2005 Recipient of the National Healthcare Leadership Award

William H. Nelson is president and chief executive officer of Intermountain Health Care. He also serves on the Executive Committee of the IHC Board of Trustees.

Mr. Nelson joined IHC in 1976. He was appointed to his current position in 1999. Before joining IHC, Mr. Nelson was a health care consultant in Los Angeles and Salt Lake City for Ernst & Ernst, a national accounting firm now known as Ernst and Young.

Mr. Nelson graduated from Brigham Young University in 1967 with a bachelor’s degree in accounting, and subsequently received his certification as a public accountant. He earned an MBA from the University of Southern California in 1971.

Mr. Nelson served as national chairman of the Healthcare Financial Management Association in 1995-96. He currently serves on the boards of the Utah Symphony & Opera, Beneficial Life Insurance, United Way of the Greater Salt Lake Area, and the Healthcare Research and Development Institute.

Mr. Nelson and his wife, Christine, have eight children.

IHC is an integrated nonprofit health care system serving communities in the Intermountain region. The mission of IHC is to provide the highest quality health care at the lowest possible cost. The mission includes a commitment to provide care to any individual with a medical need, regardless of ability to pay.

The IHC system consists of three operating groups: IHC Health Services, consisting of 21 hospitals in Utah and Idaho, home health agencies, women’s health centers, an integrated network for laboratory services, and psychiatry; IHC Physician Division, with 400 employed primary care and referral doctors and more than 100 physician clinics; and IHC Health Plans, consisting of six managed care health insurance plans with more than 475,000 covered lives.