Cedars-Sinai Health System Announces Next CEO

After more than three decades, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has a new leader.

Peter L. Slavin will be the next president and CEO of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Cedars-Sinai Health System. He will succeed Thomas Priselac, who served as president and CEO for 30 years. Mr. Priselac announced his intention to retire in January.

Slavin will begin his new role on Oct. 1. He certainly understands what it means to lead a healthcare organization over a long period of time, having served as president of Massachusetts General Hospital for 18 years, from 2003 to 2021.

“I am honored to follow in Tom Priselac’s footsteps,” Slavin said in a press release. “He has been one of my heroes as I watched Cedars-Sinai’s progress over the years from 2,700 miles away. It is an incredible honor to join Cedars-Sinai and do my part to further the organization’s growth and success.”

Priselac had said he would remain in his position until the Cedars-Sinai board found a replacement, and he offered strong support for his successor.

“Dr. Slavin is the ideal person to lead Cedars-Sinai,” Priselac said in a statement. “He is driven by conscience, heart, vision and ingenuity, and he understands the challenges of complex organizations like Cedars-Sinai. We are in excellent hands with him.”

Lawrence B. Platt, chairman of the board of directors of Cedars-Sinai Health System, noted Slavin’s “deep experience in academic medicine.”

“Dr. Slavin is uniquely qualified to lead Cedars-Sinai’s continued efforts to serve the Los Angeles region,” Platt said in a news release. “We truly appreciate a leader of his caliber.”

Slavin also served as chairman of the board of trustees of the Association of American Medical Colleges and is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Since stepping down as Mass General chairman in 2021, Slavin has focused on healthcare investing and consulting. And he succeeds a leader who left an indelible mark on Cedars-Sinai.

In addition to leading Cedars-Sinai for three decades, Priselac has spent 45 years with the organization. Cedars-Sinai officials credit Priselac with transforming a strong regional hospital into a leading academic health system.

Under Priselac’s leadership, Cedars-Sinai acquired Marina del Rey Hospital in 2015. The facility is now known as Cedars-Sinai Marina del Rey Hospital. Cedars-Sinai has also formed affiliations with Huntington Health and Torrance Memorial Health in recent years.

David Kaplan, chairman of the board of directors of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, paid tribute to Priselac and Slavin.

“We extend our deepest gratitude to Tom Priselac for his remarkable leadership in building Cedars-Sinai into an internationally recognized name in health care, and we warmly welcome Dr. Slavin to the Cedars-Sinai family,” Kaplan said in a statement. “We wish Dr. Slavin continued success in furthering Cedars-Sinai’s mission to serve as a beacon of healing for our patients and our community.”

Last month, Cedars-Sinai received a $100 million gift from Jim and Eleanor Randall and the Randall Family Foundation to expand and transform surgical care.

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is currently in the midst of a three-year project to expand its emergency department. Construction is also underway on the new nine-story Cedars-Sinai Marina del Rey Hospital building, which is scheduled to open to patients in 2026.