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
North Carolina-based Advocate Health hired Erich Huang as its new chief research information officer and vice president of informatics. He came to the company from Verily, a precision health company owned by tech giant Alphabet. Prior to Verily, Huang served as chief data officer for quality at Duke Health.
Patient communications platform Artera appointed Damon Lanphear as its new chief technology officer. In the past, he has served as director of engineering at Amazon, director of technology at Amazon Web Services, and chief technology officer at 98point6.
Healthcare analytics company Cotiviti named Ric Sinclair as its new CEO. He joined the company from Waystar, where he spent nine years as chief business officer. Before that, Sinclair spent about a decade as head of product at healthcare revenue cycle company ZirMed — until it merged with Navicure in 2017 and rebanded to become Waystar.
Flare Capital Partners welcomed two new executive partners to its investment firm: Graham Gardner and Rochelle Walensky. Gardner founded and served as CEO of healthcare software firm Kyruus Health, which RevSpring acquired last year. Walensky is the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as well as the former chief of infectious disease at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston named Desiree Gandrup-Dupre as its new CIO, effective April 13. She will join the health system after spending 23 years at Kaiser Permanente, serving most recently as its senior vice president of care delivery and technology services.
Neko Health, a Swedish startup focused on early disease detection, hired Sunita Mishra as its chief medical officer. She is the former chief medical officer of Amazon, as well as the former chief executive of ExpressCare at Providence.
SCAN Group welcomed Aman Bhandari as its first chief AI officer. He came to the organization from Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where he served as a vice president of data science. Before Vertex, Bhandari worked as executive director of data and insights at Merck, as well as senior advisor to the U.S. and HHS chief technology officer at the White House.
Promotions
The Cigna Group announced that its COO, Brian Evanko, will succeed long-time leader David Cordani as CEO, effective July 1. Evanko has worked at the organization for nearly three decades, joining in 1998 in an actuarial role.
Exits
Beth Israel Lahey Health CEO Kevin Tabb told his board that he is stepping down from his role in a year. He led the Massachusetts-based health system since its formation in 2019, when Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center merged with Lahey Health. Prior to the merger, had served as CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess since 2011.
Vinay Prasad, the embattled head of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, departed the agency for the second time in less than a year.
Vanderbilt Health CEO Jeff Balser announced that he is retiring at the end of the year. He has served in the role for 17 years.
Layoffs
Health tech firm CoverMyMeds laid off some employees in March as part of a restructuring led by its parent company, McKesson, which said it is shifting resources away from legacy services and toward newer technology. The company did not disclose how many workers were affected, but the cuts involved multiple teams and come three years after a much larger round of layoffs that eliminated about 815 jobs in 2023.
Oracle began laying off thousands of employees this month as part of a restructuring aimed at cutting costs and funding major investments in AI infrastructure and data centers. The cuts affected workers across several divisions and regions, with analysts estimating the reductions could eventually reach tens of thousands of roles, though the company has not confirmed a total.
Takeda announced layoffs as part of a multiyear restructuring plan aimed at saving about $1.25 billion annually and streamlining operations. The cuts could affect about 634 U.S. employees, including roughly 247 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Blue Shield of California is letting go of 69 employees across multiple locations in the state, according to a WARN filing. The cuts are scheduled to take effect April 8 and represent less than 1% of the company’s workforce, with the payer saying it regularly adjusts staffing based on business needs.