Stewarding Henry Ford's Board of Directors

DETROIT – With a savvy business leader at the helm, the Board of Directors of Henry Ford Health System is poised to provide meaningful stewardship for key strategies and initiatives as the health system moves to resume full operations after the coronavirus pandemic caused many health care services to be temporarily limited or reduced for the past several months.

David J. Breen, a resident of Grosse Pointe Park and retired business leader, leads the 14-member board responsible for the fiduciary and governance oversight of the health system. This includes financial and management performance, strategic planning and community relations advocacy.

“David Breen is well-respected in the region and nationally for his business acumen and he has provided thoughtful insight and leadership as we navigated our way through this pandemic from the start and we now look to position ourselves for the new normal moving forward,” says Wright Lassiter III, Henry Ford’s president and CEO.

Breen says he is “honored to serve as chair at this unprecedented time.”

“The health system has excelled in a remarkable way these past few months,” he says. “I look forward to working collaboratively with our board and Wright and his leadership team.”

As board chair Breen succeeded Sandy Pierce who served in that role from 2012-2019. He assumed the leadership post in January, just three months before the pandemic took hold in Michigan. Michael Rafferty and Barry Graham (BG) Porter also joined the board as new members at the time. Breen has been a member of Henry Ford’s board of directors since 2015 and Henry Ford hospital boards since 2006.

“I wish to thank Sandy for her calm and steady hand she brought as board chair,” Lassiter says. “Sandy’s exceptional leadership, combined with a genuine warmth and concern for the mission of the organization, played an influential role during her tenure in our financial stability and growth.”

In 2016 Breen retired from PricewaterhouseCoopers after a 42-year career serving in national and global management roles at the global firm widely known for its audit and assurance, tax and consulting services.

Rafferty and Porter are prominent executives in the non-profit and investment industries.

Rafferty, left, is the president and CEO of New Detroit, Inc., an influential nonprofit racial justice organization founded in 1967. Prior to joining New Detroit in May 2019, Rafferty served as vice president of small business for the Detroit Economic Growth Corp. and oversaw the opening of more than 50 small businesses in Detroit during a three-year tenure, with an additional 150 businesses poised to open in the next several years. 

Porter is the operator partner of Arsenal Capital Partners, a New York-based private equity firm specializing in specialty industrials and health care. Prior to joining Arsenal, Porter was managing director of the Huron Consulting Group in Chicago and president and CEO of the Studer Group, an outcomes-based health care performance improvement company.

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MEDIA CONTACT: David Olejarz / David.Olejarz@hfhs.org / 313.874.4094