Hartford Business Journal

HartfordBusiness.com | February 22, 2021 | Hartford Business Journal 27 B oth relatively new on the job, Trinity Health of New England CEO Reginald Eadie and St. Francis Hospital President Thomas Burke have emerged as strong leaders in tumultuous times for the healthcare industry. St. Francis is the flagship of the Connecticut operations at Trinity, a national Catholic health system. Burke was named interim president of St. Francis in May 2020, at the height of the first wave of the pandemic, with a mandate to care for the hospital's embattled caregivers. After a national search, he was named permanent president by November. Burke's role goes beyond administration – a background in pharmacy qualified him for an unique photo-op in mid- January when he administered the COVID-19 vaccine to hospital leaders, including Eadie. The onset of the pandemic prompted St. Francis and Trinity to invest aggressively in telehealth, transforming their care model and committing to hiring "virtualists" to treat patients online. Upgrading physical facilities has also been a focus, with St. Francis opening a new $26.5 million outpatient orthopedic and spine surgery center on the Hartford main campus and an ambulatory care center in Rocky Hill. Eadie, a medical doctor with an MBA, is co-chair of the governor's powerful vaccine advisory group and has made news throughout the pandemic as he helps determine who gets vaccinated and when. Reginald Eadie & Thomas Burke Deidre Gifford & David Lehman D eidre Gifford, interim director of the Department of Public Health, and Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner (DECD) David Lehman have been two of the most influential Lamont administration officials during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gifford holds the key to reopening businesses, returning kids to school and reviving some sense of normalcy in Connecticut in the year ahead. She is in charge of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign as it unfolds across the state. She's mobilizing the resources of her agency along with local health departments, hospital systems and individual doctors and nurses to get Connecticut residents vaccinated as quickly as possible. At least 80% of the state's 3.3 million or so residents must be vaccinated for COVID-19 for the population to achieve "herd immunity," or the state in which enough people are immune so that the virus cannot easily spread. Lehman is no health expert but he's been a top adviser to Lamont throughout the pandemic, providing key advice on which businesses should remain open or closed as the pandemic spiked during the spring and early winter months. Lehman also helped develop business reopening guidelines and oversaw multiple state grant and 2021 POWER 50 5 6 Reginald Eadie Thomas Burke loan programs that provided much- needed capital to small businesses desperate for a financial lifeline. Besides the pandemic, in 2021 Lehman is prepared to make a splash with a legislative agenda that aims to reform the state's economic- incentives programs by moving the state toward a performance- based, "earn- as-you-go" system, meaning employers won't reap state incentives until they create a certain number of jobs or make a certain level of investment. PHOTO | MARK PAZNIOKAS, CT MIRROR Deidre Gifford David Lehman

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