Mount Sinai Health System names next chief executive officer

Brendan Carr joined the Mount Sinai Health System at an interesting time.

Brendan Carr has been named the next chief executive officer of the Mount Sinai Health System. (Photo: Mount Sinai Health System)

He started working as Mount Sinai’s head of emergency medicine in February 2020, just weeks before the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. New York City would emerge as ground zero of the pandemic in those early months.

“I work at a place where everybody’s brilliant,” he said in a 2020 podcast in dealing with COVID-19. Carr talked about wanting to give his colleagues the room to rise to their full potential, even in an unimaginable crisis.

“That’s a lot of what leadership is about,” Carr said on the podcast. “It’s about recognizing the talent around you and allowing the talent to do the job.”

Soon, Carr will be using his leadership skills to direct the talent of the entire organization. Carr has been named the next chief executive officer of the Mount Sinai Health System.

• Read more: David Reich of Mount Sinai Hospital on adapting in a crisis

Kenneth L. Davis, who has led Mount Sinai for 20 years, will become executive vice chairman of the system’s board. Both Carr and Davis will begin in their new roles early next year.

Mount Sinai pointed to Carr’s work during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a joint statement, Richard A. Friedman and James S. Tisch, co-chairmen of Mount Sinai’s board of trustees, described Carr as “a visionary leader and physician.”

Carr is being tasked to work with the board to develop a strategy for “Mount Sinai’s next chapter,” the system said in a news release. Mount Sinai operates eight hospitals, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and more than 400 other healthcare locations.

"I am honored and deeply grateful for the opportunity to lead this preeminent institution and dynamic team of people who care deeply about advancing health for the patients and communities we serve,” Carr said in a statement. “Together, we will continue to innovate in order to provide the safe, high-quality, and equitable care that our patients deserve and expect.”

Davis became president and CEO of The Mount Sinai Medical Center in 2003, and he became the chief executive officer of the Mount Sinai Health System when it was formed in 2013.

“I look forward to working with Brendan in the next few years,” Davis said in a statement. “With Brendan and our existing leadership team, I know the system is in the right hands as we continue to serve New York with the exacting precision and immense passion that are the hallmarks of Mount Sinai.”

Carr formerly served on the faculty at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and as an associate dean of the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University in Pennsylvania.

He also worked as an advisor for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Carr has focused on trauma, emergency care and health policy throughout his career. He has written more than 175 manuscripts and received funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among other entities. He’s also a member of the National Academy of Medicine.

During a podcast from Mount Sinai about the pandemic in March 2020, Carr talked about getting through those difficult early days, and not wanting to disappoint his colleagues.

“The only way out is through,” Carr said.

But he also talked about the dedication and brilliance of those at Mount Sinai.

“If you just let them run, they’ll do extraordinary things,” he said.