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Caroline Catherman

Healthcare Brew delivers the latest news and trends in healthcare.

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Each month, we highlight some of the major job changes in the healthcare sector, from small startups bringing in new leadership to big orgs trading seasoned execs.

Here’s a noncomprehensive roundup of the past month’s career shifts.

Have a job announcement to share? Drop Caroline an email at 

 Repertoire Immune Medicines, a Flagship Pioneering-founded biotech company focused on programmable T cell-targeted immune medicines, announced June 4 that Andtbacka would be joining as chief medical officer. He most recently served in the same role at HiFiBiO Therapeutics, a clinical- stage biotherapeutics company.

On June 9, health tech company Medtronic announced Benedict as the new SVP and president of the company’s acute care and monitoring business.

The last SVP and president of Medtronic’s acute care and monitoring business announced his departure three months ago on 

, and has since started as EVP and COO at another medtech company, Haemonetics.

After a year as chief commercial officer for remote cardiac monitoring platform Pacemate, Finkelmeier is becoming CEO. Current CEO and co-founder Tripp Higgins will become chair of the board of directors, the company announced June 5.

After almost 25 years in various executive roles at Sanofi, Gurunathan has left the biopharma company to lead vaccine and infectious disease R&D for GSK, according to 

After 24 years, CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals will retire from his role at the end of the year, the trade association announced in an interview with 

On June 2, biopharma company Ardelyx announced its former EVP of corporate development and strategy as its chief business officer.

Navvis, a population health company, named the former Mass General Brigham exec as market president and physician executive on June 3. She will help guide the company’s partnership with Tufts Medicine, according to a press release.

 Telehealth and virtual care solutions provider Wheel tapped Monaco as SVP and head of product on June 1. She was most recently SVP of product and engineering at Truepill, a digital pharmacy services provider.

 Wisp, a telehealth company focused on women’s health care, announced the physician as its chief medical officer on June 10.

After working as an anesthesiologist and then a Wall Street analyst, Shibutani will now become Bristol Myers Squibb’s new EVP and chief strategy officer, the company announced in a June 9 

Healthcare Brew's August on Rotation editorial feature

On Rotation: June 2025 health exec moves

Wondering who’s in and who’s out at major startups, health companies, and hospitals? We’ve got you.

This year has been a rollercoaster for the pharmaceutical industry, and at this point, it’s unclear whether the ride is about to stop or if we’re at the top of another drop.

The industry overall has posted mixed earnings so far, with companies performing better than expected in some categories but falling short in others, Healthcare Brew 

So, though we regularly do roundups of people being appointed to 

, this time we’re filling you in on some of 2025’s pharma layoffs so far.

The Germany-based pharmaceutical company laid off about 2,000 employees worldwide in Q1, 

The New Jersey-based company is laying off 516 employees in Lawrenceville, according to a 

 filed with the state. This is the third round of layoffs it has reported in Lawrenceville this year, bringing the total number of terminated—or planned to be terminated—employees to 806 as of May 5.

 The New York-based pharma giant laid off 56 workers in its San Diego office, effective June 2, according to 

 in February that Moderna had eliminated 10% of roles, about 50 people, across two digital departments. A former employee alleged to 

 there have been more layoffs this year that were not publicly disclosed. A company spokesperson reportedly told the Globe the company had no comment.

 Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche has axed hundreds of roles this year, including 143 at its San Francisco-based subsidiary Genentech, as originally 

 by the San Francisco Chronicle, and 108 at its molecular systems division in Santa Clara, according to state documents.

The Rahway, New Jersey-based company gave 

 to the Pennsylvania government that it’s closing its Montour County manufacturing site, cutting 163 positions starting in May and ending sometime in 2026.

The Israel-based company will lay off about 2,400 people by 2027—8% of its 30,000 employees—as part of a broader restructuring effort, according to an earnings presentation reported on by 

Woman looking through microscope on left, Notice of Employee Termination doc on right

Pharma has laid off thousands in H1 2025

The first half of the year has been…eventful, to say the least.

Welcome to May’s On Rotation! It’s been a busy month, to say the least, featuring a CEO shake-up at two top companies: 

Though those dramatic exits dominated headlines, there have been quite a few other high-profile career switches this month, and we’re bringing them to you!

Here’s a noncomprehensive roundup of some of the past month’s career shifts, from startups to megacorporations.

