B12 PHILADELPHIA BUSINESS JOURNAL CFO OF THE YEAR pbj.com | JULY 13-19, 2012

F or Jennifer Bar nett, leading with the heart is just as important as leading with the head.

A Louisiana native and graduate of Louisiana State University, Barnett joined Catholic Health East as vice pr esident of ac-counting in 2006 after nearly 15 years of health care industry experience in Texas. She is now executive vice president and CFO of the hospi-tal, a nonprofit, faith-based health care minis-try based in Newtown Square.

Once Barnett came on board with CHE, she focused on improving the overall financial r e-porting structure and successfully reduced, with time, the audit time frame to appr oxi-mately three to four months fr om year-end, compared with the five to six months it took before her arrival. She also improved the tax reporting process and helped CHE confor m with all IRS reporting deadlines.

Barnett was promoted to her cur rent posi-tion in 2010, and under her leadership, CHE had its strongest operating per formance year in 2011, reaching a record low cost of capital.

Also in 2011, CHE was able to pr ovide more than $320 million in community benefit pr o-grams and services, including screenings, mo-bile health clinics and more, due in part to Bar-nett’s financial leadership.

“It’s a very challenging industry, but it’s very rewarding,” Barnett said. “There’s a physical person at the end of our ser vice and to me that’s really nice.”

CHE operates 36 hospitals, some in economi-cally challenged, urban locations, in 11 states stretching from Maine to Florida. Its mission is to provide a “transforming, healing presence” in the communities it ser ves, with a special focus on contributing most to people in need, according to the organization’s website.

Barnett has a “un ique ability,” said Judith Persichilli, CHE’s president and CEO, to be a “great strategic partner … with CHE’s mission in mind.”

“Jenny has built on the foundation of trans-parency and integrity that was alr eady pres-ent,” Persichilli said. “She has made those qualities alive on an ever yday basis and in ev-erything she does.”

To better understand the different communi-ties in which the or ganization serves, Barnett frequently travels to dif ferent hospitals and in-teracts constantly with financial leaders.

“I work through bringing people together to get incentive,” Barnett said.

As CFO, Barnett has led key strategic initia-tives of financial controls and processes, im-proved CHE risk financing and access to capi-

tal and substantially enhanced the internal and external audit functions thr ough new risk-based assessments and strategies. She led the development of a system-wide strategic model-ing of the impact on health care reform and co-led the restructuring of CHE’s pension strate-gies to create more cost-ef fective options. Barnett directed a comprehensive evaluation of the company’s entire revenue cycle, identify-ing annualized oppor tunities of $50 million, and contributed to many other developments within CHE.

Barnett has made ever y transformation within the company while maintaining a strong balance sheet for CHE, thr oughout one of the most unstable times in the nation’s health care system.

“You keep things going thr ough commit-ment; you hold people accountable,” Bar nett said. “You have to r emain focused [on cost structure] and dedicated.”

“It’s not easy; we don’t enjoy the same kind of margins that for-profit or dif ferent types of in-dustries do, so it’s ver y challenging,” Barnett said.

Persichilli said that throughout it all, Barnett has remained a joy to work with. “She has a sense of humor, she takes her work seriously but not herself seriously,” Persichilli said. “She’s approachable and has a gr eat personal-ity.”

— Lauren Hertzler

JENNIFER BARNETT |

Catholic Health East

CFO OF THE YEAR | LARGE COMPANY

Internal and external auditors would refer to Jenny as a role model CFO for others to emulate in terms of her oversight of audit accuracy and timeliness.

— Peter DeAngelis, executive vice president

and COO, Catholic Health East.

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