Michael Ugwueke DHA, FACHE
President & Chief Executive Officer, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare
Since January 2017, Michael Ugwueke, MPH, DHA, FACHE has served as President & CEO of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, providing strategic leadership to our system at large, and oversight of the system’s five-year strategic plan, MLH Reimagined. The presidents of Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, Methodist University Hospital and Methodist Le Bonheur Germantown Hospital report to him.
He previously held the role of president and chief operating officer (COO) of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in May 2014. In 2013, he served as COO of Methodist, providing strategic and operational leadership for the system’s five adult inpatient hospitals and affiliated companies.
Prior to his role as COO, Michael served as senior vice president for Methodist North and South Hospitals, from 2009 to 2013. Before serving as SVP, he was CEO of Methodist South Hospital from 2007 to 2009.
Before joining Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, he served as vice president of Operations at Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center, a 517-bed tertiary hospital in Joliet, Ill., where he was responsible for a major upgrade of the imaging department that resulted in reduced lead-times, increased patient volumes, and enhanced physician relationships. He also co-led an emergency department improvement project that reduced wait times by 50 percent and substantially improved patient satisfaction scores.
Ugwueke has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Shaw University, a master’s of public health from Emory University, and a doctor of health administration and leadership from the Medical University of South Carolina. Over 26 years he served in planning and operational leadership roles in health care organizations in Atlanta, Sarasota, Fla., Washington, D.C., and the Chicago area.
In 2012 and more recently in 2020, Ugwueke was named one of Modern Healthcare’s Top 25 Minority Executives in Healthcare.