Bovender will Remain Chairman
Jack O. Bovender, Jr., chairman and CEO of HCA Inc., announced today he
will retire as CEO of the company at the end of this year and remain as
executive chairman and a member of the board of directors until December
of 2009. Richard M. Bracken, HCA’s president and chief operating
officer, will remain as president and take the helm as CEO on January 1,
2009, in accordance with the company’s existing succession plan.
Bovender, who has over 30 years of experience with HCA, returned to the
company from retirement in 1997 to help then-chairman and CEO Dr. Thomas
F. Frist, Jr. return Columbia/HCA, then under a federal investigation,
to HCA’s cultural roots and reinforce the “patients-first” philosophy on
which HCA was founded. Under their leadership, the company underwent a
significant reorganization – including implementation of a world-class
ethics and compliance program and two publicly-traded spin-offs of
assets – and streamlined operations.
During Bovender’s tenure as CEO, the company undertook the single
largest purchase of a non-profit system with the acquisition of Health
Midwest, now HCA Midwest, and developed and implemented the
organization’s shared services initiative, a major cost-savings strategy
that leveraged the company’s size and scope by reducing unnecessary
overhead through consolidation of business office functions and
rationalized supply chain services. Bovender also led the company’s now
well-documented evacuation of Tulane Medical Center during Hurricane
Katrina. The company reopened the facility in February of 2006. That
same year, the company successfully completed a plan to go private in
what became the largest leveraged buyout of its time.
“I have had the pleasure of spending virtually my entire career with the
best healthcare organization in the world,” said Bovender. “But now it’s
time to begin the process of succession. We are extremely fortunate to
have Richard Bracken, an exceptionally qualified and experienced
healthcare executive, as my successor. In choosing Richard, we are
assured the culture we have so firmly ingrained at HCA will continue.
His strong operations management experience and understanding of HCA’s
impact in the communities it serves are exactly what we need in our next
leader.”
In addressing Bovender’s retirement, Frist, an HCA board member and with
his family a significant owner of HCA, said, "Jack Bovender’s leadership
and knowledge have helped build HCA into a powerhouse in the healthcare
sector. His caring nature and strong integrity reflect the
vision my father, Jack Massey and I began with -- to serve patients,
partners and communities with compassion and kindness. With Richard
Bracken as Jack’s successor, we are confident the legacy of our founders
will continue. Richard’s experience and keen judgment provide an
assurance that HCA will continue as a leader in the hospital industry
and a pacesetter for solutions in healthcare.”
Bracken has 30 years of experience in the hospital industry, and has
worked with HCA for 27 years in leadership positions at the facility,
state and regional levels before taking on his current role. One of his
first positions in the company was as CEO of Centennial Medical Center,
the company’s flagship hospital in its hometown market of Nashville, TN.
Bracken stated, “I have had the good fortune to have spent most of my
career with HCA and the last seven years working in partnership with
Jack Bovender. I have a strong sense of the market dynamics in which we
operate and the culture that pervades everything we do. I am honored to
be chosen as HCA’s next CEO, and I look forward to working with our
physicians, partners and all our HCA colleagues to continue to grow and
improve our healthcare organizations.” Bracken and his wife, Judith,
reside in Nashville and have four grown children.
HCA and its affiliates operate 159 hospitals, 99 ambulatory surgery
centers and five endoscopy centers in 19 states and England, including
eight hospitals, eight ambulatory surgery centers and one endoscopy
center operated through equity method joint ventures.
All references to "Company" and "HCA" as used throughout this document
refer to HCA Inc and its affiliates.
INVESTOR CONTACT:
Mark Kimbrough
615-344-2688
MEDIA CONTACT:
Ed Fishbough
615-344-2810