University of Pennsylvania Health System names insider as new CEO, succeeding Ralph Muller

The University of Pennsylvania Health System on Wednesday said system veteran Kevin B. Mahoney will succeed Ralph W. Muller as chief executive of the Philadelphia region’s largest health system by revenue on July 1.

Mahoney has worked at Penn Medicine for 23 years, most recently as executive vice president and chief administrative officer for UPHS, as well as the executive vice dean for integrative services for the Perelman School of Medicine.

“Kevin has an unrivaled breadth of experience and depth of knowledge of health care in an integrated academic medical center, combined with a profound personal commitment to Penn’s ambitious vision to build the academic health system of the future,” University of Pennsylvania president Amy Gutmann said in a news release.

Perelman School of Medicine Dean J. Larry Jameson said in an interview that Mahoney won the job after a national search because of his “deep understanding of the culture of Penn Medicine, the alignment with the academic mission, the focus on clinical excellence, innovation in health care delivery.”

As Penn Medicine’s chief administrative officer, Mahoney fostered many of the system’s most important projects, Jameson said.

“He cofounded our center for health care innovation. He’s been at the tip of the spear of a lot of our commercialization efforts in gene and cell therapy, and he’s been the primary driver of a lot of our large capital projects, including rebuilding the former convention site with the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine, the new patient pavilion, our Smilow Center for Translational Research, and he’s got a comprehensive understanding of the region,” Jameson said.

Muller, who became chief executive of the health system in 2003 and expanded the system from three to six hospitals from Princeton to Lancaster, announced last June that he would retire this year.

During Muller’s tenure — which started just a few years after Penn had been on the verge of selling the system because of steep losses in the late 1990s — total revenue increased to $6.8 billion in the year ended June 30, 2018, from $1.9 billion in the year ended June 30, 2003. The system, which has started construction on a $1.5 billion patient tower at its main campus in University City, now has 2,802 licensed beds.

Penn acquired Chester County Hospital and Health System in 2013, Lancaster General Health in 2015, and Princeton HealthCare System last year.

“I think we’re on a great course,” Jameson said.