Highmark chief builds staff with former UPMC colleagues

John Paul is putting the band back together. As Highmark Inc. goes about building a billion-dollar hospital and health care network to take on UPMC, Mr. Paul—the leader of Highmark's new healthcare provider wing and UPMC's chief operating officer before departing the system in 2003—is relying on several former UPMC executives to build and run the new Highmark network. That he has turned to former UPMC personnel reflects not only his own three decades of familiarity with the system, but also UPMC's dominance—if you want to hire a health care executive with knowledge of the Pittsburgh-area business landscape, there's a good chance that he or she is with the UPMC network, or has at least passed through it.