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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowDr. Ora Pescovitz, the former CEO of Riley Hospital for Children, is returning to Indianapolis to work for Eli Lilly and Co.
Pescovitz, 57, spent the past five years as CEO of the University of Michigan Health System.
She ended a lengthy career in the Indiana University health system and moved to Michigan not long after being named the runner up when IU selected its current president, Michael McRobbie, in 2007.
Pescovitz, who stepped down from her position at the University of Michigan on June 1, will join Lilly in October as a senior vice president, medical. Initially, she will work under Dr. Tim Garnett, Lilly’s chief medical officer, focusing on medical policy issues, such as Lilly’s relationship with health care professionals, expanding access to Lilly medicines, and patient support programs.
“Lilly is an outstanding company. The opportunity to work there is invigorating as I will be able to grow by obtaining deep expertise in the pharmaceutical industry,” Pescovitz said in a prepared statement. “I also will be able to use all the knowledge I have gained through the years to impact the future of health care. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to do both.”
After what Lilly is calling an “orientation period,” Pescovitz will move to “a senior medical leadership role,” according to a statement from Lilly spokeswoman Janice Chavers. But Chavers said the details of that position will not be announced until a later time.
“We are very excited that she’ll be at Lilly,” Chavers wrote in an e-mail. “She is an accomplished researcher, a highly experienced leader and a respected authority who will bring to Lilly cutting-edge insights on health care including evolving physician and institutional practices, and the challenges of serving patients in a rapidly changing environment.”
Before taking the job at Lilly, Pescovitz had been one of three finalists to be president of the Medical University of South Carolina. But in April, the school selected an internal candidate.
Pescovitz led Riley, which is part of the Indiana University School of Medicine and the IU Health hospital system, from 2004 to 2009. From 2000 to 2009, she was head of research at the IU medical school. She spent a total of 21 years working at the IU medical school.
Pescovitz, a pediatric endocrinologist, did her medical training at the Northwestern University School of Medicine and at the University of Minnesota.
Pescovitz has two adult children who live in Indianapolis. Her daughter, Naomi Pescovitz, was named this month as a weekend news anchor at WTHR-TV Channel 13.
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