Hartford Business Journal

28 Hartford Business Journal • April 20, 2020 • www.HartfordBusiness.com 2020 POWER 50 Reginald Eadie and John Rodis A s the COVID-19 pan- demic gained steam in March, St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center President John Rodis led Gov. Ned Lamont on a tour of a 25-bed mobile hospital, the first in the state set up to prepare for a surge of coronavirus- infected patients. Rodis, president of the 617-bed Cath- olic hospital since 2015, has been on the frontlines of the pandemic, leading St. Francis as it takes on patients infected with COVID-19. The tour was meant to show the public that Con- necticut's government and hospitals were working together to prepare for the unprecedented pandemic. Rodis is a unique hospital CEO be- cause he's a doctor and holds an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Insti- tute, giving him both a medical and business background as he navigates the choppy waters of a pandemic and industry consolidation. His boss is Reginald Eadie, who is CEO of Trinity Health of New England, one of Connecticut's newest healthcare systems, as well as one of its largest. The New England system, or "min- istry" as Trinity calls it, contains three acute-care hospitals in Connecticut and one in Massachusetts, and is a member of Michigan-based Trinity Health, one of the largest Catholic health systems in the country. Trinity's $1.51 billion in 2018 op- erating revenue ranked the system third in Connecticut, behind cross- town competitor Hartford Health- Care and Yale New Haven Health. A native of Detroit and a pub- lished author, Eadie also is a medical doctor, has an MBA and was named a "100 Physician Leaders to Know" by Becker's Hospital Review. 5 Thomas Katsouleas A s president of the University of Con- necticut, Thomas Katsouleas leads the state's flagship public research university with his hands in every- thing from workforce development to supporting startup companies. Katsouleas replaced Susan Herbst last August, and out of the gate an- nounced plans to bolster UConn's position as a research university. He talked about putting UConn on track to becoming a destination for entrepreneurs and researchers intent on creating and commercial- izing new products. He said he intends to spend this year laying the foundation for dou- bling annual research funding at the university over the next decade from $265 million to $500 million. However, his attention lately has been battling headwinds from the coronavirus pandemic, which forced Katsouleas in March to cancel all in-person classes and move to remote learning for the rest of the spring semester. Not only does he have to make sure staff and students remain safe and healthy, but he's got to deal with the financial implications of the campus shut down — UConn expects to take a $30-million hit from housing, parking and dining refunds. Katsouleas is also overseeing UConn's move back to the Big East conference for all sports except football, which will become an inde- pendent program for the foreseeable future, and a free tuition program that he announced in October that will provide students whose families have an annual income of $50,000 or less with the ability to come to the school tuition-free. 6 St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center President John Rodis. (Left photo) Trinity Health of New England CEO Reginald Eadie.

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