Athenahealth Co-Founder Jonathan Bush — who currently serves as CEO, president and chairman of the board — will maintain his role as CEO. However, the board will establish a separate president role to oversee business operations, who will report to Mr. Bush. The board also plans to recruit an independent chairman and independent director.
In an athenahealth statement, Mr. Bush said: “To continue executing [athenahealth’s] mission, we are today announcing changes intended to achieve greater levels of profitable growth and unlock value. I am fully supportive of these initiatives and believe they are critical to driving value creation at athenahealth.”
The decision follows Paul Singer’s May 18 purchase of a 9.2 percent stake in athenahealth. Mr. Singer — an activist investor and hedge fund manager — runs Elliott Associates, a hedge fund management firm known for “rebooting management and selling companies,” according to a CNBC report in May.
During a second-quarter earnings call July 21, Mr. Bush thanked activist shareholders for their “constructive feedback.”
“Metamorphosis is hard and I have been doing a lot of thinking about metamorphosis,” Mr. Bush said during the call.
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