UPMC President Jeffrey Romoff to retire

Jeffrey Romoff, the architect of UPMC’s vast empire of hospitals in Western Pennsylvania and beyond, is set to retire Aug. 1, officials announced Wednesday.

Romoff will be succeeded by Leslie C. Davis, who most recently served as executive vice president of UPMC and president of the health services division, where she was responsible for leading UPMC’s 40 hospitals across Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York.

“I am proud to have led UPMC during a time of exceptional growth,” Romoff said in a news release. “We are now in a well-earned period of stability and success, having overcome challenges and grown into a fully integrated health care system. We now have a clear path to continue UPMC’s extraordinary and unique trajectory with new leadership.”

Romoff, 75, will be named president emeritus until Oct. 1, and will work to transfer responsibilities to Davis, who has 30 years of health care experience.

Davis began her career at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York City. She spent 13 years with Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, where she held several positions including vice president of clinical affiliations and ambulatory programs.

Over the years, she also served as CEO of Presbyterian Medical Center and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, as well as the chief marketing and planning officer for the University of Pennsylvania Health System. Prior to joining UPMC, Davis was president of Graduate Hospital in Philadelphia, which is part of Tenet Healthcare Corp.

Between 2004 and 2018 she served as president of UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital. After that, Davis served as chief operating officer of the health services division for three years.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to lead UPMC. … I am confident in our organization’s future and look forward to continuing to serve our patients, our members, our employees and our communities as UPMC soars to even greater heights in the future,” Davis said.

In a statement released following the announcement, Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said that working with Davis “these last number of years gives me the confidence that she will be able to carry on in the same manner and carry on the good work that UPMC has done for us.”

Romoff began his career at the University of Pittsburgh in 1973 as the director of the office of education and regional programming at what is now UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital in Oakland. By 1975, Romoff became the facility’s administrator and associate director.

After that, Romoff was the executive vice president of UPMC and vice president for health sciences of the University of Pittsburgh between 1986 and 1992. In 1991 he also assumed the role of interim senior vice president of business and finance for the University of Pittsburgh.

In 1992, Romoff was named president of UPMC and in 2006 became president and CEO. In that role, Romoff guided the health care giant into a fully integrated $23 billion global integrated heath care delivery system and led the organization to become one of the largest non-governmental employers in the state, according to the news release.

Romoff also oversaw UPMC’s international expansion, leading the company to have global programs with focused efforts in China, Italy, Ireland and Kazakhstan.

Over the last several years as president and CEO, Romoff has reaped several pay raises. In 2018, Romoff saw a $430,000 increase, followed by a $530,000 increase in 2019, which brought his salary to $9.5 million.

“Jeffrey Romoff has been a giant in the healthcare field,” Fitzgerald said. “The benefits to southwestern Pennsylvania, both economically and medically, have been tremendous under his leadership.”

Fitzgerald added that the work Romoff did as a leader of UPMC helped develop the region into a “medical and life science ecosystem.”

“For almost 50 years, Jeff’s entrepreneurial outlook has created growth and success for the UPMC University of Pittsburgh partnership in ways that have fueled cutting-edge medical innovations while transforming health care in our region,” said Patrick Gallagher, chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh. “UPMC has selected the right leader to follow in Jeff’s footsteps, and I am excited for all of the collaborations and innovations to occur as Leslie leads UPMC forward.”