50 Most Influential Physician Executives – 2016
Rank: 5
Toby Cosgrove
President and CEO, Cleveland Clinic
The organization that Dr. Delos "Toby" Cosgrove leads might be named the Cleveland Clinic, but the enterprise extends far beyond northern Ohio. And he's certainly one of the masterminds behind the growth. Although he's been CEO since 2004, Cosgrove has been with the system since 1975, when he joined as a surgeon, and he became chairman of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery in 1989. As CEO, he now leads an organization with more than $8 billion in annual revenue with nine regional hospitals, 21 family health and ambulatory surgery centers, a brain-health facility in Las Vegas, a hospital campus in Florida and the newest entity, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, a multispecialty facility that opened in 2015. Early in his career, Cosgrove was a surgeon in the U.S. Air Force. He's a Vietnam War veteran, serving as the Air Force's chief of casualty staging flights. He was awarded a Bronze Star for his service.