Chicago-area academic medical centers are making slow progress in the early going of their searches for new top executives.
In the near west suburb of Maywood, a hospital executive familiar with the Chicago area’s health-care marketplace and its academic medical centers appears to be on the radar of at least one of the local teaching facilities looking for a new leader.
Larry Goldberg, the top executive at Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville, has been contacted by Loyola University Health System in Maywood as a potential successor to Dr. Anthony Barbato, who is retiring as president and chief executive, sources familiar with Loyola’s search said.
Barbato, who has been Loyola’s top administrator for 17 years, will stay on until his successor is named, the hospital said when announcing his plans last month. The health system, parent of Loyola University Medical Center, confirmed it has hired executive search firm Spencer Stuart to help with its search.
Goldberg had been a part of the senior leadership team at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago from 1998 until May 2005, when he became executive director and CEO at Vanderbilt. Goldberg’s most recent position at Northwestern Memorial was vice president for hospital operations.
A Vanderbilt spokesman for Goldberg declined to comment.
Goldberg did not return calls.
A Loyola University Health System spokesman had no comment about Goldberg, saying they “have no names identified as contenders” and adding that the search for a new chief executive would take six to nine months.
The search for a new CEO at Loyola is just one of three high-profile searches for a teaching hospital executive under way in the area:
The University of Chicago is looking for a replacement for Michael Riordan as president of University of Chicago Hospitals. A hospital spokesman said Russell Reynolds Associates is assisting the university with that search and hopes to have a replacement by Jan. 1.
The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago is looking for a permanent successor to Wayne Lerner, who announced last month he will be stepping down after nine years. Rehabilitation Institute has begun interviewing search firms, a hospital spokeswoman said.
New director: Aetna Inc. has named Frank Clark, chairman and chief executive of Commonwealth Edison, to the Hartford-based health insurance giant’s board of directors.
With the addition of the 60-year-old Clark, Aetna’s board increases to 13 members. ComEd is a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corp.
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