Who

Dr. Herbert Pardes is president and CEO of New York-Presbyterian, the non-profit behemoth that operates Columbia's and Cornell's hospitals along with 31 other medical facilities in the area.

Backstory

The son of a Catskills hotel owner, Pardes was diagnosed with Perthes disease as a kid, which left him in a full-body cast for 10 months. His early experience with the health care system prompted him to go into medicine, and he attended medical school at SUNY Downstate before becoming a practicing psychiatrist. In 1978, President Carter appointed Pardes director of the National Institute of Mental Health and assistant U.S. Surgeon General. In 1984, he left Washington to take over as chairman of the department of psychiatry at Columbia. After rising up to become the dean of Columbia's medical school, he was named CEO of New York-Presbyterian in 1999. Today he presides over 12,000 hospital beds and 80,000 employees in the metropolitan area.

Of note

New York-Presbyterian was formed in 1997 following the merger of New York Hospital (Weill Cornell) and Presbyterian Hospital (Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons). The marriage—which was presided over by Dr. David Skinner, Pardes's predecessor—was a exceptionally messy combination. Fierce turf battles between the two hospitals ensued, and the costs savings that Skinner had promised largely failed to materialize. Pardes quickly set about getting the troubled institution back on track, streamlining operations and cutting costs; he also elected to keep Columbia and Cornell's faculties and departments as separate as possible in an effort to avoid conflict.

Since taking over, Pardes has earned high marks for the attention he's paid to improving patient care. (In addition to occasionally visiting patients himself, Pardes had most of the rooms painted soothing pastel hues and has mandated that nurses learn the names of their patients.) He's also been very successful on the fundraising front, earning the nickname "Dr. New York" for his efforts courting wealthy donors. He's managed to rope in more than $1 billion, including $250 million to construct the Milstein Family Heart Center. His work has paid off. New York-Presbyterian has been on U.S. News and World Report's list of top medical institutions for six years in a row, and in 2006 New York declared it the city's top overall hospital in its "Best Hospitals" survey.

Namedrop

The board of directors features such notables as John Mack, Jerry Speyer, Charlotte Ford, Raymond McGuire, Iris Cantor, Steven Mnuchin, Steve Newhouse, Daniel Och, Lisa Perry, Stephen Ross, Art Samberg, Glenn Hutchins, Andrea Jung, Peter Kalikow, David Koch, Terry Allen Kramer, Sandy Weill, and Bob Wright.

Personal

He's married to Judith Pardes, who works at CUNY's TV station. The couple lives in an East 57th Street apartment they bought in 2004. The Pardes's son James works in marketing for the NBA.