 After 10 years at Bristol Myers Squibb—most recently as SVP of medical oncology—Botwood has left to head R&D and serve as chief medical officer at Syndax, a biopharmaceutical company focused on innovative cancer therapies, the company announced May 12.

 The heart rhythm expert has been promoted to vice dean and chief artificial intelligence health research officer at Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai, the health system announced May 6.

Google’s chief health officer announced earlier this month 

 she plans to retire Aug. 1 after more than five years at the company. She’ll be succeeded by Michael Howell, who’s been chief clinical officer and deputy chief health officer since 2020.

 On May 8, Centivo, a health plan for self-funded employers, announced it had appointed Fraser as its inaugural CFO. She previously served as CFO of digital pharmacy Capsule.

Telehealth platform Hims & Hers announced May 5 that Kabbani, an Amazon executive of nearly 20 years, is its new chief operations officer, following the retirement of Melissa Baird’s 

 CVS Health has named Milford president of its chain of primary care centers, Oak Street Health, he shared in a 

 on May 19. He’s been with CVS for more than three years, most recently as president of retail health.

 Global contract research organization Fortrea is saying goodbye to its CEO and chairman of the board. Peter Neupert, Fortrea’s lead independent director, took over as interim CEO and board chair on May 13. Pike will stay on as a consultant to aid the transition.

On May 9, the American Medical Association announced Whyte, a practicing physician of 27 years, will be its next CEO and EVP starting July 1. He’ll replace James Madara, who had a 14-year tenure.

Eli Lilly is playing musical chairs with its executive leadership team. The company announced May 8 Yuffa will be EVP and president of Lilly USA and global customer capabilities. His old role—EVP and president of Lilly International—will go to Patrik Jonsson, who was also president of Lilly USA. Jonsson’s old role—EVP and president of Lilly Cardiometabolic Health—will go to Kenneth Custer, who is currently general manager of Lilly Canada.

On Rotation: May 2025 health exec moves

Who’s who and who’s where?

Wondering who’s in and who’s out at major health companies, startups, hospitals, and more?

We’ve got you covered. Welcome to April’s On Rotation!

 The former VP of women and children services at Saint Francis Health System in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is now senior executive officer of Orlando-based AdventHealth for Children effective April 7. In her role, she will oversee the health system’s full Florida pediatric care network.

After five years as venture partner and head of oncology at life sciences venture capital firm Apple Tree Partners, Chopra is moving on to become chief scientific officer at Flagship Pioneering-founded Prologue Medicines, the biotechnology company announced April 8.

 On April 29, UnitedHealth Group revealed that the current CEO of its healthcare services subsidiary Optum will become the group’s EVP of governance, compliance, and information security effective May 6. Patrick Conway, current Optum Rx CEO, will assume the vacated Optum CEO position.

 This MD will become CVS Health’s new EVP and chief medical officer starting May 19, the retail pharmacy chain said on April 8. She was most recently chief physician executive of healthcare performance improvement company Press Ganey.

 After 15 years as Pfizer’s chief scientific officer and president of worldwide research, development, and medical, Dolsten has retired and taken on a senior advisor role at Blackstone Life Sciences, a pharma-focused division of Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager, 

 New job, same title—Newman has gone from the UPS’s EVP and CFO to the same at CVS Health, as of April 21. He’s succeeding Tom Cowhey, who will become a strategic advisor to President and CEO David Joyner starting May 12.

German multinational company Siemens Healthineers named Pagaria as the new president of its global ultrasound business April 1. He’s been with the company since 2011 and was previously EVP and head of Southern Europe.

Somerville, Massachusetts-based Mass General Brigham on April 2 announced Ryan as the inaugural president of its cancer institute. Ryan is a medical oncologist who has been the institute’s physician-in-chief for the past year.

Synapse Health introduced Shah as its new CEO. The company aims to help transition the durable medical equipment industry to value-based care. Shah was most recently CFO of Integra Partners, another company in the space.

 Virtual care company Teladoc Health announced Weinstein as its new chief product officer on April 15. He left the same role at Cityblock Health, a Medicaid and Medicare value-based care provider.

On Rotation: April 2025 health exec moves

We keep our fingers on the pulse of who’s moving where in the healthcare world.

On Rotation: April 2025 

Cassie McGrath

This month, we saw changes at Cigna, Blue Shield of California, and University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Health. Check out who’s moved around at health companies, insurers, hospitals, and more.

