Paul Levy, President and CEO of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre, Boston, presents the SORA Lecture: ‘Leading Changes at Academic Health Centres.’

Paul F. Levy was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre in Boston in January 2002. BIDMC is one of the nation’s pre-eminent academic health centres, providing state-of-the-art clinical care, research, and teaching in affiliation with Harvard Medical School. Licensed for over 600 beds, BIDMC annual revenues are over $1.2 billion. Previously, Mr. Levy was the Executive Dean for Administration at Harvard Medical School, where he was responsible for administrative, budgetary, and facility issues, as well as community and governmental relations. He was also involved in coordinating collaborative ventures between HMS and its affiliated hospitals. Before joining Harvard Medical School, Paul Levy was Adjunct Professor of Environmental Policy at MIT, where he taught infrastructure planning and development and environmental policy for seven years. He also maintained an independent consulting practice, providing strategic, negotiation, and regulatory advice to firms in the energy, water, and telecommunications arenas.

Mr. Levy has served as Executive Director of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, Chairman of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, and Director of the Arkansas Department of Energy. At the MWRA, he had primary responsibility for the “Boston Harbor Cleanup,” one of the largest pollution control projects in the world. In operating the water transmission system for 46 communities at the MWRA, Mr. Levy carried out an aggressive demand management program which decreased water consumption by 15% over a three-year period. As Chairman at the MDPU, Paul Levy regulated the electricity, telecommunications, natural gas, and water utilities in Massachusetts. While at the Arkansas Department of Energy, Mr. Levy directed energy programs, planning, policy and advocacy for the State, including such areas as energy conservation, renewable and fossil energy resource development, and regulatory and legislative matters.

Mr. Levy is the author of numerous articles in a variety of fields and co-author of Negotiating Environmental Agreements (Island Press, 1999). He is author of a blog entitled “Running a Hospital,” and in that regard is one of very few hospital CEOs to share thoughts publicly about hospitals, medicine, and health care issues.

Mr Levy is a member of the MIT Corporation, and serves also on the boards of ISO-New England, the Risk Management Foundation, and the Celebrity Series of Boston. He coaches and referees youth soccer, plays on an adult team, and also enjoys bicycling and woodworking.

Chair: Professor the Lord Darzi of Denham KBE

Vote of Thanks: Professor Stephen Smith Dsc FMedSci, Principal of the Faculty of Medicine and Chief Executive of Imperial College Healthcare Trust