partner, When to Stay Out of the Way,” by Ram Charan, Dennis Carey and Michael Useem
Co-founder Major spent more than a decade building K2M into a global leader in the spinal device industry. When the company was acquired by Fortune 500 medical tech firm Stryker in 2018 for $1.4 billion, he became the president of Stryker’s new spine division, which offers surgical solutions for orthopedic surgeons and neurosurgeons across the world. With more than 20 years in the field — first as president and CEO of American OsteoMedix Corp — Major is always looking to innovate, most recently in products like SpineMap Go, an image-guided spinal surgery tool. Stryker’s other spinal products range from anchors
and plates to probes and biomaterial implants for spinal and cervical procedures.
Graduates of James Madison University, Major and his wife, Lara, recently made a seven-figure gift to JMU to found the Major Laboratory for Innovation, Collaboration, Creativity and Entrepreneurship in JMU’s future $78.3 million College of Business Learning Complex.
MARY N. MANNIX
PRESIDENT AND CEO, AUGUSTA HEALTH, FISHERSVILLE
Mannix recently found out firsthand how Augusta Health takes care of its patients when her husband was diagnosed with cancer. The community hospital’s president and CEO came out of the experience with renewed appreciation for her 255-bed health care facility in Fishersville.The Shenandoah Valley’s largest employer, Augusta Health employs 2,100 workers, including 260 active medical staff. It reported revenue of more than $372 million last year. Mannix, a graduate of Binghamton University’s nursing program, is a fellow at the American College of Healthcare Executives. She previously was president of the Guthrie Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, Pennsylvania.
FIRST JOB: Grocery store cashier
BEST ADVICE: Always know that there is more to learn. In other words, always keep a grasp on knowing what you don’t know!
WHAT ABOUT VIRGINIA WOULD YOU CHANGE? Eliminate the mindset that favors tradition over progress, as captured in the saying: “That’s not the way we do things in Virginia.”
DR. MICHAEL P. McDERMOTT
PRESIDENT AND CEO, MARY WASHINGTON HEALTHCARE, FREDERICKSBURG
As the head of Mary Washington Healthcare and as an active chairman of the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association’s COVID-19 committee and board of directors, McDermott recognized early on that Virginia was falling behind on testing for the coronavirus disease. He has since emerged as a vocal advocate for change.
More than a century old, Mary Washington is a regional healthcare system consisting of Mary Washington Hospital, Stafford Hospital and 28 health care facilities throughout the surrounding region. McDermott, the system’s president since 2015, earned his undergraduate degree from Villanova University and his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati. He also earned a degree from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. A diagnostic and interventional radiologist, McDermott practiced medicine with Radiologic Associates of Fredericksburg before serving in various governance capacities at Mary Washington. He is a fellow of the American College of Radiology and is a Baldrige Executive Fellow.
TIM McMANUS
PRESIDENT, HCA HEALTHCARE CAPITAL DIVISION, RICHMOND
As the head of Nashville-based HCA’s Capital Division, McManus oversees 19 hospitals in Virginia, Kentucky, New Hampshire and Indiana. A Tulane and Johns Hopkins graduate who grew up in the Washington, D.C., metro region, McManus previously was president of HCA Healthcare Northern Virginia and Reston Hospital before serving as CEO of Chippenham Hospital and Johnston-Willis Medical Center in the Richmond area.
HCA Virginia, which falls under McManus, is one of the largest private employers in the commonwealth, with more than 16,400 employees. The health care system has 14 hospitals, 32 outpatient centers and five freestanding emergency centers in Central Virginia, Northern Virginia and Southwest Virginia.
Unlike many other health care systems and businesses, HCA didn’t lay off or furlough employees during the pandemic. HCA Virginia hospitals in Central Virginia have participated in pilot treatments to investigate whether plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients can benefit seriously afflicted coronavirus patients. And the health system set up a free hotline to help recently unemployed people secure temporary health insurance.
A fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives, McManus serves on the board of the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association.
DR. ANDREW T. MUELLER
PRESIDENT AND CEO, CENTRA HEALTH, LYNCHBURG
Mueller’s professional life began in the stars, as a cooperative engineering intern at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, where he assisted with the Space Shuttle program. After receiving an electrical engineering degree from North Carolina State University, Mueller earned his M.D. from the University of North Carolina. Upon completing his residency, Mueller served in the U.S. Air Force and deployed twice overseas as a flight surgeon.
Mueller became president and CEO of Centra in May 2019, after serving as senior vice president at Novant Health, overseeing Charlotte, North Carolina, its largest market. Mueller now is responsible for four hospitals and more than 8,500 employees.
While contending with COVID-19 and setting up a crisis command center, Mueller set up a virtual care platform in the early days of the pandemic. He also serves on the Lynchburg Economic Development Authority.
EDWARD A. PESICKA
PRESIDENT AND CEO, OWENS & MINOR INC., MECHANICSVILLE
Pesicka, a former youth and high school football coach, is big on calling set plays in the boardroom — building a corporate culture that has clearly articulated goals ingrained within the fabric of the company.
