VCU news

By Pamela DiSalvo Lepley
Division of University Relations

Virginia Commonwealth University Health System officials today announced the appointment of Dominic J. Puleo as executive vice president for strategic financial planning, effective Sept. 1. In this role, Puleo will head the new Office of Strategic Financial Planning, responsible for ensuring adequate resources to support the health system’s mission as a safety-net health care system for Central Virginia and beyond. 

Puleo is currently the VCU Health System’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, a position he has held since 2000. 

“Dom Puleo is uniquely qualified to lead the planning effort,” said Michael Rao, Ph.D., president, VCU and the VCU Health System. “He is a highly respected, nationally recognized expert in academic medical center financing and government and commercial health care reimbursement policies.” 

Rao said Puleo has been highly successful in securing resources to support the health system’s research, education and clinical care missions as well as investments in quality, safety, technology and state-of-the-art facilities and equipment. 

Rao said the new strategic financial office is necessary to focus on mounting financial pressures faced by academic medical centers, such as changes in government health care regulations and reimbursement; caps in state funding for Medicaid, uninsured and indigent care and the teaching mission; tightening reimbursement rates by commercial insurance payers; and increasing competition in the regional and local health care markets. 

Puleo began his career at VCU in 1987 as chief financial officer for MCV Hospitals. He was part of a management team that transformed the former MCV Hospitals and Clinics Authority into the financially viable, present-day integrated VCU Health System. Previous experience includes serving as the chief financial executive for Akron (Ohio) City Hospital, the flagship hospital for Summa Corporation, and as assistant controller for the Western Reserve Care System in Youngstown, Ohio. 

Puleo was named Virginia CFO of the Year in 2013 by Virginia Business Magazine. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Youngstown State University and is a certified public accountant. 

He is a member of America’s Essential Hospitals, Health Care Financial Management Association, CFO Steering Committee of the University Health Care Consortium, Virginia Hospital Association Council on Finance and past director of the National Association of Accountants. 

A national search will be conducted for his replacement as CFO for the VCU Health System. 

About VCU and the VCU Medical Center
Virginia Commonwealth University is a major, urban public research university with national and international rankings in sponsored research. Located in downtown Richmond, VCU enrolls more than 31,000 students in 226 degree and certificate programs in the arts, sciences and humanities. Sixty-seven of the programs are unique in Virginia, many of them crossing the disciplines of VCU’s 13 schools and one college. MCV Hospitals and the health sciences schools of Virginia Commonwealth University comprise VCU Medical Center, one of the nation’s leading academic medical centers. For more, see www.vcu.edu.