Executive Search Success Story: Recruiting a Chief Data & AI Officer to Unify Clinical and Operational Analytics for a Raleigh Regional Health System

How JRG Partners executed a confidential Chief Data & AI Officer search that equipped a Raleigh-headquartered regional health system with the enterprise leadership required to consolidate clinical, operational, and financial data, govern AI use across the organization, and deliver measurable improvements in patient outcomes and operating performance.

The Challenge

A nonprofit regional health system headquartered in Raleigh operated multiple hospitals and a large ambulatory network, each with separate analytics teams, reporting tools, and emerging AI pilots. Clinical leaders, finance, and operations relied on conflicting data, and the board was increasingly concerned about ungoverned AI use in clinical settings. Executive leadership identified several critical vulnerabilities threatening the organization:

• Analytics teams fragmented across hospitals, service lines, and corporate functions
• Conflicting quality, financial, and operational metrics presented to the board
• Clinical AI pilots launched by individual departments with no enterprise oversight
• Rising regulatory and accreditation scrutiny of AI use in patient care
• Population health and value-based care contracts requiring data capabilities the system lacked
• No executive with combined authority over data, analytics, and AI

Recognizing that data and AI leadership needed to be unified at the executive level, the CEO and board created a Chief Data & AI Officer position, reporting to the CEO, with authority over enterprise analytics, data platforms, and AI governance. The mandate also included a VP of Clinical Analytics and a Director of AI Governance. The health system required an executive search partner with healthcare depth and access to data leaders who had consolidated analytics across complex, multi-entity organizations.

Why They Chose JRG Partners

Chief Data & AI Officer Search Focus

JRG Partners maintains a dedicated practice for combined data and AI leadership roles, with a proven methodology for evaluating candidates on enterprise data consolidation, AI governance, and clinical and operational impact.

Healthcare Executive Search Expertise

With extensive experience recruiting healthcare, medical device, and health-technology leadership, JRG Partners understood the clinical, regulatory, and value-based care context the new executive would need to navigate from day one.

Southeast Talent Networks

Our firm’s established networks across the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee provided access to regional health system leaders and national executives open to relocating to the Research Triangle.

Our Executive Search Strategy

Phase 1 — Enterprise Data & AI Assessment

Our consultants partnered directly with the CEO, Chief Medical Officer, CFO, and CIO to assess the system’s analytics landscape, define the Chief Data & AI Officer’s authority across entities, and align the mandate with quality, financial, and value-based care priorities.

Phase 2 — Talent Identification & Mapping

Our research team performed an extensive talent mapping initiative targeting data and AI leaders at large health systems, academic medical centers, payers, and health-technology organizations. Over 300 executive profiles were systematically assessed for multi-entity analytics consolidation and clinical AI governance experience.

Phase 3 — Candidate Engagement

Priority during outreach was given to executives with a documented history of unifying analytics across hospitals, implementing AI governance accepted by clinical and compliance leaders, and delivering measurable quality and financial results. Only candidates meeting these strict performance baselines advanced.

Phase 4 — Selection Process

Finalists presented an enterprise data and AI strategy to the executive team, physician leadership, and board quality committee, completed structured leadership assessments, and underwent reference verification focused on quantified clinical and operational outcomes.

Key Outcomes

• 300+ data, analytics, and AI executive profiles mapped across health systems, academic medicine, and health technology.
• Placed the health system’s first Chief Data & AI Officer in 68 days with authority across all entities.
• Consolidated multiple analytics teams into one enterprise data and AI function.
• Brought all clinical AI use under formal governance, satisfying board and accreditation expectations.
• Reduced 30-day readmissions by 12% across pilot hospitals through predictive clinical analytics.
• Built a three-role leadership structure spanning enterprise data and AI, clinical analytics, and AI governance.