Children's Wisconsin CEO Peggy Troy plans to retire by the end of next year after more than a decade in the role
Children's Wisconsin President and CEO Peggy Troy plans to retire by the end of next year, the Wauwatosa-based health care system announced on Thursday.
Troy is the latest Milwaukee-area health system CEO to announce their departure this year. Earlier this year, Bernie Sherry left his position as CEO of Ascension Wisconsin. Froedtert Health President and CEO Cathy Jacobson also announced this spring that she would retire next year.
Children's board of directors has hired a firm and formed a search committee to identify Troy's successor and expects to complete a national search sometime in 2024, a news release from Children's Wisconsin says.
"Her tenure has been nothing short of transformative for those we serve," Patrick Hammes, chair of the board and the search committee, said in the release. "Peggy’s commitment to putting kids first is evident in all we do."
Troy has served as the president and CEO of Children's since 2009 and was the first woman to head the organization, the release says. She leads a health system with more than $1.7 billion in annual revenue, hospitals in Wauwatosa and Neenah, and primary care and specialty clinics throughout southeast Wisconsin.
The health system, as an affiliate of the Medical College of Wisconsin, also does research and trains doctors, nurses and other health care providers.
Under Troy, Children's Wisconsin has grown to more than 50 locations throughout the state, the news release says.
In 2019, Children's Wisconsin announced a five-year plan to improve access to mental and behavioral health care for children and adolescents. Since then, Children's has placed therapists in all of its primary care offices, using money from a $20 million gift from former Fiserv CEO Jeffery Yabuki. The hospital also opened the Craig Yabuki Mental Health Walk-In Clinic in 2022, to help children and adolescents experiencing urgent mental health issues.
Under Troy's tenure, the health care system also embarked on a multi-year $385 million expansion project starting in 2018, which most recently culminated in the opening of a new, expanded emergency department at the Wauwatosa hospital that medical professionals hope will better serve the more than 70,000 patients who visit the ER each year.
Troy started her career in Milwaukee. While studying nursing at Marquette University in the 1970s, Troy worked as a nurse intern at Children's Hospital, according to her online bio. After graduating, she worked at hospitals in Chicago before later rising through the ranks and running hospitals in Texas and Tennessee.
In 1990, she became executive vice president, the No. 2 post, at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth, according to Fort Worth Star-Telegram newspaper archives. In the late 1990s, she was named president of the hospital. Then in 2003, she was recruited to be president and CEO of Le Bonheur Children's Medical Center in Memphis. Three years later, she was promoted to chief operating officer of the Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare system.
“It continues to be the honor of my lifetime to serve as president and CEO of Children’s Wisconsin,” Troy said in the release. "As the search begins for the next president and CEO, I remain as dedicated as ever to our mission."
The news release issued Thursday did not say what Troy plans to do after leaving Children's.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Children's Wisconsin CEO Peggy Troy plans to retire by end of 2024