Have a job announcement to share? Drop Caroline or Cassie an email at 

 Health device maker Oura, creator of the wearable Oura Ring, announced Bloomfield as its chief medical officer on March 20. He was most recently at Apple, where he served as clinical and health informatics lead and worked on the tech giant’s health records products.

 Health tech consulting firm Nordic named Eckert as chief growth officer on March 18. He previously worked as chief technology officer at Cook Children’s Health Care System based in Fort Worth, Texas.

In a leadership shake-up on March 13, Evanko became president and COO of the Cigna Group. Evanko has worked with the company since 1998 and will also continue serving as CFO.

Laster was tapped on March 6 as chief scientific officer at the Foundation Fighting Blindness, a nonprofit seeking treatment and cures for blinding eye diseases. A neuroscientist, Laster previously served as interim chief scientific officer and SVP of science strategy and awards at the foundation.

 After 12 years as president and CEO of LifeBridge Health and a total 37 years with the Baltimore, Maryland-based health system, Meltzer announced his retirement on March 13.

Nutrition company Culina Health named Mentz as its COO on March 18—the “first C-suite hire since inception,” according to a release. Mentz has experience working with other health tech startups and spent six years with mental health company Quartet as it moved from Series A through D funding rounds.

On March 10, Parker started as CEO of St. Francis-Emory Healthcare in Columbus, Georgia. He previously served as CEO of Kentucky-based Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital.

 The Blue Shield of California president and CEO stepped down after only two months in the CEO role on March 11. Mike Stuart, who was the health plan’s CFO, has stepped in as interim president and CEO while the board searches for a permanent replacement.

Wallace was appointed president and CEO of West Virginia University (WVU) Medicine’s Uniontown, Pennsylvania, hospital on March 3. She’s worked at the WVU Health System her whole career, starting as a nuclear medicine technologist and rising to VP of neuroscience at the research center WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute.

On March 19, Yazdany was tapped as the first-ever executive director of AI monitoring in clinical care at San Francisco-based UCSF Health. She’s also a practicing rheumatologist, chief of rheumatology at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, and the UCSF Alice Betts Endowed Professor of Medicine.

On Rotation: March 2025

Executives at Cigna and Blue Shield of California made changes in March. 

Wondering who’s in and who’s out at major health companies, startups, hospitals, and more? We’ve got you covered.

Medtech company Baxter International’s chair, president, and CEO retired effective immediately after nearly a decade at the helm, the company announced on Feb. 3. He will continue in an advisory capacity through the end of October. The board of directors appointed lead independent director Brent Shafer as chair and interim CEO until a permanent replacement is found.

 Biwer left her position at Rochester, Minnesota-based Mayo Clinic as chair and SVP of marketing, brand strategy, advertising, and enterprise strategic partnerships this month to join Atlanta-based Emory Healthcare as chief marketing officer, the health system announced on Feb. 19.

Pfizer’s chairman and CEO isn’t leaving the pharma giant, but he is adding another feather to his cap. PhRMA, the industry’s largest trade group, announced on Feb. 19 that Bourla would join as board chair after the departure of Daniel O’Day, chairman and CEO of Gilead Sciences.

 TriValence, a healthcare services company founded in 2022, announced Byington as CEO on Feb. 18. He previously held leadership roles at Cloudmed, an R1 company, and Vizient, a healthcare performance improvement company, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Pfizer named the former director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research as its new chief medical officer and EVP on Feb. 24, replacing Aida Habtezion. Cavazzoni’s appointment has gotten some…

, to say the least, amid concerns about the relationship between Big Pharma and the agency that regulates it.

GoodRx appointed McGinnis as its new CFO, effective Feb. 4. McGinnis joins following a stint as CEO of CitizensRx, a pharmacy benefit management provider.

 On Feb. 4, O’Meara was promoted from president to CEO of ParetoHealth, a health benefits company for small and mid-size employers that offers an alternative to traditional health insurance. She’s replacing Andrew Cavenagh, the company’s co-founder, who will move from being CEO to executive chairman.

 Venture capital firm Flagship Pioneering announced Owen as CEO-Partner of Flagship and CEO of YourBio Health, a remote blood collection technology company founded by Flagship in 2011, on Feb. 19. Owen’s most recent job was board director and president of Oncodea, an early cancer detection company, according to a release.

