For the past few years, the question of who would eventually lead Epic after its founder seemed to have a likely answer. Sumit Rana, the Verona, Wis.-based EHR vendor’s president and a developer who joined the company in 1998, was widely viewed as the probable successor to founder and CEO Judy Faulkner.
Mr. Rana left Epic Aug. 14. Two months later, the company has not named a new president, and Ms. Faulkner, who turned 83 in August, has said she has no plans to retire.
What happens to the company itself is largely settled. Ms. Faulkner holds all of Epic’s voting shares, which upon her death will transfer to a trust governed by four family members and five longtime senior Epic employees. The trust’s rules bar Epic from going public, being acquired or buying another company, and three health system CEOs serve as “trust protectors” charged with suing anyone who doesn’t vote according to the rules. Ms. Faulkner has also said the next CEO must be a long-term Epic employee and a software developer.
What the plan doesn’t say is who that person will be, and the bench of long-tenured Epic leaders looks different than it did a year ago.
Mr. Rana, one of the original developers of the MyChart patient portal, said he was stepping down to spend more time with his family after his father’s death. Asked by Healthcare IT Today who would fill his leadership role, he said:
“A small group of strong leaders that others and I have mentored will be stepping up to take on more, and that’s exactly how Epic has always worked. For almost 50 years, this has been a place that grows its own leaders, people ready to make strong contributions to what comes next.”
Epic named four of them in a July 7 statement shared with Becker’s: Seth Howard, Mark Lipsky, Erv Walter and Garrett Adams. The statement did not detail the responsibilities each would take on, and Epic has not publicly said how Mr. Rana’s duties were divided.
“Over our nearly 50-year history, Epic has excelled at identifying and growing strong leaders from within,” Ms. Faulkner said in the statement.
The reshuffle also came with promotions for three of the four, according to The Cap Times in Madison, Wis. Mr. Howard moved from vice president to executive vice president of research and development. Mr. Lipsky, previously a division manager, and Mr. Walter, previously vice president of software development, became senior vice presidents of research and development. Mr. Adams remained a senior vice president. Epic declined to tell the newspaper when the title changes took place.
Those four stepped up as other veterans stepped out. Becker’s has tracked 11 executive moves at Epic since July 6. For instance, Seth Hain, who led the company’s AI efforts, including its Cosmos-based Curiosity tool, departed in August, while Dave Fuhrmann, the senior vice president of research and development who oversaw the Care Everywhere health information exchange, left in July after more than 23 years.
At another company, departures like these would mostly be a talent question. At Epic, they are also a succession question, because Ms. Faulkner’s own rules limit the field of future CEOs to the long-tenured development ranks that lost several senior leaders this year.
The departures also touch a part of the plan Epic has never made public. The company has not identified the five longtime senior employees who will sit on the trust, or said whether this year’s turnover affected that group. “Epic does not comment on personnel,” a spokesperson told Becker’s in July.
Whoever eventually takes over will inherit a larger company than the one Ms. Faulkner was running when her succession rules first became public in 2024. Epic’s revenue reached $6.7 billion in 2025, more than doubling in five years, and its share of U.S. acute care hospitals rose to 43.7%, though 2025 was its slowest year of market share growth in five years.
Asked by Healthcare IT Today what outsiders don’t understand about Epic, Mr. Rana pointed to the time horizon the company plans on.
“The biggest is that we take a very long-term view, 20 to 50 years ahead,” he said. “Being privately held lets us do that. We’re not managing to a quarter or to anyone’s expectations other than our customers’, and that shapes almost everything.”
Customers, so far, don’t appear rattled. Health system CIOs interviewed by Becker’s at the Users Group Meeting said the transition felt seamless, in part because they already knew the executives stepping into bigger roles. In an August interview with Becker’s, Michael Elley, CIO of Little Rock, Ark.-based Baptist Health, drew a line between Epic and other EHR vendors.
“Leadership changes in the non-Epic EHR space is likely more impactful to those organizations than Epic losing a few leaders,” Mr. Elley said. “Epic’s product, roadmap, and engagement with its customers continue to be strong, and I fully expect new leaders to step into place and continue to drive innovation.”
For now, the executive most often named as Ms. Faulkner’s heir isn’t part of the plan. Asked in July whether he might return to Epic, Mr. Rana said:
“I’m not looking past what’s in front of me right now. My focus is my family, fully. I’ll always care about Epic and be cheering it on.”
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