Dubai: Michael Davis, the CEO of UAE’s biggest privately-owned healthcare provider NMC, has resigned as CEO, according to healthcare industry sources. Davis was at the helm of the Abu Dhabi headquartered hospital and clinic operator for two years, during which time he oversaw some major restructurings on the financial and operational front.
Sources add that Mark Adams – who is on NMC’s Board of Directors - will take over as interim CEO until a permanent successor is named. Adams currently serves on the boards of Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare in Saudi Arabia as well as at the National Care Forum.
In a statement, NMC Healthcare said: "Michael Davis remains in his position as CEO of NMC Opco Ltd. However, he has indicated to the Board of Directors that he intends to step down from the role and leave the company later this year. The Board is working closely with Michael to ensure a smooth leadership transition and will communicate these details to all stakeholders at the appropriate time."
Davis took on the CEO’s role in an interim capacity after the previous one left as soon as a wave of financial scandals hit the company, which was formed in the mid-1970s by B.R. Shetty. For the better part of his tenure, NMC was under administration as a consultancy – Alvarez and Marsal – worked on ways for the business to be operationally sound and at the same time look for ways to pay off billions of dollars that the company had to pay.
Earlier this year, the process reached a major milestone with NMC exiting administration and coming under the ownership of ADCB and other creditors. In the next year or two, the current management’s focus will be strengthen NMC’s role as one of the UAE’s systemically vital healthcare providers. Following that, when the timing is right, sell NMC operations in UAE and Oman to a buyer. (Simultaneously, the company has taken the legal option to recover the funds that were diverted in the years leading up to late 2019.)
“NMC in these two, three years has stabilized its operations in the UAE, playing a decisive role in UAE’s fight against the pandemic,” said a healthcare industry source. “All of its main hospitals and the recently commissioned specialty-care facilities are rated as cashflow positive. Mark Adams will thus get to preside over a fresh – and revitalized – chapter in NMC’s history.”
