David Duvall, who was hired last year as Henry Ford Health System's senior vice president, chief marketing, communications and experience officer, was terminated earlier this week, Crain's has learned.
Officials for Henry Ford confirmed that Duvall is no longer with the Detroit-based health system. Spokesman Brenda Craig said Duvall left the system "effective immediately." She declined to provide further information.
Duvall, a nationally recognized marketing and change-management executive, was hired in April and joined the six-hospital system in June.
In October 2021, Duvall won a $10 million wrongful termination lawsuit against Novant, his former employer, which he said fired him and replaced him with a White woman and a Black woman as part of a push for diversity, according to court documents. During the trial, Duvall’s attorney introduced a letter from Henry Ford Health confirming that it knew of Duvall’s termination before he started working.
Sources told Crain's that Henry Ford CEO Wright Lassiter III apologized Tuesday to the departments that Duvall oversaw for the hiring.
Despite working for Henry Ford for nearly six months, Duvall filed the lawsuit against Novant because he "suffered the humiliation of being abruptly terminated because of his race and gender," according to the lawsuit.
Duvall did not respond to a request for comment via LinkedIn and could not be otherwise reached.
This article originally appeared in Crain's Detroit Business
UPDATE: This story was updated to reflect new information that corrected the circumstances around Duvall’s firing by Henry Ford Health. It is still unclear why Henry Ford terminated Duvall.
