Nick Barto
President, BJC Health System and BJC East RegionNick is president of BJC Health System, an integrated academic health system that operates in two regions, serving the St. Louis area and southern Illinois as BJC HealthCare and the Kansas City area, northwest Missouri and eastern Kansas as Saint Luke’s. Nick also serves as president of BJC’s East Region.
Nick joined BJC HealthCare in 2018 as executive vice president and chief financial officer for BJC, a role in which he was responsible for the organization’s strategy, operations, and financial success. Nick led strategic growth and integration initiatives including collaboration and alignment with Washington University School of Medicine; played a critical role leading the system through the unprecedented financial challenges posed by COVID-19, ensuring BJC remained among the topperforming systems in the nation; worked with clinical and operational leadership to establish BJC’s Business Intelligence and Data Solutions group; and led the partnership with Washington University to launch the Center for Health AI. He also oversaw corporate and operational finance, data and analytics, managed care/value-based contracting, revenue cycle, supply chain, treasury, and investments.
Prior to joining BJC Health System, Nick was senior vice president, corporate finance and investments, and chief financial officer for enterprise business lines at Catholic Health Initiatives (the predecessor to CommonSpirit Health) and senior vice president, financial planning and analysis, at Novant Health. He previously held roles at McColl Partners, Lehman Brothers, and The Wilkerson Group.
Nick earned a master’s degree in business administration from Columbia Business School and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Princeton University. He is a member of the Health Care Industry Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and the St. Louis Zoo Association. Previously, he served on the boards and advisory committees of ExceleraRx Corp., Consonance Capital Partners, Centura Health, US Acute Care Solutions, and Alta Partners, LLC.