Healthcare Moves: A Monthly Summary of Hires, Exits and Layoffs

This roundup is published monthly. It is meant to highlight some of healthcare’s recent hiring news and is not intended to be comprehensive. If you have news about an executive appointment, resignation or layoff that you would like to share for this roundup, please reach out to [email protected].

Hires

The American Medical Association named John Whyte as its next CEO. Whyte, who currently serves as chief medical officer at WebMD, will assume his new position on July 1. He will succeed James Madara, who is leaving the role after being in it for 14 years

Capricor Therapeutics welcomed Michael Binks as its new chief medical officer. In the past, he has held executive positions at drugmakers including Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline.

Centivo, a health plan that only sells to self-funded employers, hired Sarah Fraser as its first-ever CFO. She most recently served as CFO of pharmacy startup Capsule.

Gene therapy company enGene welcomed Amy Pott as its new chief global commercialization officer. She joins the company from Astellas Pharma, where she most recently served as head of global commercialization for ophthalmics and rare disease.

The FDA named Jeremy Walsh as its inaugural chief AI officer. He joins the agency from government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, where he spent 14 years, serving most recently as its chief technologist.

Healthcare AI company Iodine Software hired Valerie Mondelli as its first chief commercial officer. She most recently served as chief commercial officer of RevSpring, a healthcare revenue cycle management company.

Post-acute health IT vendor PointClickCare welcomed Nicolette Turner as its new CFO. She joins the company from Headspace, where she most recently served as CFO.

Healthcare communications company TigerConnect appointed Sean O’Neal as its new CEO. He joins the company from communications platform Sinch, where he most recently served as chief product officer.

Virginia-based UVA Health named Stephanie Schnittger as its new CFO. Schnittger, who will assume her new role on July 7, will join the system from Maryland-based Luminis Health, where she currently serves as CFO. Before that, she held the senior vice president of finance role at Sentara Healthcare and Inova Health System.

Promotions

Northern California-based health system Sutter Heath named Jonathan Ma as its new CFO. He joined the system in 2019 as treasurer and vice president of strategic finance. Before that, he spent nearly 15 years at Morgan Stanley.

Information services firm Wolters Kluwer appointed Greg Samios as CEO of its health division He joined the company in 2014, having already served as executive vice president of the health division’s two largest business units, clinical effectiveness and health learning, research and practice.

Exits

Karen DeSalvo, Google’s chief health officer, announced that she will retire in August. She joined the tech giant in 2019, after having served as acting assistant secretary for health and national coordinator for health information technology at HHS. She will be replaced by Michael Howell, who currently serves as Google’s chief clinical officer.

UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty resigned from the company due to “personal reasons.” He was replaced by Stephen Hemsley, who served as the company’s CEO from 2006 to 2017. Following the announcement of Witty’s resignation, UnitedHealth’s stock dropped by nearly 18%. The news came just weeks after the company lowered its annual forecast due to a disappointing first-quarter performance, and only months after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot and killed in December.

Layoffs

Long Island-based Catholic Health laid off about 1% of its workers. The health system’s financial records show $3.48 million in operating losses last year, following $61.33 million in operating income in 2023.

Medicare Advantage plan Devoted Health eliminated 5% of its workforce — which amounts to 120 people across several departments.

New York-Presbyterian laid off 2% of its employees, which is about 1,000 people. The job cuts came days after the health system and Columbia University agreed to settle a sexual abuse case from 2023 to the tune of $750 million.

Oregon-based PeaceHealth laid off 1% of its workforce, which amounts to 162 people. The health system said its per-day expenses have increased at nearly double the rate of its revenue growth.