HCA top lawyer Bob Waterman set to retire this summer, according to internal email
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The chief of HCA Healthcare Inc.’s legal department — and the person responsible for guiding the hospital giant through some of its most daunting legal issues — is stepping down after nearly 24 years.
HCA General Counsel Bob Waterman will retire this summer, sometime around July 30, according to an email sent to employees from CEO Sam Hazen reviewed by the Business Journal.
The move signals the end of an era at HCA, as Waterman is the longest serving general counsel in the Nashville-based company’s history, having worked under five CEOs. He’s also the longest active serving general counsel in the Fortune 100, according to the email.
HCA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
HCA (NYSE: HCA) is Nashville’s largest publicly traded company, according to Nashville Business Journal research, with $51.5 billion of revenue in 2020. The company operates 185 hospitals across 20 states, with nearly 11,000 employees locally.
Waterman was recruited to HCA in 1997 from the San Francisco office of Latham & Watkins by HCA co-founder and former CEO Tommy Frist Jr.
At the time, HCA was on the ropes, as months earlier agents from the FBI, IRS and the Department of Health and Human Services raided Columbia/HCA’s operations in El Paso, Texas, following a U.S. Senate subcommittee allegation that it had evidence of improper Medicare claims. In all, the FBI raided HCA operations in six states as a result of the fraud allegations.
“[Waterman’s] charge was to lead the company’s response to the largest federal investigation of a company in U.S. history,” Hazen wrote in the email. “He accomplished this feat and, with other leaders, put the company back on solid footing.”
Hazen called Waterman a “trusted advisor” to each of the CEOs he has worked with, overseeing the legal aspects in every pivotal issue HCA has faced over the last 23 years, “from our $33 billion [leveraged buyout] to our response to the current Covid-19 pandemic.”
Waterman’s legal department consists of 140 attorneys and 109 staff members, according to the email. It’s not clear who will succeed Waterman as HCA’s general counsel.
Waterman is the latest in a string on long-time HCA executives to retire in recent years. Senior Vice President Vic Campbell, who had worked at HCA for 47 years, retired in February of last year. That followed the retirement of 36-year HCA veteran Milton Johnson, who at the time was CEO.
Hazen said that Waterman and he moved to Nashville at the same time and became friends from the start.
“I consider him a big part of my success and HCA’s successes,” Hazen wrote in the email.