U.K. Healthcare Organization Turns to Russell Reynolds Associates to Find CEO

October 21, 2015 – The Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust has retained Russell Reynolds Associates to find its new chief executive officer. Sir Ron Kerr has decided to step down as CEO after 30 years in senior NHS leadership roles.

“My immediate focus is to ensure a fully-planned and well-managed transition to a new chief executive who can take over the leadership of this incredible organization,” said Mr. Kerr, who will stay with the company while Russell Reynolds conducts the search for his replacement.

The new CEO will take on a leadership role of significant scale and complexity, with a requirement to meet and exceed exacting performance targets. Candidates are likely to be exceptional leaders, attuned to the values of the NHS and the Trust. According to a company brief, they will need determination, resilience, vision and sensitivity, and a particular empathy for the Trust’s academic agenda. Prior experience of managing a large, complex, multi-site business is important, with the ability to command the respect of the medical and clinical workforce.

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust is one of the world’s leading healthcare organizations, providing a full range of hospital and community services as well as enjoying an international reputation for its specialist services. The Trust is part of King’s Health Partners, one of the U.K.’s six accredited Academic Health Sciences Centers, and is renowned for its levels of clinical excellence, teaching and research, and its program of investment.

The global healthcare industry is in the midst of a turbulent transformation, making the need for proven and experienced boards and executive teams with vision more important than ever. Russell Reynolds Associates’ healthcare services practice has worked with leading private equity, decentralized service networks, national health systems, academic medical centers, integrated delivery networks and other provider organizations, as well as insurance companies, healthcare IT platforms, digital health innovators and vendors.

Contributed by Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor, Hunt Scanlon Media