New CEO named to lead University of Pennsylvania Health System

The University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) has named longtime Penn Medicine leader Kevin B. Mahoney as its next CEO.

Mahoney will take the post on July 1, succeeding Ralph W. Muller, who served as the health system's CEO since 2013.

Officials said Mahoney, who has served in leadership roles at the $7.8 billion health system for 23 years including the executive vice president and chief administrative officer for UPHS, was the best choice for the job after conducting a national search. 

Kevin B. Mahoney (Penn Medicine)

“Kevin has an unrivaled breadth of experience and depth of knowledge of healthcare 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,” said University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann. “We are confident that Kevin will successfully lead the team-based effort to propel UPHS to even greater heights, building on its unparalleled successes and enormous momentum.”

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He'll be taking the reins of a health system which grew under Muller's leadership from three Philadelphia-based academic medical centers to a total of six hospitals reaching from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to Princeton, New Jersey, and an expanded outpatient network.

Mahoney joined Penn Medicine in 1996.

He has held the position of executive director of Penn’s primary care physician network and CEO of Phoenixville Hospital, as well as a strategist for Penn Medicine’s growth across the Delaware Valley, including the integration of Chester County Hospital into UPHS, the move of Penn Medicine’s Level 1 trauma center to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and the construction of five multispecialty ambulatory facilities across region. He oversaw the implementation of a common electronic health record platform across Penn’s hospitals, numerous outpatient clinics and home care.

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Mahoney is credited with developing the master plan concept for the former Philadelphia Civic Center site, now known as the Ruth and Raymond Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine and the Roberts Proton Therapy Center. He is also leading a project to build a new Pavilion building set to open in 2021, which is being positioned to be the most advanced inpatient hospital facility in the country.

“Kevin was a chief architect behind so many of the efforts for which Penn Medicine has become nationally renowned. He was an early and strong contributor to our campus-wide efforts to make innovation part of Penn’s and Penn Medicine’s DNA,” said Perelman School of Medicine Dean J. Larry Jameson.