U med. center president accepts job in California

The president of University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview, and the Amplatz Children’s Hospital will be “reinventing himself” to serve as president at Children’s Hospital Central California beginning this summer.
Dr. Gordon Alexander, a University of Minnesota Medical School graduate, will leave his current post June 1 to replace current CHCC President Dr. William Haug, who is retiring from the position after 10 years.
Haug announced his retirement to the CHCC Board last year because “he wanted to pursue other options,” said Public Relations Manager Micheline Golden.
Before his tenure as president, Alexander practiced as an OB/GYN for 14 years with Southdale Obstetrics and Gynecology and later moved on to serve as chief medical officer and senior medical director of Fairview Clinics.
Alexander began his 12-year tenure as president in 1998 and has overseen several accomplishments within the Fairview system.
The Children’s Tower was built under Alexander’s direction, and he oversaw the merging of Fairview Health Services and the University of Minnesota Hospital and Clinic.
Through the partnership between the University and the Medical School, “the Fairview system has grown and become stronger,” Alexander said.
Now, the Medical Center has become a “force in the community,” Alexander said.
During his time at the Medical Center and Children’s Hospital, Alexander helped the hospitals “become better than they could by themselves.”
On a visit to the California hospital, Alexander not only saw an opportunity to work in a “spectacular community like Minneapolis” but an opportunity to move forward and “join another phenomenal organization in a warm climate.”