Paul S. Viviano

The Board of Trustees at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles  has announced that Paul S. Viviano, currently the chief executive officer for the University of California, San Diego Health System and associate vice chancellor for UC San Diego Health Sciences, will serve as the organization’s new president and chief executive officer beginning Aug. 24, 2015. Viviano will be a member of the hospital’s Board of Trustees and will succeed Richard D. Cordova, FACHE, who previously announced his approaching retirement last December.

“Viviano has a well-established reputation for strategic leadership and excellence in delivering on the mission of an academic medical center while aligning institutional models for the future of health care,” says Arnie Kleiner and Lynda Boone Fetter, Board co-chairs. “We have every confidence that he will offer the invaluable leadership and vision that will move our 114-year-old institution to the next level of excellence in pediatric care.”

Current President and Chief Executive Officer, Richard D. Cordova, joined the organization in 2005 and assumed his current role in 2006. Cordova’s pending retirement was announced by the Board in December 2014. Cordova says that the institution’s senior leaders made an excellent decision in the selection of Viviano following a comprehensive national search. “It has been an incredible privilege to serve at the helm of the best children’s hospital in the nation, and I wish Paul Viviano well as he continues to build upon CHLA’s history of success as the preeminent pediatric medical facility in the state,” says Cordova.

Viviano says he was attracted to CHLA because of its commitment to patient care, education and research, as well as its investment in technology, service to its community and a longstanding mission to improve the health care of children around the nation and the world. “I want to expand on CHLA’s significant contributions in all aspects of pediatric care,” says Viviano. “I look forward to working with the Board as well as the faculty and staff at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles to fulfill our mission and achieve our goals.”

Viviano has served in numerous executive leadership capacities in health care organizations in Southern California. Prior to his service at UC San Diego, he served as chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Alliance HealthCare Services, the nation’s largest provider of advanced outpatient imaging services. Previous to that, he served as president and chief executive officer of USC University Hospital (Keck Medical Center) and USC Norris Cancer Hospital and prior still, held multiple executive posts in the St. Joseph Health System.

A Los Angeles native, Viviano has a master’s degree in public administration with a focus on public health from the University of California, Los Angeles and a bachelor’s in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Viviano says that he looks forward to joining the CHLA team and supporting such an impressive mission.

About Children’s Hospital Los Angeles


Children’s Hospital Los Angeles has been named the best children’s hospital in California and among the top 10 in the nation for clinical excellence with its selection to the prestigious U.S. News & World Report Honor Roll. Children’s Hospital is home to The Saban Research Institute, one of the largest and most productive pediatric research facilities in the United States. Children’s Hospital is also one of America’s premier teaching hospitals through its affiliation since 1932 with the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.