University of Maryland Medical System Announces Change In Finance Leadership

The University of Maryland Medical System announced a change in the organization's finance leadership that is effective this week. Michelle Lee, who had served as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for UMMS since 2018, has stepped down from her role. Joseph E. "Joe" Hoffman III, a respected finance executive who retired from UMMS last year, will serve as CFO on an interim basis as a national search commences to identify a permanent finance leader.

"Michelle has been a supporter of our most ambitious projects, including new capital investments at member organizations, while also pushing for fiscal stewardship that would allow us to deliver on our commitment to our communities," said Mohan Suntha, MD, MBA, President & CEO of UMMS. "We are grateful for all that she has done for our System and our patients, and we wish Michelle the very best in her future endeavors as she pursues other opportunities."

Lee joined the University of Maryland Medical System in May 2000 as the senior director for financial reporting for the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC), the System's flagship academic hospital. She has led the UMMS finance team through multiple challenges, including management of the complexities and nuances of Maryland's one-of-a-kind rate setting and global budget systems. Lee and her team also navigated the financial chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring that team members and partners on the front lines of the emergency would not be constrained by financial obstacles.

Hoffman re-joins UMMS, having served as CFO for UMMC until his retirement in 2022 and prior as CFO for University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health (UM UCH). Hoffman began his work at UM UCH in 1997 following serving as CFO of the Alfred I duPont Institute.

"I'm honored to return to UMMS in this role while our national recruitment effort for a permanent finance leader gets underway," Hoffman said. "I am deeply familiar with the System's work and am committed our mission and values. Most of all, I am eager to partner with our world class healthcare leaders and finance professionals and look forward to a seamless transition."

About the University of Maryland Medical System

The University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) is an academic private health system, focused on delivering compassionate, high quality care and putting discovery and innovation into practice at the bedside. Partnering with the University of Maryland School of Medicine and University of Maryland, Baltimore who educate the state's future health care professionals, UMMS is an integrated network of care, delivering 25 percent of all hospital care in urban, suburban and rural communities across the state of Maryland. UMMS puts academic medicine within reach through primary and specialty care delivered at 11 hospitals, including the flagship University of Maryland Medical Center, the System's anchor institution in downtown Baltimore, as well as through a network of University of Maryland Urgent Care centers and more than 150 other locations in 13 counties. For more information, visit www.umms.org.