Leslie C. Davis; Senior Vice President (SVP); Executive Vice President (EVP); Chief Operating Officer (COO); Health Services Division (HSD); Hospital Division; Administration; environmental portrait; portrait; selects;

PITTSBURGH (AP) — The head of one of Pennsylvania’s largest employers, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, is retiring and the organization’s executive vice president will succeed him.

Jeffrey A. Romoff has led the organization that would become UPMC since 1992 when it consisted of a handful of hospitals. He hands over the reigns of what is now a $23 billion health care system to Leslie C. Davis, who has been with UPMC for 17 years, according to a Wednesday press release.

UPMC employs 92,000 people and includes 40 hospitals in Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York.

Davis, 62, will become president and CEO of UPMC on Sunday, and Romoff, 75, will serve as president emeritus during a transition period until Oct. 1.

Davis was president of UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital in Oakland from 2004 to 2018, according to the statement. She then was named president of UPMC’s Health Services Division and tapped to be executive vice president in March.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to lead UPMC and work with the board, our talented physicians and nurses and all the employees associated with our provider, insurance, international and enterprises businesses as we seek to offer residents of the communities we serve the very best health care services,” Davis said in the statement.

Under Romoff’s leadership, the health system acquired new hospitals and built its reputation as a medical provider in specialties like vision and cancer treatment.

UPMC also clashed with another large Pennsylvania nonprofit health care system, Highmark. The two organizations eventually reached a deal in 2019 to allow in-network access to patients insured by Highmark at UPMC facilities and doctors, after the attorney general sued UPMC questioning its nonprofit status.

“I am proud to have led UPMC during a time of exceptional growth,” Romoff said in the statement. “We are now in a well-earned period of stability and success, having overcome challenges and grown into a fully integrated health care system.”