Leslie Davis To Succeed Jeffrey Romoff As President And CEO Of UPMC

By: KDKA-TV News Staff

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Jeffrey Romoff, the president and CEO of UPMC, is retiring.

The 75-year-old has been a part of UPMC for 48 years.

He is credited as one of the people who helped build the Pittsburgh-based healthcare giant that oversees 40 hospitals and employs more than 92,000 people.

As of Wednesday morning, the UPMC Board Of Directors voted unanimously to name Leslie Davis as the next president and CEO.

Davis is currently the executive vice president of UPMC's Health Services Division.

She tells KDKA's John Shumway that she plans to continue the worldwide initiatives Romoff has directed.

Here at home, Davis inherits UPMC at a time of a nursing shortage and a push by the SEIU to unionize UPMC's staff. However, Davis says she hopes to continue in the same direction.

"We pay our employees very competitively, we treat our employees very well, our employees are very satisfied working for UPMC. So we hope to maintain a direct relationship with our employees in the future," she said.

SEIU Healthcare PA released this statement on the change at UPMC's top:

"As our region's largest charity, landowner, healthcare provider, and employer, UPMC should be working with hospital workers, patients, and insurers to create affordable, quality care for everyone and good union jobs for the people who work in UPMC hospitals every day.

"We know there is a strong relationship between good jobs and healthy communities. Wages and job quality are the single most important social determinant of health, and Pittsburgh's terrible record in the area of health equity reflects that fact Pittsburgh also has the highest concentration of Black residents in low wage service jobs. It's time for hospital jobs to lift people out of, rather than compound, the effects of structural racism.

"We are hopeful that Leslie Davis shares this perspective and will work with us, alongside elected leaders in the region, to make sure that our area's largest private employer creates good jobs that support middle-class families. Then Pittsburgh can be a city where all of us can survive and thrive."

Democratic mayoral candidate for the City of Pittsburgh Ed Gainey has released this statement:

"UPMC is Pittsburgh's largest employer, landowner, healthcare provider, and tax-exempt charity. The people of Pittsburgh have fueled its growth into a $20 billion integrated delivery system as patients and as workers, and through premium payments and tax subsidies. Pittsburghers expect a return on that investment and need UPMC to use it's power and wealth to foster truly healthy lives and communities, and to pay its fair share back to the community that made its success possible. Our healthcare sector should heal, not compound, economic injustices like occupational segregation, overwork, and poverty, and our essential healthcare workers must have the ability to form a union, if they choose to, without intimidation or interference. I know the people of Pittsburgh look forward to making progress in all these areas and to renewing this conversation with Ms. Davis and her team."

Davis says the COVID-19 pandemic delayed some construction plans for the healthcare giant, but the planning has resumed for the new towers at Shadyside and UPMC Presbyterian hospitals. She expects both of those facilities to be up and operating in about five years.

Davis will succeed Romoff as president and CEO on Aug. 1.