 On Feb. 19, Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute announced Stegmaier as its new chair of pediatric oncology as well as associate chief of the hematology/oncology division at Boston Children’s Hospital. She’s currently a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and holds a number of other leadership roles at Dana-Farber. She will transition to these new roles on April 1, succeeding Scott Armstrong, who was recently appointed SVP for drug discovery and chief research strategy officer at Dana-Farber, the institute said in a press release.

 Global pharmaceutical group Servier announced Thomasson on Feb. 27 as executive director of neurology R&D, effective March 1. Thomasson has a PhD in neuroscience and is the co-founder of biopharmaceutical companies BrainEver and GenSight Biologics, the release said.

On Rotation: February 2025 health exec moves

On Rotation: February 2025

Maia Anderson

 with pharmacy schools, Walgreens says it has taken steps to get more people interested in the profession and improve working conditions at the chain.

Walgreens announced the Deans Advisory Council last February, framing it as a collaboration with pharmacy schools to boost the number of students enrolling and address some of the broader issues in the industry, like burnout and declining reimbursements from 

“Our goal is to really align the workplace with training to transform the future of community pharmacy on a national scale,” Angela Kashuba, dean of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s pharmacy school and co-chair of the council, told Healthcare Brew.

There aren’t enough students graduating from pharmacy schools to meet job demand. In 2023 (the latest year for which data is available), 12,639 doctor of pharmacy degrees were awarded in the US, down from 13,323 in 2022, according to the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), a trade group that represents pharmacy schools.

One reason for the decline, according to Kashuba, is that the pharmacy profession has “had a bit of a PR problem,” noting 

 that have emerged in recent years about pharmacist working conditions and burnout. The Covid-19 pandemic also played a big part in 

, with pharmacists responsible for large-scale vaccination programs.

In addition, pharmacy school tuition has gone up while pharmacist salaries have largely remained flat, she added. In 2023, the mean total pharmacy school student debt upon graduation was $170,956, up from $123,063 in 2012, according to AACP data.

The median wage for pharmacists nationwide was $136,030 as of May 2023, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Average salaries for both male and female pharmacists actually declined from 2018 to 2023, going from $153,800 to $136,200, respectively, for male pharmacists and $147,800 to $130,500, also respectively, for female pharmacists, BLS data shows.

While enrollment is dropping, the number of job listings is rising. There were 79,032 job postings for pharmacists in 2023, up from 73,327 in 2022, AACP data shows.

During the council’s first year, Walgreens has worked to incentivize pharmacy school enrollment and encourage graduates to work for the chain, according to John Colaizzi, VP and head of enterprise pharmacy practice at Walgreens and the council’s other co-chair.

One example is the 401(k) student loan match program, which lets Walgreens pharmacy workers pay off their student loans in a similar format as a retirement savings plan, with Walgreens making a match contribution.

Walgreens also increased a scholarship fund to $40,000 for pharmacy students who complete rotations at the company and later choose to work for them, Colaizzi said. 

The company also plans to launch a two-year fellowship training program for post-graduates to receive training at Walgreens’ corporate office as well as in a pharmacy.

 Kurt Proctor, SVP of strategic initiatives for the trade group the National Community Pharmacists Association, told Healthcare Brew that Walgreens’s council is likely a good way to start addressing issues within the chain’s work environment—but it’s not clear how much of an impact it may have on the industry.

“I’m not sure how much [the council] affects the overall nationwide applicant pool for kids who want to go into pharmacy…or if [Walgreens is] just trying to get a bigger share of the graduates to work in their locations,” Proctor said. “[Walgreens] wants to create a better reputation with those pharmacy schools for their practice sites, which is a perfectly reasonable thing to do.”

Colaizzi acknowledged that Walgreens isn’t expecting to change the entire industry. But he hopes Walgreens can “serve as a proxy.” Since the company has been around for more than a century and is a large player in the pharmacy world, Colaizzi said it’s “hopeful that the changes we make will be adopted broadly.”

 Kashuba said the council plans to increase its focus on recruiting pharmacy students in rural areas where there is typically 

 to healthcare services. Getting people interested in pharmacy as early as possible, such as by pairing high school students with pharmacists to get early training, could aid in that effort, she added.

“We want to start early in an individual’s education to have them think more about the clinical work that they can do as a healthcare provider in a community pharmacy,” Kashuba said.

A room full of people sitting at tables with a Walgreens logo behind them