50 Most Influential Physician Executives – 2017

Dr. Benjamin Chu has served as president and CEO of Memorial Hermann Health System since June 2016. Chu is responsible for overseeing the system's 16 hospitals and numerous diagnostic and specialty centers in the greater Houston area. Chu is the first-ever physician CEO of Memorial Hermann, bringing more than four decades of healthcare experience as a clinician, administrator and policy advocate. Before joining Memorial Hermann, he was group president for Kaiser Permanente's Southern California and Georgia regions, overseeing operations of hospitals and health plans serving more than 4.5 million members. Before joining Kaiser, Chu was president of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corp., the largest public hospital system in the country, now known as NYC Health & Hospitals. In 1994, he served as acting health commissioner for the New York City Health Department.