WELLMONT NAMES ACCOMPLISHED HEALTHCARE EXECUTIVE MIKE SNOW INTERIM CEO
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KINGSPORT – Michael “Mike” Snow, an accomplished executive with an extensive healthcare background, will provide interim leadership for Wellmont Health System as the 14-hospital organization conducts a national search for its next president and chief executive officer.
Snow, who is not a candidate for the permanent position, will take the helm as interim CEO July 14. He succeeds former Wellmont President and CEO Dr. Richard Salluzzo, who resigned to accept an executive position in his native New England.
“We are extremely pleased to be working with a professional of Mike Snow’s caliber,” said Roger K. Mowen Jr., chairman of the Wellmont board of directors. “Mike has provided dynamic leadership for some of the nation’s premier healthcare organizations, and we are confident his proven record of innovative, strategic management is the right fit for our health system during this time of change.”
Snow has more than 25 years’ experience in healthcare business operations, including eight years as president of HCA’s Gulf Coast Division, one of the largest operating divisions of HCA with annual revenues in excess of $2 billion and more than 12,000 employees. In 2004, Snow was named chief operating officer of HealthSouth Corp., the nation’s largest provider of rehabilitative healthcare services.
When HealthSouth’s surgical services division was transitioned into a standalone entity in 2007, Snow was appointed president and CEO of the newly created Surgical Care Affiliates, one of the largest providers of ambulatory surgery centers in the country with 132 sites in 33 states. Earlier this year, he stepped down as the company’s CEO in a planned departure and moved into a full-time board role with the organization.
Snow is a graduate of the University of Alabama and Troy State University, where he earned a master’s degree in business administration. He has served as chairman of the Texas Hospital Association, co-chairman of the Texas Governor’s Special Committee on Medicaid Reform and as a board member for Save our ERs, a consortium of hospitals that successfully secured funding for Texas trauma centers.
“Mike has extensive experience operating large healthcare systems and a strong background of collaboration with physicians, which supports our physician-led model of health care,” Mowen said. “He is well-qualified to execute our organization’s existing operating and strategic plans, and his demonstrated commitment to safety and quality aligns seamlessly with our hospitals’ patient focus.
“This alignment is absolutely crucial because, while we may be experiencing a leadership transition, the work our health system is here to do hasn’t changed. Our singular mission is to deliver the best medical care possible to the patients and communities we serve.”
Snow said he looks forward to his time at Wellmont.
"I'm pleased to be affiliated with such a quality-driven organization and provide interim leadership to a talented group of people,” Snow said.
With Snow in place to provide interim leadership, Mowen said, the board of directors will turn its attention to a national search for a permanent president and CEO. The board will work with an executive search firm to identify and select a top candidate, a process that takes on average six months.
“We are fully committed to a strategic, deliberate search process that will identify a leader of the highest quality,” Mowen said. “Our patients, employees and physicians expect and deserve no less.”