AHLA names David Cade CEO, and other news makers

David Cade, a former top attorney at HHS, has been appointed CEO of the American Health Lawyers Association.

Cade, 54, will assume the role at the educational organization on March 1. He succeeds Peter Leibold, who led the association for 15 years before becoming chief advocacy officer at St. Louis-based Ascension Health in November.

Currently, Cade is a shareholder at the law firm Polsinelli, where he advises large hospitals, health systems, associations, corporations and community providers. During his time as deputy general counsel at HHS, he aided in the expansion of health insurance and coverage options for Medicare beneficiaries and helped support Medicaid program expansions, according to a news release.

A member of the AHLA since 1997, Cade has served on the association's board for the past six years.

Peter Geier, COO at Ohio State University's Wexner Medical Center, and CEO of the OSU Health System, will step down Dec. 1.

Geier, 57, is resigning to spend more time consulting, teaching and serving on other organization boards, according to a news release. He has been CEO of the OSU Health System since 2003 and COO of the medical center since 2001.

Before joining OSU, Geier worked for 17 years at Huntington Bancshares, serving as vice chairman, president and COO.

OSU recently announced a $14.3 million project for a new brain and spine hospital in the building that formerly housed the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute.

Ruth Goodell has been named senior VP of insurance and risk-management services at Trinity Health, Livonia, Mich.

Goodell, 52, most recently was managing director at Marsh USA, where she was responsible for the design and implementation of successful risk-management strategies for health systems. In her new role, she will lead systemwide risk-management activities, including Trinity's wholly owned Venzke Insurance Co.

Gilead Sciences has promoted two of its employees to executive VP positions. Dr. Andrew Cheng has been named executive VP of HIV therapeutics and development operations. Taiyin Yang has been named executive VP of pharmaceutical development and manufacturing. They will both join the company's senior leadership committee.

After coming to Gilead in 1999, Cheng led the company's development-stage programs for drugs used to treat HIV and AIDS. Since 2009, he has served as senior VP of HIV therapeutics and development operations, overseeing biometrics, project management and regulatory affairs, among other activities.

Yang, most recently a senior VP at Gilead, joined the company in 1993, after serving as director of analytical chemistry at Syntex Corp., a drug company later acquired by biotechnology giant Roche. In her new role, she is responsible for analytical operations, laboratory information, quality assurance and manufacturing of both clinical and commercial drug products