Tenet CIO Paola Arbour to retire as health system CIO vacancies mount
Paola Arbour will retire as CIO of Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare at the end of 2026, according to an April 9 SEC filing cited by Becker's Hospital Review. Arbour, who has led technology at the for-profit system since 2018, will remain in a non-executive role through April 1, 2028, to support the transition. Tenet has not publicly named a successor.
As of late September, 17 of the nation's 200 largest health systems by revenue were operating without a permanent CIO, per a Becker's analysis. Several of the largest openings followed technology chiefs leaving for digital or IT roles elsewhere: Anika Gardenhire left Ardent Health for Michigan Medicine in January; Bill Bellando moved from Wellstar Health System to Geisinger in June; Keith Rivera left Presbyterian Healthcare Services for Nebraska Medicine; and Shakeeb Akhter departed Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, with CHOP elevating Wes Barnes to interim chief digital and information officer in June.
Other departures took executives out of health system IT entirely. Saad Chaudhry stepped down in July as SSM Health's inaugural chief digital and information officer to become CEO of consulting firm Evergreen Healthcare Partners, with Jason Muldrow serving as interim. Jeffrey Sturman left Memorial Healthcare System in September 2025 for executive search firm WittKieffer, and that seat remained open as of late September.
A 2024 WittKieffer survey found 53% of healthcare CIOs had assumed their roles within the previous three years, while only 39% of organizations reported having a CIO succession plan. Some gaps have stretched for years: Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare has lacked a permanent CIO since Tina Haskins Smith departed in 2024, and UC Davis Health has had John Cook as interim since 2024. MultiCare Health System, UCI Health and University of Maryland Medical System have relied on interim CIOs since 2025, while Ballad Health and Legacy Health are also operating without a permanent CIO.