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MD Gov. Hogan Names New UMMS Board Members

Governor Larry Hogan named 11 new members Wednesday to the scandal plagued board of directors of the University of Maryland Medical System.

The announcement came the same day as the UMMS Board elected a new chair and vice chair and released a consultant’s report that found hospital management made business deals with individual board members without informing the rest of the board or an appropriate board committee.

Those deals first came to light in March when the Baltimore Sun reported that several of the board members, including former Mayor Catherine Pugh, profited from no-bid contracts with the hospital system.

Since then, Pugh and several others, including former State Sen. Francis X. Kelly, have resigned or taken leaves of absence from the board. Kelly’s insurance company had done millions of dollars-worth of business with the hospital system.

The governor’s new appointments are part of an overhaul of the board dictated by state lawmakers as the self-dealing scandal emerged.

Hogan said in a statement that the bipartisan reforms the General Assembly passed were “a good first step,” but that he pledged he would “appoint new board members who will serve with integrity and accountability.”

The newly elected chair of the UMMS Board is James C. “Chip” DiPaula, former Governor Bob Ehrlich’s budget director and chief of staff. The new vice chair is U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams Jr. as its vice chairman.

They are to assume their duties July 1, along with the new board members. They include in alphabetical order:

Kathleen A. Birrane, a lawyer practicing with DLA Piper and former principal counsel to the Maryland Insurance Administration.

Dr. Joseph A. Ciotola, Jr., the Queen Anne’s county health officer and medical director for that county’s Department of Emergency Services.

Matthew Clark, Hogan’s chief of staff and designee on the board.

Wanda Queen Draper, the executive director and a member of the founding board of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture in Baltimore.

Jason Frankl, the senior managing director of FTI Consulting, Inc., which works with pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device, and healthcare services companies.

Glenn T. Harrell, who retired as Senior Judge of the Court of Appeals of Maryland in 2015.

Rear Admiral Joyce M. Johnson, a former surgeon general in the U.S. Coast Guard who has extensive senior public health leadership experience in both civilian and military sectors.

Bonnie Phipps, the senior vice president and group operating executive for Ascension Health, the largest Catholic Health System in the United States.

Joseph T. N. Suarez, executive advisor for community partnerships with Booz Allen Hamilton, and

John T. Williams, chairman and CEO of Jamison Door Company in Hagerstown and a former executive of Garden State Newspapers.

Hogan is expected to make more appointments in the coming months.

Under the law passed during the last General Assembly session, all board members must step down by the end of the year and could be replaced, or re-appointed, by the governor.

Joel McCord is a trumpet player who learned early in life that that’s no way to make a living.