Former Sen. Bob Kerrey named Tenet Healthcare chairman

The Tenet Healthcare Corporation on Monday announced it has named former Nebraska governor and Sen. Bob Kerrey (D) as its new chairman.

The Dallas-based health care company’s Chairman Ronald Rittenmeyer resigned from the role effective Saturday due to personal health reasons, according to the filing. Kerrey was appointed the same day.

The former senator hopped to the chairman seat from his position as lead director of Tenet’s Board of Directors. Kerrey joined the board in 2001, according to the filing.

His ascension to chairman reduces the number of directors on the board to 10, the filing notes.

Among those who joined Kerrey on the board are former president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Richard Fisher, retired four-star Navy Adm. Cecil Haney, and Southwest Airlines executive vice president and CFO Tammy Romo, among others.

Kerrey also serves as managing director of the investment banking firm Allen & Company and as executive chairman of the nonprofit Minerva Institute for Research and Scholarship, according to his profile on Tenet’s site.

Kerrey served as Nebraska’s governor for a few years before he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served from 1989 to 2000. He also sought the Democratic nomination for president in 1992.

The filing notes he holds a bachelor’s in pharmacy.

Tenet operates hundreds of surgery centers, hospitals and outpatient facilities, and leads Conifer Health Solutions and United Surgical Partners International.

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