Cynthia Hundorfean: Pioneering Transformational Leadership in Healthcare Innovation
Cynthia Hundorfean is an innovative and trusted executive who has worked in bold strokes to get health care right for patients, members, communities and clinicians while navigating dynamic changes in the healthcare market. She has a record of delivering explosive growth through transformational partnerships, strategic acquisitions and organic growth strategies.
Cynthia joined the CEO Advisory Network in August 2024, as a Senior Partner. This Network includes a team of high accomplished CEOs and COOs of major health systems across the nation. Their passion is to leave a legacy by assisting today’s forward-looking CEOs and senior executives in leading their organizations through these transformational times.
Strategic Leadership and Commitment to Equity
Prior to that, she served for 7 years as the President and CEO of Allegheny Health Network (AHN), a health system generating over $5B in annual revenue with 23,000 employees, 2,500 physicians, 14 hospitals, and over 300 clinical locations. After taking the helm in early 2016, she led the system to a return to profitability in 16 months, moving AHN from a $32.6M loss in 2016 to a net profit of $51M in 2017. This was achieved through an aggressive move to value-based care, strategic cost reductions, consolidation of sites and creation of centers of excellence. In addition, she drove dramatic improvements in employee engagement, helped build new research partnerships with top tier universities and led more than $2 billion in capital projects including the construction of 4 new hospitals and a state-of-the-art Cancer Institute. As a champion for diversity and health equity, she launched the Equitable Health Institute in 2021 to reduce disparities in healthcare and attract and retain a diverse workforce.
Leadership as Chief Administrative Officer at Cleveland Clinic
Most notably, Cynthia served as the Chief Administrative Officer of the world-renowned Cleveland Clinic for more than a decade. During this time, under the Office of the Chief of Staff and CEO, she had operational and financial oversight of 23,000 employees and 25 clinical institutes, while generating $5.5B in net revenue annually. She was part of the executive team that led the formation of Institutes that combined under single leadership both medical and surgical services. This led to improved patient care, innovation and efficient use of resources. It was teamwork at its best! Centers of Excellence were also created across the entire organization, and she was part of the team that led the strategic planning for new facilities in multiple market expansions.