Just days after going on the defensive to prevent a company takeover, Health Management Associates said its president and CEO, Gary Newsome, plans to retire, effective July 31.
A news release said the Naples, Fla.-based company has initiated a search for a successor.
Newsome, 55, “has been called by the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to serve as the president of its Uruguay-Montevideo mission,” according to the release.
Late Friday, HMA said the company had adopted a shareholder rights plan, a defensive move to help prevent a takeover, after 14. 6% shareholder Glenview Capital Management indicated an intention to take an activist role in the company. The chain has been under fire in recent months on a number of legal, public relations and financial fronts.
The hedge fund also filed for antitrust clearance to acquire $2.2 billion of stock, or about 75% of the company. Yet Glenview this morning issued a news release clarifying that it does not intend to meet that threshold. “In plain English, we have no present intention or future plan to buy either $2.2 billion of stock or 75% of HMA,” the hedge fund said.
Newsome, a regular on Modern Healthcare's list of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare, took the reins at the company in 2008, replacing Burke Whitman, who left to further a military career.
Newsome had served in several executive positions at HMA between 1993 and 1998, before joining Community Health Systems, Franklin, Tenn. His last position there was division president.
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