First Horizon adds Vanderbilt Medical Center CEO to its board

First Horizon Corporation (NYSE: FHN) announced the election of Jeffrey R. Balser, M.D., Ph.D., 64, as an independent director to its board of directors and the First Horizon Bank board of directors, according to a company press release.

Balser is President and Chief Executive Officer of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) in Nashville, Tennessee, and Dean of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He has led VUMC since 2009, during which time the organization grew to 3.5 million patient visits annually and more than $9 billion in annual net revenue. Under his leadership, VUMC expanded from two to five regional campuses, with seven hospitals and 2,000 licensed inpatient beds.

In 2016, Balser guided VUMC through a restructuring that separated the medical center legally and financially from Vanderbilt University, forming an independent, not-for-profit corporation.

Prior to his current role, he served as chair of anesthesiology and chief research officer at VUMC, and practiced cardiac anesthesiology and cardiac intensive care medicine. Before 1998, he worked at Johns Hopkins, where he led a research program funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Bryan Jordan, Chairman, President and CEO of First Horizon, said Balser "has grown one of the nation's leading academic health systems while navigating complex regulatory, risk and governance challenges."

Balser holds a B.S. in Engineering from Tulane University and an M.D./Ph.D. in pharmacology from Vanderbilt University.

First Horizon, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, reported $84.3 billion in assets as of September 30, 2026, and operates in 12 states primarily across the southern United States.

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