Bob Sutton will become president and chief executive of Avera Health June 18. He is executive vice president of human resources for the Sioux Falls, S.D.-based system. Sutton succeeds John Porter, who is retiring as Avera's head after 44 years of leadership roles with the system.
Sutton
Sutton joined Avera in 2013 and had been regional president and chief executive of Avera St. Mary's Hospital in Pierre, S.D., and senior vice president of community relations at the system level before assuming his current human resources post.
Prior to his tenure at Avera, Sutton had multiple leadership roles at South Dakota organizations, including as president of the South Dakota Community Foundation, vice president of government and public affairs for Citibank of South Dakota, executive vice president for the South Dakota Bankers Association, executive director for both the South Dakota Petroleum Council and South Dakota Petroleum Marketers Association and executive director of the South Dakota Association of County Officials.
Sutton is president of the South Dakota Board of Regents, a governing board that controls six public universities in the state.
Sutton earned a master's of public administration degree and a bachelor of arts degree in political science from the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.
Sr. Mary Kay Panowicz, OSB, chair of the Avera System Members, headed the search committee for Porter's replacement. The System Members are representatives from Avera's sponsoring bodies who provide direction to Avera. (Those sponsoring bodies are the Benedictine Sisters of Yankton and the Presentation Sisters of Aberdeen.) Sr. Panowicz said the search committee recommended Sutton to head Avera because of his enthusiasm and commitment to the Avera mission, his knowledge of the regions served by the system and his servant leader qualities.
Avera has 33 hospitals and a network of other facilities in five states in the upper midwestern United States. It has more than 17,500 employees and physicians.
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