Rochester, MN (KROC AM News) - The Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees announced Friday that Gianrico Farrugia M.D. will succeed Dr. John Noseworthy as president and CEO of the Mayo Clinic.

Dr. Farrugia has been vice president, Mayo Clinic and CEO of Mayo Clinic Florida since January 2015, and in that role he has led a staff of more than 6,400 and helped establish the Mayo Clinic as the destination medical center for the Southeast.

“Dr. Farrugia is a visionary and servant leader who brings with him a wealth of experience and knowledge ─ both as an innovator and an executive,” Dr. Noseworthy said. “In partnership with our staff across Mayo Clinic, and with a deep commitment to our values and mission, he will affirm Mayo Clinic’s position as the global healthcare leader for generations to come.”

Prior to serving as vice president, Mayo Clinic, and CEO of Mayo Clinic in Florida, Dr. Farrugia was director of Mayo Clinic's Center for Individualized Medicine, which is responsible for bringing genomics into routine clinical care. Dr. Farrugia also was co-founder of the Center for Innovation at Mayo Clinic. Farrugia is a native of Malta, and has spent 30 years as a Mayo physician.

“Dr. Farrugia brings an impressive depth of experience to this role,” Samuel Di Piazza, chair, Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees said. “A prolific investigator and inventor, and an accomplished executive, he has been at the leading edge of innovation across the breadth of Mayo’s clinical and research mission.”

Dr. Noseworthy will remain president and CEO through his retirement at the end of the year, but Dr. Farrugia will work closely together through the period of transition.

“I am humbled and proud to follow and build upon this success with the best staff in the world,” Dr. Farrugia said. “While sea change continues to sweep through health care, I look forward to harnessing innovation, a hallmark of Mayo Clinic, to transform health care for the benefit of patients everywhere.”

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