This story has been updated with additional information.
The top executive at Akron-based Summa Health will move into an advisory role in which he will participate in the search for his permanent replacement.
Dr. Cliff Deveny, president and CEO of Summa, will switch Jan. 1 to the role of emeritus CEO and strategic adviser. Daryl Tol, president of Summa’s new parent company Health Assurance Transformation Company (HATCo), will serve as Summa’s acting president and CEO.
The announcement comes a little less than a month after HATCo finalized its purchase of Summa, converting the Akron-based health system from nonprofit to for-profit status.
“It is our intent to make sure that there is somebody here for the next five, 10 years, in this position who can lead the organization,” Deveny said. “So, I’m excited for the opportunity to be here, to advise and help onboard that person and then make sure that all the good work continues.”
Leadership of Summa’s executive team, its board of directors and HATCo together decided that the timing would make sense for Deveny to step down as top executive, Deveny wrote in an Oct. 29 memo to hospital system employees.
“This emeritus CEO-strategic adviser role made a lot of sense to make sure that it’s an appropriate transition,” he said.
Deveny, Tol share Summa leadership plans for 2026
In his new advisory role, Deveny will help identify and support Summa’s next president and CEO, as well as advise the leadership team, support “transformation and integration work” and maintain “strong relationships with our medical staff and community,” he said in his memo to staff.
Both internal and external candidates will be considered for the permanent president and chief executive officer role, Deveny said.
Tol said he expects it to be at least mid-2026 before leadership hires someone to fill the position.
Deveny said he plans to remain as emeritus CEO and strategic adviser through the end of 2026. He said he then plans to retire; he will turn 66 in March.
Summa leadership could request that Deveny continue advising past 2026, Tol said. Deveny acknowledged it as a possibility.
Tol said his first priority as acting president and chief executive will be “to stabilize leadership and to make sure that the health system functions really well and safely, which it does.”
Other priorities, he said, are to improve customer experiences and to work with team members such as Deveny and Summa board chair Kate Walsh to find the best candidate to serve as the permanent president and CEO.
Tol, who began as HATCo president July 31, said he moved to Northeast Ohio in September. HATCo, a subsidiary of venture capital firm General Catalyst, completed its purchase of Summa Oct. 1.
“We’re all in the office at a leadership level most of the time now,” Tol said. “Health care is very much an in-person business, and we enjoy being together and leading together.”
Deveny discusses his tenure at Summa
Deveny, who is originally from Akron, was an obstetrician/gynecologist at Summa for about 20 years. He then worked as vice president of physician alignment and president of the hospital system’s physician practice before leaving in 2011 to pursue another role.
He returned to Summa as interim president and CEO in March 2017 and had “interim” dropped from his title the following November.
Deveny said he didn’t intend to return to Summa.
“In 2017, the organization was going through a lot of trauma,” he said. “And I remember getting the phone call, and my wife said, ‘This is an organization that gave you lots of opportunities, and you need to go back and help this community.'”
Over the past eight and a half years, Deveny said he’s accomplished what he had set out to at Summa. He also led the hospital system through the unexpected COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’ve always been, I think, an unintentional leader,” he said. “My goal was just to stabilize the organization when there was a lot of distrust going on, and we went through that whole dialogue with the community. Did the community value Summa and what it stood for? And what we got was a resounding yes. So, we built around that.”
Mayor Shammas Malik thanks Deveny
Akron Mayor Shammas Malik thanked Deveny for his work at Summa in an emailed statement to the Beacon Journal.
“I want to thank Dr. Deveny for all of his work on behalf of Summa Health across his career – the network of quality healthcare he’s helped create for this community is invaluable. I appreciate that he will continue to stay on in an advisory role,” Malik said. “The City of Akron is committed to working with the Summa / HATCo team to ensure the continued success of this essential community institution and the amazing work of patient care that happens every day.
Patrick Williams covers growth and development for the Akron Beacon Journal. He can be reached by email at pwilliams@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @pwilliamsOH. Sign up for the Beacon Journal’s business and consumer newsletter, “What’s The Deal?”
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Summa Health CEO Dr. Cliff Deveny to step down in transition under new owner HATCo
Reporting by Patrick Williams, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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