Stephanie InnesArizona Republic
Peter Fine, the longtime president and CEO of Phoenix-based Banner Health, is expected to retire June 30.
Officials with Banner Health announced Fine's retirement on Tuesday morning. Fine has led the nonprofit health system since 2000 and overseen the company's growth in Arizona and the West. The health system is Arizona's largest private employer, the largest health delivery system in Arizona, and one of the largest nonprofit health systems in the country.
Fine will be succeeded by Amy Perry, current Banner Health president, who will become president and chief executive officer, the nonprofit's board of director's announced Tuesday.
Fine will resign from the Banner Health board and serve as CEO emeritus through January 2025, advising the board and Perry, the organization said.
The company employs 53,000 people across six states and operates 33 hospitals, plus urgent care centers, an academic medicine division and an insurance division, among other entities. It was created in 1999 through a merger between North Dakota’s Lutheran Health Systems and Phoenix-based Samaritan Health System.
The company bolstered its dominance as Arizona's largest hospital network in 2008 with the $316 million purchase of Sun Health Corp., changing the names of Sun Health’s two hospitals located in the Sun City area to Banner Boswell Medical Center and Banner Del. E. Webb Medical Center.
Among major events during Fine's tenure with Banner was a 2015 merger with the $1.2 billion University of Arizona Health Network in Tucson. Banner was the surviving entity and in that merger acquired, among other things, two Tucson hospitals — Banner University Medical Center Tucson and Banner University Medical Center South.
The deal included a 30-year academic affiliation agreement that transitioned Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix into a faculty-based academic medical center called Banner University Medical Center Phoenix to support the UA College of Medicine in Phoenix.
The academic agreement also called for Banner to provide financial support to the UA College of Medicine in Tucson and to the UA College of Medicine in Phoenix.
The company made national news in 2016 when it announcedthat it had sent letters to 3.7 million people, informing them that cyber criminals may have gained unauthorized access to personal information, including names, birth dates, addresses, physician names, and possibly health insurance information and Social Security numbers if they were provided to Banner Health.
Banner later paid $1.25 million to settle a federal probe into the massive data breach, and agreed tosettle a class action lawsuitrelated to the breach for $6 million.
Under Fine's leadership, Banner Health in July 2021 made headlines during the COVID-19 pandemic for being the first health system in the state to publicly announce it would mandate COVID-19 vaccines for its employees. After Banner's announcement, several other health systems in the state followed.
“We care for some of the most vulnerable people in our communities and we owe it to them to take every measure possible to ensure the safest care environment,”Fine wrote in a companywide email announcing the mandate.
Fine was the highest paid nonprofit hospital CEO in Arizona in 2021, according to IRS records. His total reported pay package that year was $12.4 million, a 10% increase from 2019, IRS records show. Banner officials said the amount includes $4.4 million in retirement pay that was accrued but not paid out.
“The Banner Board of Directors expresses its sincere gratitude to Peter for his iconic leadership over the last 24 years, and we are appreciative that we will continue to benefit from his wisdom in his role as CEO Emeritus,” Anne Mariucci, chair of the Banner board of directors, said in a statement.
Perry joined Banner as its president and chief operating officer in November 2021.
“Amy is the ideal leader who embodies Banner’s mission to make health care easier, so life can be better. She has crafted an exciting plan for Banner,” Mariucci said. “We are confident that Amy will propel Banner to further success with a technology-forward, people-centered approach to serve our patients, caregivers and diverse communities.”
Perry said, “I am honored and deeply grateful for the opportunity to lead this remarkable health system and outstanding team who sincerely care about advancing health for the communities we serve.
"Leaning into technology and innovation, Banner will define safety, trusted relationships, best-in-class care and affordable coverage.”
Fine said, “I look forward to continuing to work with Amy to ensure a smooth transition. It has been a pleasure over the last two years to partner with her and our team to realize our current success.”
