After years leading and shaping an amazing number of seemingly disparate but vital areas of Vanderbilt Health’s operations, John F. Manning Jr., PhD, MBA, Chief Operating Officer and Corporate Chief of Staff, plans to retire on Dec. 31.
John Manning, PhD, MBA
During a career at Vanderbilt spanning more than a quarter century, Manning’s portfolio of responsibilities steadily increased so that now major parts of the enterprise are under his watch. His training in both science and business, and his instincts for how to improve the operations around complicated business processes have been instrumental to Vanderbilt Health’s success.
In his current role, Manning oversees administrative activities throughout Vanderbilt Health. Despite working behind the scenes much of the time, he will depart having had a broad impact.
“Dr. Manning’s fingerprints are on a massive number of developments at the Medical Center that have gone on over the last 20 years. Some are known, but most are unknown except to those of us who have watched him operate,” said Jeff Balser, MD, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer of Vanderbilt Health and Dean of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “I am confident that we would not be where we are today had John not been a member of our leadership team.”
Most would not understand how mice used in research studies are connected to the construction of the Medical Center’s Plaza or Jim Ayers Tower. Or how the upkeep of thousands of clinical and office workstations is connected to painting and repairing hundreds of miles of hallway walls. These necessary support functions like animal care, computer maintenance and the construction of new facilities that are integral to the Medical Center’s missions reflect but a fraction of the portfolio of responsibilities under Manning’s watchful oversight.
Areas of the Medical Center currently reporting to Manning include the Animal Care & Use Program, Crisis Communications, Cybersecurity, Enterprise Analytics, Emergency Operations and Physical Access and Security, Enterprise Project Management Office, Environmental Services, Facilities Management & Parking, Global Health Initiatives/Global Support Services, Health IT, Human Resources, Knowledge Management, Office of News & Communications, Office of Clinical and Research Safety, Office of Strategic Marketing & Engagement, Office of Federal Relations, Office of the Chief Operating Officer, Planning-Design and Construction, Privacy Office, Real Estate, Office of State Government & Community Affairs and VUMC IT.
Balser describes Manning’s true talent as always being in the background fixing things. “John is extremely good at relating to people and has an enormous capacity for understanding complicated areas of operations and managing those areas well. He has a great ability for taking chaotic systems and then making them manageable,” said Balser. “He is also great at being helpful to people. If you think about the number of people at the Medical Center who rely on him either formally or informally, it’s rather extraordinary.”
For Manning, what a long, strange trip it’s been from his childhood in Boston to overseeing major swaths of the Medical Center’s operations. After earning his PhD in civil engineering from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from the University of Chicago, he served on the faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health. Later, he joined Argonne National Laboratories, where he served as director of the bioremediation research group responsible for explosives and petroleum contamination and as executive technical assistant to Argonne’s director.
Manning was hired by Vanderbilt Health in 2000 to serve as executive director of Research Operations in the Medical Center’s Office of Research and was soon serving as the primary business officer for the research enterprise overseeing research infrastructure, including core facilities and animal care programs.
From 2000 through 2008, the School of Medicine’s total research funding rose from $200 million to more than $400 million per year. In 2008, Manning was promoted to vice president for Research Operations, increasing his responsibilities as he continued to oversee the expansion and modernization of the Office of Research’s business and administrative capabilities. As the business leader for the research enterprise, among the innovations he led was the creation of a new platform that allows all lab core facilities to easily track and charge usage fees.
Later in 2008, Manning was also named to the newly created School of Medicine role, vice president for Academic Enterprise Operations, further expanding his responsibilities. And in 2009, he was promoted to the role of associate vice chancellor for Health Affairs, chief administrative officer for Vanderbilt Health, and senior associate dean for Operations and Administration. In these new roles, he began to have broad oversight of administrative activities throughout the Medical Center.
In 2015-2016, Manning led the Medical Center’s administrative activities as Vanderbilt Health legally and financially separated from Vanderbilt University. Through the separation, his title was changed to Chief Operating Officer and Corporate Chief of Staff.
Prior to 2016, and since then, Manning has overseen countless operational advancements that have changed the Medical Center’s trajectory. His contributions have been integral to the organization’s ability to flourish despite its ever-changing needs.
Examples of the scale and complexity of advancements under his guidance include every major facilities expansion or remodeling project including the Main Campus’ Plaza reconstruction, Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt’s four-floor expansion, the expansion of clinic space at Vanderbilt Health at One Hundred Oaks, construction of the Belle Meade Surgery Center and, most recently, the addition of the Jim Ayers Tower to Vanderbilt University Hospital. A new ambulatory surgery center currently under construction at One Hundred Oaks is but another example.
Manning was central to the Medical Center’s multiyear effort to select and implement Epic as its electronic health record system, and he continues to oversee both major divisions of Information Technology, including all software and cybersecurity tools that support the organization’s administrative and clinical needs.
For the safety of employees and patients, he oversaw security advancements across the health system such as a significant increase in staffing of police and security personnel and the implementation of new security technology for facility entrances.
Overseeing so many different areas of the Medical Center means that Manning has more than 20 senior managers reporting to him, including one with more than 55 years of service to the organization. His supportive management style engenders such loyalty that most of his direct reports have been with him and the organization for decades. “When people start working for John, they love it and stay for life. I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Balser.
“I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work with such exceptional people from across our organization every day. There have been many challenges along the way, but we’ve also had a lot of fun. I’m fortunate to have had such a great team of people helping me out,” said Manning.
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