Connors, Partners Healthcare System chair, to step down

Jack Connors, the Boston businessman and power broker who has been the highest profile figure at Partners HealthCare System Inc. for 15 years, will step down next summer as chairman of the region's largest hospital and doctors network. Under a succession plan developed earlier this year and shared with leaders of Partners hospitals at a meeting this spring, but not disclosed publicly, Connors, 69, will turn over the chairman's post to Edward P. Lawrence next July. Lawrence is a retired partner at the Boston law firm Ropes & Gray LLC and a Brookline neighbor of Connors.