Jeff Balser, MD, PhD, president and CEO of Vanderbilt Health and dean of Vanderbilt University’s school of medicine, plans to retire from both roles Dec. 31, according to a March 12 news release from the Nashville, Tenn.-based organizations.
During his 17-year tenure as president and CEO, Dr. Balser has led the organization during substantial growth, from its origins as a four-hospital system with $2.3 billion in annual net revenue to an eight-hospital system that recorded $8.5 billion in fiscal 2025 net revenue.
In 2009, Vanderbilt University Medical Center appointed him to its then-top role, vice chancellor for health affairs. The year before, he became the 12th dean of the university’s school of medicine. During that time, VUMC had 16,000 employees, 2,100 full-time faculty and “its cash reserves were depleted” amid the Great Recession, according to the release.
By mid-2016, VUMC had spun off from the university as its own independent, nonprofit health system, and it employed about 20,000 people. Vanderbilt’s workforce now exceeds 45,000 people, including 5,000 clinicians and scientists, the release said.
Under his leadership, VUMC — which opened in 1874 — and the broader organization, Vanderbilt Health, grew not only in size but also in financial health and clinical advancements.
Now, Vanderbilt Health’s total cash on hand and investments exceed $3 billion, the release said. It also operates the nation’s largest transplant center by volume, has more than $1 billion in research grants and contracts, and houses the National Institutes of Health’s precision medicine program.
Dr. Balser’s history with Vanderbilt spans four decades, as he joined its flagship medical center in the mid-1980s as a medical student and doctoral dual-degree candidate. He served Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for a few years before returning to Vanderbilt in 1998 as a clinician, investigator and the first associate dean for physician-scientist development.
The release said Dr. Balser will retire with plans for construction of a new, freestanding hospital in Murfreesboro, Tenn., to be called Vanderbilt Health Rutherford County.
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