Ronald R. Peterson, president of Johns Hopkins Health System and executive vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine, has been named Business Leader of the Year for 2016 by Loyola University Maryland’s Sellinger School of Business and Management. The award honors business executives who embody Loyola’s Jesuit commitment to community and service in the leadership of their organization.
Peterson joined Hopkins in 1973 as an administrative resident. Throughout his first years at Hopkins, he served as an administrator of the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic, the Hopkins Hospital's Cost Improvement Program, and the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center.
One of Peterson’s many accomplishments with Hopkins was his role in the transformation of the former Baltimore City Hospitals into what is now Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. In 1982, he was dispatched to the former Baltimore City Hospitals to serve as director under a management contract with the City. He then led the acquisition effort, which resulted in the transfer of ownership to Hopkins in July 1984. From then until 1999, he served as president of the medical center and oversaw a $100 million redevelopment program.
In 1995, while still serving as president of Bayview, Peterson was named executive vice president and chief operating officer of Johns Hopkins Health System. He was named acting president of The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System in September 1996, and those positions became permanent in the months that followed. Since 1998, he has also served as the executive vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine, the formal alliance between Johns Hopkins Health System and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
After 20 years as president of The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Peterson stepped down as part of an orderly succession plan in July 2016 to concentrate more fully on his Health System and Medicine roles. He oversees the six hospitals of Johns Hopkins Health System, including The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Howard County General Hospital, Suburban Hospital, Sibley Memorial Hospital, and Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla.
He serves as chairman of Johns Hopkins Community Physicians, which provides ambulatory care at 40 locations throughout Maryland and the Washington, D.C. area. He is also a director of Johns Hopkins HealthCare, the Johns Hopkins Home Care Group, and Johns Hopkins Medicine International.
Peterson was born in New Brunswick, N.J., and now lives in Bel Air, Md., with his wife, Elizabeth. Peterson is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University, and holds a master’s in hospital administration from The George Washington University. His daughter, Susie, is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she is currently on the faculty. His son, Joe, is an attorney in Baltimore. Peterson is the proud grandfather of four grandsons.