The Tolan Group Recruits CEO for Elwyn
June 14, 2017 – Healthcare is among the most rapidly growing employment fields, according to analysts at Hunt Scanlon Media, which tracks trends in the executive search and leadership solutions space. This has led to an increased need for recruiting firms to deliver top-drawer leaders throughout the sector.
The latest: The Tolan Group, a member of the Sanford Rose Associates network, has placed Charles McLister as the president and chief executive officer of Media, PA-headquartered Elwyn. He succeeds Sandra S. Cornelius, Ph.D., who announced her retirement in December.
Chair of the board, J. Richard Leaman commended the board-appointed search committee on completing an intensive national search and identifying a collaborative leader with the full range of experience to advance Elwyn’s mission.
The Right Skills
“Elwyn was seeking a CEO with previous behavioral health experience,” said Tim Tolan, managing partner and CEO of the Tolan Group. “They wanted a CEO with strong leadership and operational skills with a strategic mindset. Chuck is a seasoned behavioral health executive with outstanding operational skills and holds two advanced degrees so he’s also extremely bright,” Mr. Tolan said. “He is very strategic in nature, understands how to work well with the board and that was a key driver as well.”
Mr. McLister has spent more than 27 years in behavioral health, providing or supervising services such as drug and alcohol rehabilitation, treatment for specialized diagnoses, autism services psychiatry and neurology services and treatment for acquired brain injuries.
Previously, he served as chief operating officer of Bancroft Neurohealth, a non-profit provider of specialized services for individuals with autism, brain injuries and other intellectual or developmental disabilities. He was responsible for the performance of all of the agency’s service lines, including education services, acute behavioral health, community residential services and healthcare services. In addition, he led the organization’s support teams, including nursing, human resources, information technology, facilities and construction management and continuous quality improvement. Before that, he was a VP at CRC Health Group, and earlier in his career he served as CEO of Fairmount Behavioral Health Systems of UHS, Inc.
“It will be a privilege to partner with the Elwyn board, its leadership, dedicated staff, the people Elwyn care for and their loved ones,” said Mr. McLister. “It is a truly remarkable organization with a rich legacy of groundbreaking accomplishments. I see tremendous potential and promise moving forward.”
Founded in 1852 as a school for children with intellectual disabilities, Elwyn is a not-for-profit educational and healthcare organization, supporting children and adults with physical and intellectual challenges.
HR Trends Impacting Healthcare Recruiting Specialists
One recruiting boutique specialist has seen these three key trends that are changing the way they do business: the outsourcing of management roles, desire to consider interim management at the director level and the integration of talent assessment tools.
Healthcare Recruiters
The Tolan Group provides executive search services to clients and candidates servicing the healthcare IT industry. The Sanford Rose Associates umbrella network has over 70 offices worldwide with locations in North America, Latin America, and Asia.
Mr. Tolan has conducted searches for CEOs, CIOs, COOs CFOs, presidents, senior vice presidents, vice presidents of business development, product development and sales professionals. He has worked with large and small cap companies, as well as privately-held and early-stage companies. In addition to his executive search experience, he has been in the healthcare technology field for over 25 years holding executive-level positions for companies both public and private. His network comes from years of serving as a healthcare executive with ProxyMed, Inc., Healtheon/WebMD, ePhysician and CITATION Computer Systems.
Healthcare Employment
For the talent management sector, demand is growing and competition for talent is growing as well, especially in healthcare. According to the most recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report, employment in healthcare rose by 24,000 in May. Hospitals added 7,000 jobs over the month, and employment in ambulatory healthcare services continued to trend up (+13,000). Job growth in healthcare has averaged 22,000 per month thus far in 2017, compared with an average monthly gain of 32,000 in 2016.
“The healthcare space continues to lead most hiring metrics and represents nearly 20 percent of the nation’s GDP,” said Mr. Tolan. “Healthcare will always be a solid market and the demands have never been stronger. Leadership, technology and clinical roles continue to be in hot demand.”
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor; and Chase Barbe, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
