Contributed photos
Retiring YNHH CEO Marna Borgstrom and YNHH CEO to-be Chris O’Connor.
Yale New Haven Health CEO Marna Borgstrom plans to retire next spring, and will be replaced in the regional hospital system’s top role by current YNHH President and former Hospital of Saint Raphael CEO Christopher O’Connor.
Borgstrom and O’Connor made that changing-of-the-guard announcement Wednesday afternoon during a virtual Zoomed press conference and in separate email press releases sent out by the hospital system.
Borgstrom, who has worked for YNHH since 1979 and who has led the regional hospital system as CEO since 2005, has been a regular public presence throughout the pandemic, Zooming in alongside top YNHH doctors during biweekly press conferences about Covid-19. She played a leading role in the planning and construction of YNHH’s Children’s Hospital and Smilow Cancer Hospital, planning for a new neuroscience center in town, and the health system’s dramatic growth. YNHH includes seven hospitals across Connecticut and Rhode Island, including the York Street and St. Raphael campuses in New Haven.
O’Connor, who previously led the Hospital of St. Raphael before it merged with YNHH in 2012, took on the role of YNHH president last year from Borgstrom, who had been serving as both president and CEO.
“There is a time for leadership changes in every organization, and that time is coming up for me,” Borgstrom said during Wednesday’s presser. “I have loved every minute of this.” Well, maybe not every minute over the last 21 months during the run-up to and grappling with the ongoing pandemic.
“This is an amazing collection of people of all different types and capabilities,” she said about the regional hospital system’s many employees. “As a group, it has just been a beautiful thing to be a part of.”
Borgstrom’s last day as CEO will be March 25, 2022.