Diversified Search Seeking CFO for Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

November 9, 2020 – Diversified Search has been retained to find the new chief financial officer for Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Dale E. Jones, Lyn Brennan and Alison Lebonitte are leading the assignment. Current CFO Thomas Todorow will be retiring next June.

The next CFO will join CHOP at a time of financial strength and stability despite the challenges the global COVID-19 pandemic has placed on the organization. The CFO will lead the hospital’s finance organization and will enable and support the ongoing achievement of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s growth agenda and strategic plans, ensuring the organization has the financial flexibility to pursue its strategy and enable delivery of its mission.

The hospital wants candidates with 15 years financial leadership experience in a highly complex organization, said Diversified Search. The right candidate will be a thought leader, a strong strategic thinker and someone who is comfortable working with a powerful board of trustees.

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is the nation’s first hospital devoted exclusively to the care of children. Since its start in 1855, the hospital has achieved historic breakthroughs and dramatic firsts in pediatric medicine. The hospital offers cutting-edge care in 42 pediatric medical and surgical specialties and more than 50 specialized programs, including cardiac care, childhood cancer, fetal diagnostics and surgery.

Headquartered in Philadelphia, Diversified Search is the largest U.S. female-owned and founded firm in the executive recruitment industry. It has offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Diversified is the U.S. partner of AltoPartners, an international alliance of 58 independent executive search firms that spans 35 countries across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific.

Veteran Recruiters

Mr. Jones is president and CEO of Diversified Search. His responsibilities include oversight and management of the firm and its global CEO advisory services. Before joining in Diversified 2013, Mr. Jones served as vice chairman of Heidrick & Struggles. His philosophy on great leadership is simple: “It is important that leaders have the ability to inspire and motivate people and to lead by example. I think the best leaders have been through some testing in their journey, so that they can really empathize, not only with the people that they lead, but with their customers.”

Ms. Brennan joined Diversified Search as a managing director in the healthcare services practice in 2017. She is based in the firm’s New York office. Prior to her career in executive search, Ms. Brennan, a registered nurse with degrees from both Georgetown and New York University, worked as a practice leader in healthcare operations at Ernst & Young, and as a director of healthcare operations and quality at Coopers & Lybrand.

Ms. Lebonitte is a vice president and senior associate at Diversified Search working in the healthcare services practice. Her career in executive search began in 2015 when she joined Korn Ferry as a senior associate in healthcare services. There she led search execution for clinical executive leadership and C-suite positions within not-for-profit integrated delivery systems, academic medical centers, schools of medicine, faculty practices and employed medical groups, and community hospitals, among other duties.

New Pressures on CFOs

Immediate concerns around cash flow, liquidity and the bottom line are taking precedence at many companies due to continued fallout from the pandemic. But there are high-value lessons emerging from the current health and economic crisis that chief financial officers should bear in mind, according to recruiters specializing in finding talent for finance functional roles.


Executive Search Review Special Issue: Financial Services Recruiting

Hunt Scanlon Media has just released our latest special issue of ESR. This time around we take an in-depth look at the challenges financial services firms are facing in their hunt for new talent.

We cover it all: How CFOs are confronting new layers of risk in the pandemic era; the rapid and dramatic change coming at the CFO; using people analytics to acquire top talent, predict performance & reduce turnover; and why banks are turning to search firms. We even provide our latest “Financial Fifty Recruiters” ranking of financial services search firms! In this special issue of ESR, Hunt Scanlon editors take an extraordinary inside look at recruiting during these unprecedented times. Click here and enjoy.


This COVID-19 crisis has thrust CFOs into the spotlight as never before, they report, while the pandemic itself has also created a business environment in which CFOs are uniquely positioned to drive business value during the recovery phase, which is expected to come in 2021 and 2022.

All too many companies today are desperate to get as much cash on their balance sheets as possible in order to ride out the storm of COVID-19, say recruiters. Bottom-line pressures are forcing many businesses to shift their forecasting strategies, explore new products and services — or even expand into alternative sales and delivery channels. The best CFOs are spearheading that effort.

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media

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