Goran Dragolovic will succeed Lew Little as president and CEO of the physician services company. Mr. Little will step down Jan. 11 after four years in the role.
Mr. Dragolovic has more than 30 years of experience in the healthcare industry, most recently as CEO of Women's Health USA, a national practice management platform.
Mr. Draglovic also spent nearly seven years in leadership roles at Surgical Care Affiliates and Optum after the company was acquired. He was group president of a $500 million portfolio of surgery centers and specialty hospitals in the western U.S. and led enterprisewide strategic service line expansion. While at Optum, Mr. Dragolovic helped aggregate and organize specialty physician groups into market-leading clinically integrated networks.
Mr. Dragolovic is moving to Nashville to lead the company, which is part of KKR, a private equity fund.
"While Lew leaves big shoes to fill, we are delighted to welcome an executive of Goran's caliber," said Max Lin, chairman of the Covenant board and partner at KKR. "Goran brings the right experience and vision to grow Covenant as the partner of choice to leading physicians and allied health professionals during this time of dynamic change in the delivery of healthcare."
In September, Covenant added two executive members to the team: Chad Baldwin as executive vice president and chief development officer, and Phyllis Smith, DNP, as senior vice president and chief clinical officer.
The company also brought on three executives in February shortly after rebranding from a surgical center company to a physician services company. Jason Dean was promoted to senior vice president and chief accounting officer; Mark Kelly was named senior vice president of the company's eye care division; and Beth Wampler was appointed senior vice president and chief human resources officer.