- After about five years in the position
- Accolades, praise and thanks for Morris
- Parth Mehrotra taking over
- Morris said 126 words
(exechange) — Arlington, Virginia, April 12, 2023 — Shawn Morris, chief executive of Privia, leaves his position. As announced by Privia Health Group Inc. in a news release and in a regulatory filing published on Wednesday, April 12, 2023, Shawn Morris leaves his post as chief executive officer at the provider of physician platforms, after about five years in the role, effective July 1, 2023.
The average tenure of CEOs who announced their departure over the past 12 months was 7.8 years. This is according to data collected by CEO-exit research firm exechange.
exechange tracks CEO departures at the 3,000 largest publicly traded companies in the U.S., examines the reasons CEOs leave and determines the Push‑out Score™, a measure of pressure on departing chief executives on a scale of 0 to 10.
Shawn Morris’s duties as CEO will be taken over by Parth Mehrotra, currently President and Chief Operating Officer at Privia Health Group Inc.
“Successful leadership transition”
The management change is explained as follows. David King, Chairman of the Privia Health Board of Directors, stated: “Our Board has been engaged in a rigorous succession planning process in order to ensure a successful leadership transition, and we unanimously agreed that Parth is the best person to lead our Company in its next phase of growth.”
The top three reasons cited in corporate announcements for CEO departures over the past 12 months are performance issues (27.8% of cases), implementation of a planned succession (16.5%) and the statement that the time was right for a change (10.4%), according to exechange data. Other motives given for leadership changes included the outgoing CEO’s wish to pursue other opportunities (5.7% of cases), personal reasons (3.8%) and conduct issues (1.9%). Rather rarely stated reasons are health problems (1.6% of cases), disagreement (1.3%), death (1.3%), the desire for more time with family (0.9%) and career change (0.6%). Sometimes, more than one reason was given. In 28.2% of cases, no reason was given.
Precise information regarding Shawn Morris’s future plans was not immediately available.
“Retiring”
Privia said: “Mehrotra is succeeding current CEO, Shawn Morris, who is retiring and will remain on the Company’s Board of Directors.”
Privia further said: “On April 7, 2023, Shawn Morris, Chief Executive Officer of Privia Health Group, Inc. (the “Company”), notified the Board of Directors (the “Board”) that he will retire as Chief Executive Officer of the Company on July 1, 2023.”
Generally, retirements are seen as formally voluntary departures. Still, CEOs may also be pressured to accelerate their retirement plans. In fact, 35% of the time “retire” was used in CEO departure announcements over the past 12 months, the departing chief executives received Push-out Scores above the critical threshold of 5, indicating elevated pressure.
Share price increase since April 2022
The announcement follows an increase in Privia Health Group Inc.’s share price of 2% since April 2022.
In the position of CEO since 2018
Shawn Morris became CEO of the Company in 2018.
Shawn Morris has served as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Company’s board of directors since May 2018.
Prior to his role at Privia Health, Morris was the president of Cigna-HealthSpring, a Cigna company, known previously as HealthSpring, from 2016 to 2018.
Beginning in 2005 and up to 2016, Morris held various leadership roles at Cigna-HealthSpring, including the positions of Chief Operating Officer, President of Development & Innovation, and Executive Vice President.
Morris received a B.S. in Accounting from the Western Kentucky University and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Morris is also a graduate of Dartmouth College’s Tuck Business School 2030 Global Executive program, an inaugural Fellow of the Nashville Healthcare Council and a member of the American Society of CPAs.
126 words by Shawn Morris
In the news release announcing his departure as CEO of Privia Health Group Inc., Shawn Morris received accolades, praise and thanks.
In announcing his departure, Shawn Morris said 126 words.
“Drive the next phase of Privia’s growth and expansion”
Shawn Morris stated: “I am extremely proud of what Privia Health has achieved during my five years as CEO. I have been privileged to lead an outstanding executive team and over 900 mission-driven Privians across the U.S., whose dedication to improving population health, reducing healthcare costs, enhancing patients’ experience, and improving the personal wellbeing of health care providers has made Privia Health a leader in healthcare. I’ve worked closely with our Board of Directors to build and implement a succession plan for a seamless transition. Parth has operated as my partner to drive Privia’s success, and his demonstrated leadership capabilities, deep healthcare experience and superb execution of our long-term growth strategy position him perfectly to succeed me as CEO to drive the next phase of Privia’s growth and expansion.”
Over the past 12 months, 24% of all outgoing CEOs remained silent in the departure announcement, according to data compiled by exechange. Departing CEOs who did make a statement said an average of 109 words. The longest statement was 510 words. The shortest statement was 23 words. Leadership transitions in which departing CEOs provide conspicuously short, excessively long or no explanations for their move are statistically associated with elevated pressure and show an increased incidence of Push-out Scores above the critical threshold of 5.
40% of CEOs are forced out or fired
When CEO departures are announced, exechange determines the Push-out Score on a scale of 0 to 10 to assess how likely it is that the chief executive was pushed out or felt pressure to leave the position, with 0 being most likely a voluntary move and 10 being most likely a forced exit. Anything over a 5 indicates that there are valid reasons to believe an executive may have been pushed out.
Of the 316 CEO departures in the Russell 3000 Index evaluated over the past 12 months (April 12, 2022, to April 11, 2023), the average Push-out Score was 6.1, according to exechange data. References to conduct issues, disagreements and irregularities lead to the highest Push-out Scores. When performance issues, time with family or personal reasons were cited as departure reasons, the average Push-out Scores were also significantly elevated.
Around 40% of the CEO departure events from the past 12 months received Push-out Scores of 8 or higher.
In other words, in the past 12 months, three in eight departing CEOs were forced out or fired.
Push-out Score for Shawn Morris’s move determined
The Push-out Score regarding Shawn Morris’s move is explained point by point in the exechange report.
exechange reached out to Privia and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.
Read the full story in the exechange report 16.2023 ($).