Tenet Healthcare CEO to step aside in September, turn over decision-making to handpicked successor

The chief executive of Tenet Healthcare Corp., one of the nation’s largest investor-owned health care systems, will step down at the end of this month, the company said Monday. Ron Rittenmeyer will turn over day-to-day operations Sept. 1 to Saum Sutaria, Tenet’s president and chief operating officer. Sutaria will continue to report to Rittenmeyer, who will remain the Farmers Branch-based company’s executive chairman through 2022. This transition is part of a long-term succession plan Rittenmeyer championed when he took over. He found his replacement in Sutaria after the two ushered the company through the COVID-19 pandemic together.

“During the past several years, Saum and I have worked closely together through extraordinary times including COVID, and at each step, he has continued to demonstrate excellent leadership in framing the right strategic and tactical pathway,” Rittenmeyer said. Sutaria, a doctor and health care consultant that worked at McKinsey for 18 years, joined Tenet in 2019 as COO and was quickly promoted to president. He joined the board in 2020. Despite the title change, Rittenmeyer emphasized that his working relationship with Sutaria will remain the same.“ I think it’s important for people to get the message that I’m not leaving,” he said. The end of Ritteneyer’s CEO tenure comes as Tenet enters the second phase of a turnaround plan that Rittenmeyer shepherded when he stepped into the role in 2017. “When Ron became CEO, he dug very deep to transform and drive the company toward a healthier future,” said Bob Kerrey, lead director of the Tenet board. “The Tenet of today is an entirely different organization with strong performance and a better business mix that speaks to all the changes in quality, talent and operations brought during the last four years.”