Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | MARCH 4, 2024 25 POWER 50 J effrey Flaks is one of the most influential healthcare and business leaders in Connecticut, and two of his top recent priorities have been innovation and partnerships. Over the past year, Hartford HealthCare has announced a number of new deals that aim to expand access to care and help develop the industry's workforce. Hartford HealthCare in February launched the Center for AI Innovation in Healthcare, which will focus on using artificial intelligence technol- ogies to improve patient care and hospital operations. In January, HHC established a part- nership with San Francisco-based multispecialty telehealth company Hims & Hers, which will refer patients that use the platform to Hartford HealthCare's primary and specialty care providers for in-person services. HHC has also teamed with OnMed, a virtual care delivery company, to deploy its virtual care services at a grocery supermarket in Dayville. Walgreens has partnered with Hartford HealthCare to add four new in-store health clinics in Connecticut, which will allow seven-day-a-week access to healthcare providers. HHC has also signed deals with 3 Radenka Maric U Conn President Radenka Maric mapped out some lofty goals for fundraising, growth, campus development and environmental measures when she was appointed to lead the university in 2022. She spent much of 2023 making headway in those areas. Climate change mitigation was a top priority for which Maric pledged to achieve carbon neutrality on campus by 2030, and zero-carbon status by 2040. In 2023, the school dedicated more than $21 million for new campus fuel cells to generate electrical and thermal energy. It also worked toward transitioning to an all-electric vehicle fleet and expanding the availability of electric vehicle chargers. Any new buildings will be constructed with Maric's energy goals in mind, including a new residence hall in progress that will house more than 650 students and feature a 500-seat dining hall. In June, Maric celebrated the opening of UConn's new $220 million, 198,000-square-foot "Science 1" building in Storrs that features laboratories for learning and research. Also on the horizon for 2024 is construction of a new School of Nursing to accommodate expanded program enrollment. That initiative will get a boost from a donation, the largest gift in UConn's history, from Elisabeth DeLuca, wife of Subway founder Fred DeLuca, who gave $40 million for the nursing school's expansion. That gift helped Maric surpass a $130 million fund- raising goal in fiscal 2023, raising almost $158 million in new gifts and commitments. Like many universities, Maric also faces budget issues. As COVID-19 relief funding runs out, UConn is expecting a $70 million deficit in fiscal year 2025, which begins in July. Maric recently penned an open letter to the UConn community saying she will be advocating for $64.2 million in additional state funding during this year's legislative session to help close the budget gap. UConn's current budget is about $1.6 billion. Meantime, UConn's popularity is at an all-time high, with the school receiving a record 56,800 applications this year, Maric recently announced. That was likely aided by the success of UConn's high-profile basketball programs. The UConn men's team won the school's fifth national championship in 2023, and is in contention to repeat this year. Prior to being named president, Maric served as UConn's vice presi- dent for research. She joined UConn in 2010 as a School of Engineering faculty member. A native of Serbia, Maric also worked for large and small corpo- rations and federal labs in Japan, Canada and the U.S., before coming to the Nutmeg State 13 years ago. Google Cloud and One Medical, the Amazon-owned, subscription-based primary care provider that has agreed to open at least five new offices in Connecticut. Flaks, who has been with HHC since 2004, has helped oversee a gradual transformation of the system into a much larger, decentralized organiza- tion with hospitals, physician practices, surgical centers and urgent care facilities spread throughout the state. He oversees a statewide health system that recorded over $5.4 billion in operating revenue in fiscal 2022, which represented 28.7% of the operating dollars collected by all Connecticut health systems combined. HHC is the second-largest health system in Connecticut, behind Yale New Haven Health. With its 2019 purchase of Bridge- port-based St. Vincent's Medical Center, HHC made a big play in Fairfield County, investing millions to renovate the aging facility. It's also been aggressive in purchasing physi- cian practices and surgical centers, which has, at times, drawn the ire of competitors, including Trinity Health Of New England. Flaks also led the debut of HHC's new 110,000-square-foot downtown Hartford headquarters at 100 Pearl St., which is expected to eventually house 700 employees. 2 Jeffrey Flaks

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