Ronald R. Peterson to Retire as President of the Johns Hopkins Health System and EVP of Johns Hopkins Medicine

To the Johns Hopkins Medicine community

Dear Colleagues:

In the life of an institution, there are leaders who leave such a deep and distinctive imprint that their influence spans well beyond the bounds of their career. It is with a sense of profound appreciation that I write to inform you that after 44 years of service at Johns Hopkins, Ron Peterson is retiring from his positions as president of the Johns Hopkins Health System and executive vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine by the end of the calendar year. As president emeritus of the Johns Hopkins Health System, Ron has agreed to serve for at least one year as special advisor to me in my capacity as dean/CEO.

Beyond any question, Ron has been instrumental to the success of this organization. His link to Hopkins dates back 50 years to his undergraduate studies at The Johns Hopkins University. To fulfill requirements for his master's degree in hospital administration from the George Washington University, he came to The Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1973 to complete his administrative residency. His first real job here was as administrator of Psychiatry. After working in a variety of staff roles for then-hospital-president Dr. Robert Heyssel, Ron was sent to the financially challenged Children’s Center to serve as administrator.

When Johns Hopkins entered into a management contract to run the ailing Baltimore City Hospitals, Ron was appointed executive director. He led a dramatic revival, updating the physical campus and transforming a $7 million loss per year into a healthy bottom line. The hospital, now known as Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, was acquired by Hopkins in 1984, and Ron was named president.

In 1986, Ron was instrumental in the acquisition of the former U.S. Public Health Service Hospital, Wyman Park. This laid the foundation for our Department of Defense relationship, which morphed into the U.S. Family Health Plan, and for our primary care organization, which would become Johns Hopkins Community Physicians.

Through his early leadership roles, Ron became known as a "fiscal surgeon" for his ability to manage financially challenged organizations. So it was no surprise when he was chosen to be executive vice president and chief operating officer of the health system in 1995. In that era of tension between the leaders of the health system and the school of medicine, Ron's distinctive gift for inspiring teamwork and for grounding discussions in this institution’s values and ideals made him a natural choice to succeed James Block as president of The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System in 1996.

When the school of medicine and health system came together under the Johns Hopkins Medicine banner, Ron was appointed executive vice president of that new organization. In partnership with my predecessor, Ed Miller, they built a truly integrated academic health system with joint decision-making and a shared vision, which has given us a strategic advantage in this time of change in health care.

For most of Ron's two-decade tenure as president, The Johns Hopkins Hospital continued its streak as the number-one ranked hospital in the nation. It opened a new comprehensive cancer center and undertook one of the most expansive private building campaigns in Maryland history, culminating in two new state-of-the-art hospital towers for adult and pediatric patients. Ron stepped down as president of The Johns Hopkins Hospital in July but has ensured a smooth leadership transition while continuing to oversee the health system’s six hospitals and extensive ambulatory network.

While Ron has a talent for streamlining operations and consummating bold strategic projects, even more striking is the way he cares for people. Not only is he a vocal advocate for employees at every level of this organization, his impact has extended beyond these walls with efforts to spread prosperity and opportunity to others in the community. With Ron's leadership, Johns Hopkins has offered a second chance at employment to hundreds of ex-offenders and rallied Baltimore-area businesses to hire and buy locally. Among his many civic activities, Mr. Peterson serves as vice chairman of the Governor’s Workforce Investment Board and as a member of the boards of the Maryland Business Roundtable for Education, the Living Classrooms Foundation, the Greater Baltimore Committee and the Center Club. He is a former board member of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Chesapeake, the Maryland Hospital Association, the United Way of Central Maryland, the Council of Teaching Hospitals of the AAMC, and the University Health System Consortium.

These undertakings have earned him many honors, including induction in the Maryland Chamber of Commerce's Business Hall of Fame, distinguished alumnus awards from The Johns Hopkins University and the George Washington University School of Public Health, the community service award from Chabad, the Freeman Hrabowski Visionary Leadership Award, the Governor's International Leadership Award and the Greater Baltimore Committee's Walter Sondheim Public Service Award. In 2016, Loyola University named him Business Leader of the Year and the Daily Record honored him as one of its Influential Marylanders.

Despite that litany of accolades, he's the type of leader who is not motivated by individual ambition but rather a desire to be the very best steward—of our tradition of excellence, our collegial community, and of course, our mission to improve lives. In a 2009 interview, Ron described his role this way: "What we do is help to create the environment that enables the great, bright clinicians and scientists and staff to carry on their important work each and every day." Year after year, with his intelligence and his trademark equanimity, he not only has built that supportive foundation but he has insulated the people of Johns Hopkins Medicine from challenging outside forces so that each of us could focus our talents on what matters most.

For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude. Please join me in congratulating Ron Peterson on an extraordinary career and in thanking him for all he has done for our patients, our neighbors, and each and every one of us at Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Sincerely,

Paul B. Rothman, M.D.
Dean of the Medical Faculty
CEO, Johns Hopkins Medicine