Fast-growing companies often rely on senior executives with long histories of working together. Then there’s Novant Health, which is expanding quickly even as it shuffles executive leadership.
Six of the 10 highest-paid executives at Novant in 2021 no longer work there. Meanwhile, the state’s second-largest hospital operator closed a $2.4 billion acquisition of hospitals in Hilton Head, Mount Pleasant and Hardeeville, South Carolina, in February, adding more than $1 billion in annual revenue.
Over the past year, it also worked on buying Lake Norman Regional Medical Center in Mooresville and Statesville’s Davis Regional Medical Center for $320 million. But in mid-June, it canceled the purchare from Community Health Systems, citing antitrust opposition from the Federal Trade Commission.
Novant’s major holdings are Winston-Salem’s Forsyth Medical Center, Charlotte’s Presbyterian Medical Center and the New Hanover Regional Medical Center. Pending completion of the Iredell County hospital purchases, annual revenue will approach
$10 billion.
Hospital acquisitions are occurring because leaders want to “capitalize on economies of scale, [have] more weight in managed care negotiations and potentially [grow] the services and specialties offered in certain geographic areas,” says Greg Page, a healthcare management professor at High Point University.
Veteran Novant officials who have departed in the past 18 months include former Chief Operating Officer Jeff Lindsay, Chief Financial Officer Fred Hargett, Chief Transformation and Digital Officer Angela Yochem, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer Dr. Eric Eskioglu and Chief Consumer Officer Jesse Cureton.
Lindsay is now COO at UNC Health in Chapel Hill, Hargett is CFO at Pittsburgh-based hospital system giant UPMC, and Yochem is global chief information officer at
Charlotte-based Krispy Kreme.
“Novant is pretty successful, so their leaders in most cases are marketable and seen as having solid experience in a successful organization, which others find attractive,”
Page says.
In May, Novant named John Gizdic chief operating officer, with the presidents of the Charlotte, Winston-Salem and North Carolina Coastal regions reporting to him, along with its physician organization. He had been chief administrative officer. Gizdic was the CEO of Wilmington-based New Hanover Regional Medical Center before its $5.3 billion sale to Novant in November 2021. Before joining New Hanover in 2005, Gizdic worked at hospital systems in Charlotte and Morganton.
Novant also promoted Kim Henderson to chief administrative officer from her post as chief patient experience officer and system chief of staff. Her duties include overseeing Novant’s people and culture team, patient experience and services and community engagement. She joined Novant as head of its foundation in 2015 after working at the Charlotte Hornets Foundation.
Onyeka Nchege was named executive vice president and chief digital and information officer. A veteran tech executive at several large companies, he joined Novant in 2020. Alice Pope, former CFO at Inova Health System in Virginia, joined Novant as CFO in May.
Novant’s top leader, CEO Carl Armato, has had his job since 2012 after joining the system in 1998.
“These updates on our executive team display our capacity to build the expertise, rigor, creativity and capabilities required to deliver remarkable outcomes for our patients and the communities we serve,” Armato said in a release. ■