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Tenet’s Ron Rittenmeyer leaves board, former U.S. senator becomes chairman

The Farmers Branch-based company cited health reasons for Rittenmeyer’s departure.

Tenet Healthcare named former U.S. senator and Nebraska Gov. Bob Kerrey as its chairman after Ronald Rittenmeyer stepped down from the role for health reasons.

Kerrey, who serves as a director for numerous companies in health care and other industries, joined the hospital chain’s board in 2001 and has been lead director since 2017. He has a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from the University of Nebraska, Tenet said Monday in a filing.

Tenet agreed to treat Rittenmeyer’s resignation as a termination on account of disability, according to the filing.

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Kerrey holds board seats at companies including Intarcia Therapeutics and TouchCare, and he is chairman of Monolith Materials. He has been managing director of investment firm Allen & Co. since 2014 and executive chairman of the Minerva Institute for Research and Scholarship since 2013, according to the filing.

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Rittenmeyer was Tenet’s chief executive officer from 2017 to 2021, during which he led a turnaround while navigating the pandemic before ceding the helm to current CEO Saumya Sutaria, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Glen Losev.

The “growth strategy and operational-execution focus Ron Rittenmeyer implemented at Tenet Healthcare should remain in place” after his resignation, Losev wrote.

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A key part of that strategy involved investing heavily in ambulatory care centers, with Tenet acquiring up to 45 surgical centers in December 2020 in a $1.1 billion deal.