The directors of national medical group Pediatrix Medical Group Inc. have chosen the company’s COO, who came aboard in 2009 via the acquisition of Children’s HealthCare Network, to be its next CEO.
Sunrise, Florida-based Pediatrix—which changed its name from Mednax in the middle of this year—has been led by Mark Ordan since July 2020, but he is preparing to step aside for Jim Swift, who has been Pediatrix’s operations chief since May and before that was chief development officer and a division regional president, among other things.
Ordan will move into the role of executive chair at the end of this month with current chair Guy Sansone in turn becoming lead independent director. Ordan had taken the helm of the company—which today runs locations in 37 states and Puerto Rico that are home to more than 4,800 affiliated physicians and other clinicians—after directors struck an agreement with activist investment fund Starboard Value, which had nominated a slate of director candidates and pushed for a sale. He previously had run real estate investment trust Quality Care Properties Inc., which focused on healthcare properties, and from 2008 to 2013 had been CEO of Sunrise Senior Living Inc.
In a statement, Sansone lauded Ordan’s work in the past two and a half years, which included managing Pediatrix through the COVID-19 pandemic and launching an expansion into children’s primary and urgent care via acquisitions and a $20 million investment in startup Brave Care.
“We are very excited that Jim, an experienced physician leader, will move into the role of chief executive officer after years of leadership at Pediatrix,” Sansone also said. “Jim is surrounded by a strong and dedicated team, and our board is confident and enthusiastic about our next chapter.”
Swift founded Children’s HealthCare Network in Las Vegas in 1996 and grew that venture to include sites in California, Montana and Louisiana before selling to the former Mednax in 2009. He earned his medical degree from the University of Health Sciences/The Chicago Medical School and completed his internal medicine/pediatrics residency program at Loma Linda University Medical Center.
Shares of Pediatrix (Ticker: MD) were changing hands midday on Dec. 19 around $14.80. They have lost about 20 percent of their value over the past six months, trimming the company’s market capitalization to about $1.2 billion.
