John McConnell, M.D., chief executive officer of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, has been recognized as one of 130 nonprofit hospital and health system CEOs to know for the second year in a row by Becker’s Hospital Review. Individuals featured on the list lead some of the largest and most prominent hospitals and health systems in the nation. Selection was based on experience, professional achievement and community involvement.
McConnell became the first CEO of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in November 2008. Early in his tenure, McConnell developed and directed a reorganization plan that consolidated the Medical Center’s clinical, academic and research enterprises into a single integrated structure. Under his leadership, Wake Forest Baptist also has established a commercialization arm, Wake Forest Innovations, and completed a number of major capital projects, including Wake Forest Biotech Place, the Country Club and Clemmons medical plazas, the Davie Medical Center campus in Bermuda Run and the Comprehensive Cancer Center.
A urologist and translational researcher by training, McConnell came to Wake Forest Baptist from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, where he was executive vice president of health system affairs, responsible for the center’s hospitals, clinics and faculty physician practices.
McConnell spent 24 years at UT Southwestern and held a number of clinical and administrative posts, including urology department chair, prostate disease center director, vice president for clinical programs and executive vice president for administration. During his tenure as chair of urology, the department was ranked in the top 10 in the nation in National Institutes of Health funding.
McConnell was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2004. He has received the Barringer Medal from the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons and the Fuller Award from the American Urological Association, and has served on Advisory Board of the NIH National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
Becker’s Hospital Review is a monthly publication offering business and legal news and analysis relating to hospitals and health systems.
Media Relations
Paula Faria: pfaria@wakehealth.edu, 336-716-1279
Mac Ingraham: mingraha@wakehealth.edu, 336-716-3487