Three months after Sarasota Memorial Hospital chief executive Gwen MacKenzie announced that she was leaving, the search for her successor is underway — and may end as early as August.
David Verinder, the hospital’s acting CEO, will be the first candidate to be interviewed this month.
If the search committee reaches a firm consensus on making his position permanent, said hospital board chairwoman Marguerite Malone, Verinder will become the new leader of the 4,000-employee health care system.
If not, she said — “if there are any wonderments” — the committee will hire two executive search firms to broaden the field. Then the process could extend for another six months or so — until after an August primary election that could change the makeup of the nine-member elected hospital board.
MacKenzie was selected as the public hospital’s CEO in 2005 after a national search, Malone said, “because there was no one named in the succession plan.”
Such a plan was established on MacKenzie’s nine-year watch, Malone said.
“At this time, where we have a viable internal candidate, the thing for us to do to make this a good process is use this robust search plan we put in place,” she said. “We’ll put David through it first; he’s an excellent potential candidate.”
Verinder was hired by MacKenzie in 2006 as chief financial officer, and promoted to chief operating officer in 2010. As director of the hospital’s construction projects, he has been responsible for last year’s completion of a new nine-story tower on campus, and a number of new urgent care centers.
Date: July 02, 2014