Former President & CEO, VHA

C. Thomas Smith served as president and chief executive officer of VHA Inc. from October 1991 until his retirement in April 2003. From 1977 to 1991, Smith served as the president and CEO of Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Conn., and as president and CEO of Yale-New Haven Health Services Corp. Prior to joining Yale-New Haven, Smith was with Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit from 1971 to 1976, where he served as vice president and executive director of hospitals and clinics. From 1967 to 1971, Smith was associate director of hospitals and director of medical center planning for the University of Minnesota Health Sciences Center in Minneapolis. Following an administrative residency, he held administrative positions at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., from 1961 to 1967. Smith was the 1991 chairman of the American Hospital Association Board of Trustees, on which he served from 1987-1992. He was a member of the VHA Board of Directors from 1987-2003. He also served on the board of Novation, the supply company for VHA and UHC. He is a past chairman of the Council of Teaching Hospitals and a former member of the boards of the Association of American Medical Colleges, the International Hospital Federation, the Hospital Research and Educational Trust, the National Committee on Quality Health Care, the Jackson Hole Group and the Healthcare Leadership Council. He is also a former trustee of three health systems: Memorial-Hermann Health System in Houston, Yale-New Haven Hospital and Yale-New Haven Health Services Corp. in New Haven, Conn., and Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. A native of Little Rock, Ark., Smith received a bachelor’s degree from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, and a master of business administration degree from the University of Chicago. He has two honorary degrees from Connecticut colleges.