Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., elected as new president and CEO, Mayo Clinic
ROCHESTER, Minn. — The Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees announced on Friday, Aug. 10, that it has elected Gianrico Farrugia, M.D. (I 1991, GI 1994), vice president, Mayo Clinic, and CEO of Mayo Clinic in Florida to succeed John Noseworthy, M.D. (N 1990), as president and CEO, Mayo Clinic. Dr. Noseworthy remains president and CEO, Mayo Clinic, through his retirement at the end of the year. Drs. Noseworthy and Farrugia will work closely together through this period of transition.
“We are deeply grateful for Dr. Noseworthy’s outstanding patient-centered leadership and inspiration he provided over the past nine years,” says Samuel Di Piazza, chair, Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees. “Mayo Clinic has had a tremendous track record under his leadership amidst unprecedented change in health care and is well-positioned for continued success as we make this transition.”
Dr. Farrugia has been vice president, Mayo Clinic, and CEO of Mayo Clinic in Florida since January 2015. In this role, he has led a staff of more than 6,400 staff members. During his tenure, Mayo Clinic’s Florida campus has established itself as the destination medical center for the Southeast. There have been significant investments in people, technology and expansion, including the opening of the new 190,000-square-foot Harry T. Mangurian Jr. Building for patients seeking cancer, neurology and neurosurgical care. In 2017, Mayo Clinic was named the best hospital in Florida in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals Honor Roll.
“Dr. Farrugia is a visionary and servant leader who brings with him a wealth of experience and knowledge ─ both as an innovator and an executive,” says Dr. Noseworthy. “In partnership with our staff across Mayo Clinic, and with a deep commitment to our values and mission, he will affirm Mayo Clinic’s position as the global health care leader for generations to come.”
Prior to serving as vice president, Mayo Clinic, and CEO of Mayo Clinic in Florida, Dr. Farrugia was director of Mayo Clinic’s Center for Individualized Medicine, which is responsible for bringing genomics into routine clinical care. Dr. Farrugia also was co-founder of the Center for Innovation at Mayo Clinic.
A native of Malta, Dr. Farrugia has spent 30 years as a Mayo physician. He is jointly appointed in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, and the Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering. He is a member of the Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees and Mayo Clinic Board of Governors. He also is a professor of medicine and physiology, and a faculty member in biomedical engineering at Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Farrugia completed his undergraduate training at St. Aloysius College, Birkirkara, Malta, and earned his medical degree from the University of Malta Medical School.
Dr. Farrugia is the co-author of Think Big, Start Small, Move Fast: A Blueprint for Transformation From the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation, a book highlighting the need for change in the delivery of health care. He has published more than 250 articles on genomics and the treatment of disorders of gastrointestinal motility.
“Dr. Farrugia brings an impressive depth of experience to this role,” Di Piazza says. “A prolific investigator and inventor, and an accomplished executive, he has been at the leading edge of innovation across the breadth of Mayo’s clinical and research mission.”
Mayo Clinic’s rotational leadership model is a deliberate and planned process that incorporates leadership development and succession planning to identify and prepare leaders for every critical role, including president and CEO, Mayo Clinic. The thorough search process was guided by a search committee that included members of the Mayo Clinic Board of Governors and Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees. They solicited input from senior leaders, physicians and voting staff across Mayo Clinic about potential candidates, the challenges facing Mayo Clinic and the leadership attributes needed for the next president and CEO.
Dr. Noseworthy’s decision to retire came after one of Mayo Clinic’s strongest years in terms of quality and safety; advancement in research, education and the clinical practice; and the completion of a $3.76 billion, eight-year philanthropic campaign. Mayo Clinic’s major accomplishments during Dr. Noseworthy’s tenure included transitioning Mayo from a holding company to a single operating company across all sites. This helped deliver industry-leading patient safety and satisfaction; high staff satisfaction; strategic growth; and outstanding practice, research, education and financial performance.
Mayo Clinic has been recognized consistently as one of the best hospitals in the U.S. and repeatedly ranked No. 1 hospital and No. 1 in more specialties than any other hospital by U.S. News & World Report on its most recent Best Hospitals Honor Roll. With a staff of more than 68,000 and revenue of nearly $12 billion, Mayo Clinic cares for more than 1.3 million patients from all 50 states and nearly 140 countries each year.
“I am humbled and proud to follow and build upon this success with the best staff in the world,” says Dr. Farrugia. “While sea change continues to sweep through health care, I look forward to harnessing innovation, a hallmark of Mayo Clinic, to transform health care for the benefit of patients everywhere.”
The Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees, a 31-member group of external business and thought leaders, and Mayo physicians and administrators, is responsible for patient care, medical education and research activities at Mayo Clinic’s Arizona, Florida and Minnesota campuses, as well as Mayo Clinic Health System with dozens of locations across the Upper Midwest.