Cerner names new CEO for ‘the future we see for ourselves’

Cerner has named a Philips North America executive to be its CEO.

Brent Shafer will become chief executive officer and chairman of Cerner on Feb. 1. In February 2014, he became CEO of the North America operations of Netherlands-based Royal Philips. He will remain there until the end of this month.

At Cerner, Shafer will succeed interim CEO and chairman Cliff Illig, the vice chairman and co-founder who assumed the post after co-founder Neal Patterson died last year. Illig will return to the vice chairman’s post.

Philips North America provides a variety of health care technologies, including patient monitoring, imaging, clinical informatics, sleep and respiratory care. It also sells consumer-oriented brands.

“Brent (Shafer) is an approachable leader and effective communicator who has a clear understanding of where health care needs to go,” Illig told employees in a note. “He is a proven chief executive with a tremendous ability to help drive Cerner into the future, but he is also a humble and thoughtful person.”

In 12 years at Philips North America, Shafer had helped “a mature and heavily diversified company develop and strengthen its health care focus,” Illig wrote in the note.

He said that under Shafer, the company’s profits and its share of the market of strategic markets increased.

“In short, he has helped lead the growth and strategies of a very complex, multi-divisional, multinational organization over a number of years. Based on the future we see for ourselves, Brent makes a great addition to our company and team,” Illig wrote.

Cerner, based in North Kansas City, provides information technology to the health care industry, including electronic health records. It has about 12,800 area employees among 24,000 worldwide.

Illig said Shafer, of Salt Lake City, will relocate to the Kansas City area.

This story was originally published January 10, 2018 at 4:20 PM with the headline "Cerner names new CEO for ‘the future we see for ourselves’."