Michael Ugwueke

Since January 2017, Michael Ugwueke, MPH, DHA, FACHE has served as President/CEO of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare. He assumed the role of president and chief operating officer (COO) of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in May 2014. For the year prior, he served as COO of Methodist. As COO, he provided strategic and operational leadership for the system’s five adult inpatient hospitals and affiliated companies.

Ugwueke previously served as senior vice president for Methodist North and South Hospitals, which he began in June 2009. Michael's leadership of two hospitals allowed a more rapid transfer of best practices and an increase in system-wide standardization. Prior to assuming this role, he served as administrator/CEO of Methodist South Hospital, held since February 2007.

Before joining Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, he served as vice president of Operations at Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center, a 517-bed tertiary hospital in Joliet, Ill., where he was responsible for a major upgrade of the imaging department that resulted in reduced lead-times, increased patient volumes, and enhanced physician relationships. He also co-led an emergency department improvement project that reduced wait times by 50 percent and substantially improved patient satisfaction scores.

Ugwueke has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Shaw University, a master’s of public health from Emory University, and a doctor of health administration and leadership from the Medical University of South Carolina. Over the last 26 years he served in planning and operational leadership roles in health care organizations in Atlanta, Sarasota, Fla., Washington, D.C., and the Chicago area.

In 2012 and more recently in 2020, Ugwueke was named one of Modern Healthcare’s Top 25 Minority Executives in Healthcare.