LEADERSHIP
to help shape healthcare delivery that meets families’ needs
Meet the
new CEO
of the Hill
Country
region
ric Looper has again found
firm footing in his native
Texas. As the new president
of the Hill Country region of
Baylor Scott & White, he returns to
the Southwest after a decade-long
absence that included chief executive
officer roles at St. Joseph Health
System in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and
at Henryetta Medical Center near
Tulsa, Oklahoma.
It took a little nudging, and a little
luck, to bring him back. Soon after
a planned family vacation in Central
Texas last year that coincided with a
meeting with Pat Currie, president and
chief operating officer, Baylor Scott
& White Health - Central Texas, the
opportunity came up to lead the Baylor
Scott & White Hill Country region.
In July of this year, Mr. Looper took the
helm of a medical center campus that
is an impressive healthcare resource for
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THE CATALYST December 14 | sw.org
the community and a vital economic
force in Marble Falls. It includes a
busy specialty clinic, and a soon-to-becompleted 46-bed hospital, scheduled
to open in 2015.
“My wife, Sarah, and I gave ourselves
10 years away before we’d return
home, so the timing was perfect,” says
Mr. Looper, a native of Austin, who
also lived in Victoria for nine years
during his childhood. The Loopers
are both graduates of the University
of Texas at Austin. They knew they
would eventually resettle in Texas, to
ensure that their children, Rachel, now
seven years old, and Zachary, now
three, would grow up near family in
the Hill Country and San Antonio.