No. 2: Robert Garrett

As CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health, Garrett runs New Jersey’s largest health network with 17 hospitals, 500 patient care locations, 35,000 team members and 6,500 physicians.

The network has played a major role in the COVID-19 pandemic, including treating more patients than any network in New Jersey and developing major breakthroughs – the state’s first rapid COVID-19 test, reducing wait time from days to a just a few hours and developing nearly a dozen clinical trials for COVID therapies, including convalescent plasma therapy. The network continues to participate in clinical trials to deliver safe and effective vaccines.

Under Garrett’s leadership, HMH has made strides in medical education, behavioral health care, cancer care and innovation and research. It opened the first private medical school in New Jersey in decades. The Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine offers a curriculum that includes a three-year path to residency, a community immersion program and inter-disciplinary learning.

In 2019, the network merged with Carrier Clinic, New Jersey’s largest behavioral health provider, to expand access to treatment, better coordinate care and develop therapies. The merger resulted in the opening of the first urgent care behavioral health center in New Jersey as well as a new state-of-the art destination addiction treatment center that opened in February 2021.