dr Marc Harrison has been President and CEO since 2016.
(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Dr. Intermountain Healthcare CEO Marc Harrison speaks during an update on the COVID-19 pandemic August 31, 2021 at the Capitol. Harrison plans to step down from his role as head of Utah’s largest hospital system.
| Aug 11, 2022 at 9:28 p.m
| Updated: 10:55 p.m
The CEO of Utah’s largest hospital system has announced he is stepping down.
dr Marc Harrison will step down as president and CEO of Intermountain Healthcare this fall, a leadership position he has held since 2016, the company said in a statement Thursday. Intermountain Healthcare is based in Salt Lake City and employs approximately 42,000 people in Utah.
Harrison is leaving Intermountain Healthcare to take on a leadership role operating a healthcare platform for venture capital firm General Catalyst, the statement said.
Prior to his time as CEO of Intermountain Healthcare, Harrison worked for the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, but even then had a past in the Salt Lake City area: He and his wife moved to Utah in 1990, where they both worked at the elementary school Children’s Hospital — he as an intern, she as an assistant doctor. He joined the Cleveland Clinic in 1999 as a pediatric critical care physician and has moved through the ranks over the years.
In 2016, Harrison said he wasn’t looking for a new job when he received an offer to run the same system where his career began. But he couldn’t pass it up, he told The Salt Lake Tribune at the time, noting that the system’s commitment to “keeping care affordable is truly exceptional.”
“Marc has helped drive innovation across our organization during his six-year tenure. Because of his outstanding leadership, we are better today,” Intermountain Healthcare Board chair former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt said in a statement.
The board of the nonprofit plans to find a temporary replacement for Harrison in the search for its next CEO.
Harrison had a form of blood cancer that left him immunocompromised, and during the COVID-19 pandemic he has urged Utahns to get vaccinated to protect him and others with similar conditions.
After a bone marrow transplant and experimental CAR-T cell therapy, his cancer is in remission, The Tribune reported last year. Harrison, an avid triathlon competitor, didn’t let a previous diagnosis of bladder cancer stop him from racing, he said in 2016.
Intermountain Healthcare merged with Colorado-based SCL Health in April to form a network that includes 59,000 nurses and 33 hospitals in seven states, according to a company announcement.
Leto Sapunar is a report for members of the America Corps covering corporate responsibility and sustainability for The Salt Lake Tribune. Your donation of our RFA grant helps him write stories like this; Please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by clicking here.