The Fortune 500 Hanover County-based medical equipment distributor and manufacturer saw its stock prices skyrocket this summer due to the brisk demand for personal protective equipment such as surgical masks and gowns.
Owens & Minor brought in $9.2 billion in 2019 annual revenue and has 17,000 employees worldwide, including 1,220 employees in Virginia.
An Ohio native with degrees from Case Western Reserve University and Muskingum College, Pesicka spent 15 years fostering biotech products as chief commercial officer and senior vice president of Thermo Fisher Scientific. Prior to that, he worked at aerospace company TRW Inc.
BEST ADVICE: Stay humble because when you are doing something well, the results will clearly speak for themselves.
FIRST JOB: Baling hay on a farm in Hinckley, Ohio
HOBBY/PASSION: Coaching, home repair and remodeling.
FAVORITE SONG: “Lose Yourself” by Eminem
LT. GEN. RONALD J. PLACE
DIRECTOR, DEFENSE HEALTH AGENCY, FALLS CHURCH
You think you’ve got organizational challenges. Place is overseeing the transition of nearly 450 military hospitals and clinics across the world — Army, Navy and Air Force — into the Defense Health Agency.
From Falls Church, the South Dakota native now supervises the care of more than 9.5 million active duty service members, retirees, reservists, guardsmen and their families. He strives, ultimately, for consistency in care — not all military hospitals have the same standards. His four priorities for a successful DHA are satisfied patients, a ready medical force, fulfilled staff and great outcomes.
Place finished his general surgery internship and residency at the Madigan Army Medical Center and trained in colon and rectal surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern. He was chief of surgery at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and later oversaw the Fort Knox/Ireland Army Community Hospital. He served as assistant surgeon general and later in several executive positions at the Defense Health Agency.
“First, do no harm,” he has written to his team. “Implementing an organizational transition like this can be complicated, and we don’t want that to get in the way of patient care. The administrative changes associated with this should be largely invisible to our patients.”
RONY THOMAS
PRESIDENT AND CEO, LIFENET HEALTH, VIRGINIA BEACH
Founded in 1982, LifeNet is the only authorized organ procurement resource in Virginia. Sourcing everything from heart valves to skin grafts to knee ligaments, it employs more than 1,300 people worldwide, with 913 in Virginia. The company facilitates 400,000-plus annual bio-implants across the nation. Last year, under Thomas’ leadership, LifeNet announced 585 organ transplants, a new record. It also has become a leader in tissue research and cellular therapies. LifeNet recently acquired the assets of Samsara, a life sciences company in San Diego, which will join its facilities in Florida, Washington, Indiana and Vienna, Austria.
Thomas sits on the board of Reinvent Hampton Roads and has chaired the Virginia Symphony Orchestra board. He also served on Sentara Healthcare’s board of trustees.
EDUCATION: Master’s in biomedical engineering, The University of Akron; executive MBA, Case Western Reserve University
NEW LIFE EXPERIENCES: Navigating through the pandemic. Breaking 80 in golf for first time.
BEVERAGE OF CHOICE: Weekdays: LaCroix sparkling water. Occasionally a Suntory whisky on the weekend.
T. SPENCER WILLIAMSON
PRESIDENT AND CEO, KALÉO INC., RICHMOND
Williamson is a former naval officer who served on a guided missile destroyer for four years and after decades in the pharmaceutical industry took the helm at Kaléo, a Richmond-based company that produces an emergency rescue injection device to deliver epinephrine to people who have deadly allergies. The company earned $342 million in 2019. In 2018, a U.S. Senate subcommittee investigated the price spike of opioid overdose antidote Evzio, from $750 in 2015 to $4,100 in 2017, which Kaléo’s board of directors — including Williamson — agreed to in 2014. Speaking on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Williamson said the price would be lowered to $575. Before joining Kaléo in 2006, he worked at Guidant Corp. (now Boston Scientific Corp.) and at Eli Lilly & Co. He’s a member of the MCV Foundation board. In 2013, he was named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year.
EDUCATION: Virginia Military Institute (B.S.), University of North Carolina (MBA)
Yousuf came aboard as Bon Secours’ Richmond chief late last year, taking charge of seven regional hospitals and 9,000 employees. The Virginia Commonwealth University graduate was previously a part of Bon Secours Mercy Health’s Atlantic Group, which oversees regional planning across five states, including Virginia. He also served as president and senior vice president of Maryland-based LifeBridge Health and was chief operating officer for both Sutter Health and Hospital Corporation of America (HCA).
He is currently overseeing the $50 million renovation of Bon Secours’ Memorial Regional Medical Center in Mechanicsville, slated for completion in 2022. It will increase the hospital’s number of acute-care beds to 269 — a response to the region’s increased population, particularly of elderly people. Bon Secours also purchased Petersburg’s Southside Regional Medical Center for approximately $100 million last year in a package that included two other Virginia hospitals.
In April, Yousuf joined HCA’s Tim McManus and VCU Health’s Melinda Hancock in pledging the three systems’ partnership to serve the Richmond area together during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional
11 months
The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance
11 months
This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
viewed_cookie_policy
11 months
The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.