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David H. Browdy, the senior financial executive at University of Utah Health, on Aug. 1 will become Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center’s new vice president and chief financial officer.
A C-suite executive with a background that includes health system finance, institutional support for research, academic health care, information technology management, and facilities planning and development, Browdy will replace VP and CFO Randy Main, who will retire June 30 after more than three decades of service.
“I am very fortunate to have been recruited here,” Browdy via email. “Fred Hutch is widely regarded for excellence, and it is further distinguished by doing notably high-impact, forward-looking work in the fastest moving area of medicine,” he said, referring to the field of immunotherapy. “Every day, things are happening here that will make a real difference in people’s lives.”
‘He checks all the boxes’
“We are delighted to welcome David to the Hutch,” said Steve Stadum, Fred Hutch executive vice president and chief operating officer. “He checks all the boxes. He’s an extraordinary leader with a track record of success in delivering outstanding financial results at complex, top-tier health care organizations.”
Since 2013 Browdy has served as the University of Utah’s associate VP and CFO for the Health Sciences, where his responsibilities have included strategic financial management, performance and planning for its hospitals and clinics; medical group; health insurance plans; and medical, nursing, pharmacy, health and dentistry schools. During his tenure, he managed a large budget that grew quickly, from $2.3 billion in FY12 to $3.6 billion in FY17, according to Dr. A. Lorris Betz, senior vice president of University Health Sciences and interim executive dean of the University of Utah’s School of Medicine.
While at the university Browdy also led a $500 million campus transformation project — including helping to secure legislative approval, develop donor strategy and model funding, contracting and construction plans — for a complex of three new health care and medical-education facilities.
He also played a key role in improving the university’s debt strategy, which helped move its Standard & Poor’s bond rating from AA to AA+.
Before joining the University of Utah, Browdy for 20 years served in various capacities at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, including senior associate dean and chief operating officer, where he oversaw a $500 million operating budget. In addition to finance and budget, his areas of responsibility at Northwestern included information technology, human resources, communications and facilities management.
Realizing the Hutch’s strategic vision
As CFO at Fred Hutch, Browdy will be tasked with helping to achieve the goals of the Hutch’s strategic plan, meeting and exceeding operating and service measures and standards, supporting and working with the board and senior management, and building a strong financial leadership team.
“We are on the cusp of phenomenal advances in science and medicine precisely at a time when demographic and technological changes are creating profound economic pressures in the biomedical research and overall health care environment,” Browdy said. “I’m looking forward to thinking creatively about how we can realize the promise of the work here at Fred Hutch and drive toward our bold goals in ways that can shape — and not just respond to — changes in our operating environment.”
He has a bachelor of science degree in biomedical engineering from Northwestern University and a master’s in business administration from Carnegie-Mellon University. Browdy has presented nationally on health care economics and strategic planning at institutions ranging from Harvard Business School to the Association for American Medical Colleges. His honors include a 2016 Distinguished Service Award from the AAMC Group on Institutional Planning.
Browdy currently serves on a number of boards, including those of the University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics; the Utah Poison Control Center and ARUP Laboratories, a nonprofit enterprise.
