Bill Leaver

Bill Leaver, president and CEO of UnityPoint Health, announced today he will retire from the organization in January 2016. Kevin Vermeer, UnityPoint’s chief strategy officer, has been named Leaver’s successor.

Vermeer will assume the title of president and chief strategy officer for the remainder of 2015 while working through the transition with Leaver, the board of directors and UnityPoint’s executive team.

Leaver has led the West Des Moines-based health system since January 2008.

Kevin Vermeer

He joined the organization in 2003 as president and CEO of Rock Island, Ill.-based Trinity Regional Health System, a UnityPoint affiliate.

During his time with UnityPoint, Leaver guided it from a hospital-centric organization to a patient-centered and physician-driven model. He was instrumental in the system’s growth and expansion beyond the state of Iowa to western Illinois and southern Wisconsin.

With projected annual revenues of $3.7 billion, UnityPoint Health is currently the nation’s 13th-largest nonprofit health system and fourth-largest nondenominational health system in the United States. It has relationships with more than 280 physician clinics and 32 hospitals in nine regions it serves in Iowa, western Illinois and southern Wisconsin.

“I am proud of what has been accomplished during my tenure,” Leaver said in a news release. “UnityPoint Health is well-positioned to reach new levels of success. … I am confident our mission of providing quality and compassionate care to improve the health of our communities is in trusted hands.”