Quest Diagnostics CEO Rusckowski to retire

After leading Quest Diagnostics as CEO for more than a decade, Steve Rusckowski will retire from the Secaucus-based company this fall.

As part of its leadership succession planning, on Feb. 3, the Quest board of directors announced Executive Vice President, General Diagnostics James Davis as the company’s next chief executive officer, effective Nov. 1, 2022.

“Steve is a superb CEO who has led a team that has executed a well-defined strategy which has generated strong growth and shareholder value during his decade-long tenure at Quest. He has worked closely with the board over the past several years in building a succession plan that ensures a smooth, gradual transition to new leadership,” Quest Lead Independent Director Tim Ring said in a statement.

“On behalf of the entire Board and all 50,000 Quest colleagues, I want to thank Steve for his leadership and his tremendous dedication and commitment to making Quest Diagnostics the exceptional company it is today,” Ring added.

Rusckowski currently serves as chairman, CEO and president, and will continue to serve on the board of directors as executive chairman through March 2023. He appeared on the NJBIZ Power 50 Health Care list in 2021 at No. 9.

According to the company, Quest’s general diagnostics business – which Davis currently heads – accounted for 80% of the company’s $10.8 billion revenues in 2021. The unit employee base, meanwhile, represents three-quarters of the company, overall. He is also responsible for operations including, sales and marketing, patient services, logistics, laboratories, billing and customer service.

“As I approached a decade in service as CEO, the board and I determined that now is the right time to begin to turn the helm over to a new leader,” Rusckowski said. “Jim Davis is extremely well qualified to be CEO, having managed a large part of the company in his role as executive vice president. He has deep knowledge of Quest, the health care industry, and the corporate world, gained through more than 35 years of business experience. Jim is widely respected and will be a strong CEO.”

Davis joined Quest in 2013 as senior vice president, Diagnostic Solutions. He was named senior vice president of operations in February of the following year. He assumed his current executive vice president position in 2017, building a strong record of growth for revenue and earnings by cultivating relationships with the company’s large health plans and hospital system customers, Quest said.

Davis has overseen the integration of Quests regional lab acquisitions, has been at the forefront of the company’s ESG strategy, and provided enterprise oversight for the company’s COVID-19 pandemic response.

The search is also on at Quest to identify a new CFO, with the additional announcement that Mark Guinan, executive vice president and chief financial officer, will also retire in 2022.

Guinan, who has served as CFO for eight and a half years, will aid the search for his replacement, remaining in the role through the transition, according to Quest.

“Quest Diagnostics is a special company with a meaningful mission and a strong team in place, and it has been a privilege to serve as chief financial officer,” Guinan said. “With the company well positioned for continued success after the pandemic, now it’s time for me to step back and retire. I’m looking forward to participating in the process to identify my successor, who can support Steve and Jim in Quest’s next phase of growth.”

Under Rusckowski’s leadership, Quest said its revenues have grown nearly 50%. Since 2012, the company has completed 41 acquisitions – it closed one last week – generated $14.5 billion in cash and returned $8.2 billion to shareholders through buybacks and dividends.

Quest is a more inclusive place now, as well, the company said: half of its directors are women, and the board includes two people of color. In 2020, Rusckowski led the launch of a $100 million effort to decrease health disparities for underserved people in the U.S., particularly communities of color.

The company also played a part in the national response to COVID-19 to help expand access to testing; it launched testing for the virus back in March of 2020.