Robert C. Garrett is the CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health, New Jersey’s largest health network with 18 hospitals, 500 patient care locations, 36,000 team members and 7,000 physicians.

The network has played a major role in the COVID-19 pandemic, including treating 85,000 patients and administering 800,000 vaccines and developing major breakthroughs including the state’s first rapid COVID test, developing nearly a dozen clinical trials for COVID therapies, including convalescent plasma therapy. The network also created a rapid COVID variant test to more effectively treat patients and better track the virus. Recently, the network received a record $108 million NIH grant to develop new therapies to treat the virus and future threats.

Under Mr. Garrett’s visionary leadership, the network has made major strides in medical education, behavioral health care, cancer care and innovation and research.

The network opened the first private medical school in New Jersey in decades. The Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine offers an innovative curriculum that includes a three-year path to residency, a community immersion program and interdisciplinary learning. More than half of the graduates are serving residencies in network hospitals, a major goal in creating the school.

To streamline breakthroughs in care, the network opened the Center for Discovery and Innovation in May 2019, which focuses on cancer and infectious disease, multiple myeloma and regenerative medicine. The center is committed to accelerating the pace of bench to bed discoveries.

In 2019, the network merged with Carrier Clinic, New Jersey’s largest behavioral health provider, to expand access to treatment, better coordinate care and innovative therapies. The merger resulted in the opening of the first urgent care behavioral health center in New Jersey as well as a new state-of-the art destination addiction treatment center in northern New Jersey.

Mr. Garrett holds a B.A. from Binghamton University, and MHA, Washington University.