Christopher O’Connor has stepped down as CEO of Yale New Haven Health System, the organization announced internally on Monday.
According to an email addressed to the “New Haven Health System community,” O’Connor, who was named CEO in March 2022, “is leaving the system after 14 years of dedicated service.”
The email is signed by Mary Farrell, chair of the health system’s board of trustees.
Pamela Sutton-Wallace, who was appointed the health system’s president in April 2024 after serving two years as its chief operating officer, has been named acting CEO “effective immediately,” the email states.
O’Connor had succeeded Marna Borgstrom, who had served as CEO for 17 years.
He joined the organization in 2012 as executive vice president and chief operating officer and was named president in 2020 before becoming CEO in 2022.
During his tenure, O’Connor helped oversee the health system’s continued expansion, including the integration of the former Hospital of St. Raphael, affiliations with Lawrence + Memorial Hospital and Greenwich Hospital, and Bridgeport Hospital’s acquisition of Milford Hospital.
More recently, he led the system through a challenging financial period marked by rising labor and operating costs, a systemwide restructuring, a voluntary retirement program for longtime employees, an $18 million settlement tied to a cybersecurity breach and the collapse of Yale New Haven Health’s bid to acquire Prospect Medical Holdings’ three Connecticut hospitals.
Despite those headwinds, O’Connor had said the system remained financially strong and positioned for long-term growth.
In her email, Farrell said O’Connor has “positioned us well for the opening of the Adams Neurosciences Center next year, which will be the largest strategic project in the history of our academic health system.”
The $838 million, 500,000-square-foot center is under construction and will feature two new patient towers with
184 beds.
Farrell added that O’Connor will serve as a special adviser to the board chair during the transition, and that the board will conduct a national search for the next CEO “over the next several months.”
This story will be updated.
