John Wallis "Jack" Rowe is an American businessman and academic physician, who served as Chairman and CEO of

Aetna Inc. Aetna Inc. () is an American managed health care company that sells traditional and consumer directed health care insurance and related services, such as medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans ...

, a large health insurance company based in Connecticut, titles he retired from in February 2006. During his Aetna tenure, ''

Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

'' named Rowe as a “Manager of the Year.” After leaving the company, he became an active philanthropist, supporting aging research and other causes.

Career

Columbia University

John Rowe is currently the Julius B. Richmond Professor at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

Mailman School of Public Health The Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health is the public health graduate school of Columbia University. Located on the Columbia University Medical Center campus in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, the school i ...

in the Department of Health Policy and Management. He has also served as professor at

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

, authoring more than 200 scientific publications, mostly on the aging process. Rowe was previously Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...

. In 2010, he donated $2 million to the university’s foundation for a program that encourages students from minority groups and low-income families to enter health professions. Rowe also gave a separate $1 million for aid to help students recover from the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Aetna

Prior to Columbia, John Rowe was the CEO and executive chairman of the

health insurance company Health insurance or medical insurance (also known as medical aid in South Africa) is a type of insurance that covers the whole or a part of the risk of a person incurring medical expenses. As with other types of insurance, risk is shared among ma ...

Aetna from 2000 to 2006. During his tenure, he transformed Aetna into a large, profitable company. Between May 2001 and March 2007, the company's stock price jumped from $5.80 to $43.87 a share. By the mid-2000s, Aetna’s operating income recovered from a $300 million loss to a $1.7 billion gain. In 2005, Rowe's compensation was $22.2 million.

Mount Sinai New York Health

Prior to Aetna, Rowe was President and Chief Executive Officer of Mount Sinai New York Health from 1998 to 2000. Before that, he was President of The Mount Sinai Hospital and the

Mount Sinai School of Medicine The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS or Mount Sinai), formerly the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, is a private medical school in New York City. It is the academic teaching arm of the Mount Sinai Health System, which manages eigh ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

from 1988 to 1998. In 1998, Rowe led the
now dissolved
Mount Sinai NYU Health merger that brought together five hospitals, becoming the system's president and chief executive.

Tax patents

In 2006, the

Wealth Transfer Group The Wealth Transfer Group is a consulting firm that provides estate planning services. They serve only clients with estates worth more than US$10,000,000. In 2006, the Wealth Transfer Group sued former Aetna CEO John Rowe for infringement of a ta ...

sued Rowe for infringement of a

tax patent A tax patent is a patent that discloses and claims a system or method for reducing or deferring taxes. Tax patents have been granted predominantly in the United States but can be granted in other countries as well. They are considered to be a for ...

.Floyd Norris
''Patent law is getting tax crazy''

International Herald Tribune The ''International Herald Tribune'' (''IHT'') was a daily English-language newspaper published in Paris, France for international English-speaking readers. It had the aim of becoming "the world's first global newspaper" and could fairly be said ...

, October 19, 2006. The patent was , entitled "Establishing and managing grantor retained annuity trusts funded by non-qualified stock options" (i.e.

SOGRAT A grantor-retained annuity trust (commonly referred to by the acronym GRAT), is a financial instrument commonly used in the United States to make large financial gifts to family members without paying a U.S. gift tax. Basic mechanism A grantor ...

). The case was settled for undisclosed terms.

Publications

Rowe has published over 200 scientific publications, mostly in the field of

gerontology Gerontology ( ) is the study of the social, cultural, psychological, cognitive, and biological aspects of aging. The word was coined by Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov in 1903, from the Greek , ''geron'', "old man" and , ''-logia'', "study of". The fie ...

, and a textbook in the same field. He co-authored the book ''

Successful Aging Ageing ( BE) or aging ( AE) is the process of becoming older. The term refers mainly to humans, many other animals, and fungi, whereas for example, bacteria, perennial plants and some simple animals are potentially biologically immortal. In ...

'' with Robert Kahn.

Personal life

Rowe lives in New York City and Cape Cod, Massachusetts with his wife, who is a retired professor at

Fordham University Fordham University () is a Private university, private Jesuit universities, Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the The Bronx, Bronx in which its origina ...

. Rowe attended

Canisius College Canisius College is a private Jesuit college in Buffalo, New York. It was founded in 1870 by Jesuits from Germany and is named after St. Peter Canisius. Canisius offers more than 100 undergraduate majors and minors, and around 34 master's ...

and received his B.S. in 1966. He received his M.D. from the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The University of Roc ...

in 1970. Rowe has been a Director of the

MacArthur Foundation The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 50 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.0 billion and p ...

Research Network on Successful Aging and is currently Director of the Foundation's Research Network on an Aging Society. He is a member of the

Institute of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, E ...

of the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

, a fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...

, a member of the Board of Trustees of the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

, a member of the Board of Trustees of the

Lincoln Center Theater The Vivian Beaumont Theater is a Broadway theater in the Lincoln Center complex at 150 West 65th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Operated by the nonprofit Lincoln Center Theater (LCT), the Beaumont is the only Broad ...

, a member of the Board at Accolade Inc. and

Hospital Corporation of America HCA Healthcare is an American for-profit operator of health care facilities that was founded in 1968. It is based in Nashville, Tennessee, and, as of May 2020, owns and operates 186 hospitals and approximately 2,000 sites of care, including sur ...

(HCA), and former Chairman of the Board of the Marine Biological Laboratory. In 2019, Rowe was honored at the fourt
Arthur W. Page Center Awards
in New York City. He received a Larry Foster Award for Integrity in Public Communication. Rowe is a former member of the

Medicare Payment Advisory Commission The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) is an independent, non-partisan legislative branch agency headquartered in Washington, D.C. MedPAC was established by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (P.L. 105–33). The BBA formed MedPAC by mer ...

and

Board of Trustees A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

at the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowe, John W. Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences American geriatricians University of Rochester alumni Canisius College alumni American businesspeople Columbia University faculty Harvard Medical School faculty Living people Aetna employees Urban Institute people 1944 births Members of the National Academy of Medicine