Compensation for Atrium’s top executives rose to nearly $28 million last year

Charlotte’s largest hospital system, Atrium Health, paid CEO Gene Woods more than $9.8 million last year in total compensation — up from more than $7.9 million in 2020. That’s a nearly 25% increase.

Woods got paid a base salary of $3 million in 2021, up from 2020’s base salary of $2.8 million. And he received $3.8 million in bonuses last year, along with more than $3 million in other forms of compensation, including incentives.

As a public hospital under N.C. law, compensation for top executives at Atrium Health is a public record.

Atrium Health released compensation records for its top 10 executives on Friday, following a request from the Observer. The total compensation for those 10 executives is equal to less than one-half percent of total compensation for all employees, according to Atrium.

The top 10 executives made nearly $28 million in total compensation. That’s a 4.5% increase from 2020, when Atrium’s top 10 executives received more than $26.6 million in total compensation.

Anthony DeFurio, Atrium’s chief financial officer, was the second-highest paid executive last year, taking in nearly $2.9 million in total compensation.

And Ken Haynes, Atrium’s Greater Charlotte Region President, was the third-highest paid executive, taking in $2.5 million.

Charlotte’s future med school

Atrium has announced a number of big expansions in the Charlotte area in recent years, including a major one in 2020 that it had officially combined with Wake Forest Baptist Health and Wake Forest School of Medicine.

The combined health system has over 70,000 employees, 42 hospitals and more than 1,500 care locations, Atrium said at the time. That combination paved the way for plans for a four-year medical school in Charlotte.

Charlotte is the largest city in the country without a four-year medical school, according to Atrium.

The school will be built in Charlotte’s Midtown area, less than a mile away from Atrium’s flagship location Carolinas Medical Center in Dilworth

The new school will be built on a 20-acre parcel at the intersection of Baxter Street and South McDowell Street.

Hannah Smoot

The Charlotte Observer

704-358-5349

Hannah Smoot covers business in Charlotte, focusing on health care and transportation. She has been covering COVID-19 in North Carolina since March 2020. She previously covered money and power at The Rock Hill Herald in South Carolina and is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.