Cleveland Clinic Exec to Lead Intermountain Healthcare

Pediatrician and senior executive Marc Harrison, MD, will take over in October, with the retirement of Intermountain CEO Charles W. Sorenson, MD.

Marc Harrison, MD, a pediatrician and senior executive at Cleveland Clinic, has been named president and CEO of Intermountain Healthcare, the health system announced.

Harrison will take over at the Salt Lake City, UT-based not-for-profit health system on Oct. 15 with the retirement of Intermountain's current CEO Charles W. Sorenson, MD. Sorenson will stay at Intermountain as founding director of the health system's leadership institute, which opens in 2018.   

Harrison, 52, most recently chief of International Business Development for Cleveland Clinic, and CEO of the Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi.

He led a 3,500-member multi-national workforce and oversaw clinical and business operations for the new medical campus, which cared for patients from 31 countries in its first 10 months of operations. He has also served as chief medical office for Cleveland Clinic, and chairman of pediatric critical care.

"Dr. Harrison has impressive experience and a proven track record of leading health organizations and is immensely qualified to build on Intermountain's legacy and oversee the organization as we continue the work of transforming healthcare to meet the challenges ahead," Intermountain Board Chair Scott Anderson said in prepared remarks.

Harrison earned an undergraduate degree at Haverford College and a medical degree at Dartmouth Medical School. He completed a residency and an internship in pediatric critical care through the University of Utah School of Medicine, working primarily in the critical care units of Intermountain's Primary Children's Hospital. 

His wife, Mary Carole Harrison, MD, served as the chief resident in the same program. Marc Harrison later received a masters of Medical Management from Carnegie Mellon University and studied management at Harvard Business School.

Intermountain Healthcare includes 22 hospitals, 185 clinics, a Medical Group with about 1,300 employed physicians, a health plans division called SelectHealth.