In a virtual meeting Tuesday, the Board of Visitors unanimously appointed John Harris to the Health System Board, which is charged with oversight of U.Va. Health and the Medical Center. Harris was previously appointed to the Board in June by Gov. Glenn Youngkin before his appointment was voted down by the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee in August.
The meeting was previously scheduled to review candidates for the position of University president, but following the appointment of Scott Beardsley as the University’s 10th president Dec. 19, Tuesday’s meeting was changed to a virtual meeting with a new agenda.
The HSB provides governance for the Medical Center, including the School of Medicine, the School of Nursing and U.Va. Community Health, according to the Board Manual. The Board Rector serves as a voting member and appoints six other Board members to the HSB also as voting members. The Board may also appoint up to six non-voting, public members who are not currently members of the Board to the HSB for up to four-year terms, according to the Manual. Harris was appointed as one of the six public members.
Harris, a class of 1982 alumnus, is a private investor and previously served as managing director and chief financial officer for The Carlyle Group, a global investment firm, until 2010. According to his LinkedIn profile, Harris currently serves as a Board member for Pretred Inc., a waste management company, and an investor and Board observer for Locus Health, a remote patient monitoring company.
Virginia law allows the governor to remove Board members, but does not specify whether public HSB members may also be removed by the governor. The Board Manual also does not specify whether HSB public members may be removed either by Board members or by the governor. HSB public members do not require the approval of the General Assembly, as do regular voting members of the Board.
In September, another appointee to the Board of Visitors who was blocked in August, Jim Donovan, was selected to serve on the search committee for the University’s next executive vice president and provost. Donovan is currently an adjunct law professor at the University.
Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger has not publicly expressed plans to remove Board members, but in November noted that she plans to fill the five currently vacant seats on the Board soon after her inauguration Jan. 17.
Beyond Harris’s appointment, the remainder of the meeting was spent in closed session. Harris was not in attendance at the meeting, and his term began Tuesday and will continue until June 2030.
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