Mayo Clinic is looking for a new leader as Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., who has served as president and CEO since 2019, announced he would step down at the end of this year.
Farrugia has led Mayo Clinic through a period of significant strategic advancement and navigated substantial external change, the health system said in a press release. He stepped into the leadership role in January 2019 and previously served as CEO of Mayo Clinic in Florida. Farrugia has been a Mayo Clinic physician for more than 35 years, led the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine and co-founded the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation.
In alignment with Mayo Clinic’s long-standing governance and succession planning practices, the Board of Trustees has initiated a formal leadership transition process consistent with the organization’s bylaws, according to the health system.
The next president and CEO is anticipated to be elected in November, allowing for a coordinated transition on Jan. 1, 2027.
During Farrugia's tenure, Mayo Clinic launched its "Bold. Forward." strategy to make investments in digital innovation and physical infrastructure improvements. The system's related "Bold. Forward. Unbound." initiative focuses on overhauling physical infrastructure across the system, including a massive $5 billion expansion project in downtown Rochester. A year ago, Mayo Clinic unveiled a nearly $1.9 billion plan to expand its Phoenix medical campus.
The Arizona project is among the larger builds announced under the "Bold. Forward. Unbound." initiative, which includes a $432 million hospital expansion in Jacksonville, Florida, set to wrap in 2026; a $215 million investment in La Crosse, Wisconsin; and the $155 million hospital bed tower opened in 2024 in Mankato, Minnesota.
Under Farrugia's leadership, Mayo Clinic scaled Mayo Clinic Platform, a strategic initiative to improve healthcare through data insights, artificial intelligence and digital tools.
Mayo Clinic has a global workforce of 85,000 people with campuses in Minnesota, Arizona and Florida, a network of regional clinics and hospitals, as well as international locations.
"I’m tremendously proud of how Mayo Clinic has advanced our patient-centered mission and set the standard for exceptional healthcare over the last eight years," Farrugia said in a statement. "Serving as president and CEO has been a true privilege, and I am certain that our momentum will continue — driven as always by the commitment of our staff to discover new cures and provide more hope and healing to more patients."
Richard Davis, chair of the Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees, said Farrugia’s tenure has helped position Mayo Clinic at the forefront of a rapidly changing healthcare landscape.
"His leadership has strengthened our ability to innovate, collaborate and meet the evolving needs of patients around the world. We are grateful for his contributions and confident that Mayo Clinic is prepared to continue delivering excellence to those we serve and lead the future of healthcare," Davis said.
Mayo Clinic brought in $21.5 billion in revenue in 2025. The hospital had expenses of about $20 billion, leaving it with $1.5 billion in net income in 2025, MPR News reported.