William “Bill” McKeon: Intown’s Person of the Year
President and Chief Executive Officer of the Texas Medical Center
In 2009, Intown introduced our very own Person of The Year. Can you guess? It started with a B. Yes, Queen B, Beyonce was a newly minted celeb in the music biz, born and raised by her parents in Houston. Our process of picking one worthy PersonPerson starts well before the end of the year, and we do our take on Time Magazine’s Person of the Year. In most years, the choice seems somewhat obvious. In other years, it comes after much deliberation. It can turn up an unlikely candidate, such as posthumously picking George Mitchell due to the enormous fracking boom he created that sparked a whole new energy revolution. This year’s pick has sent similar shock waves in the healthcare and real estate development business community with his stewardship of the world-renowned and somewhat overlooked Texas Medical Center.
This year’s Person of the Year is William F. McKeon, whom many know due to his long tenure with Texas Medical Center. He is the president and CEO, driving strategic, operational, and programmatic initiatives across member institutions. McKeon joined the Texas Medical Center in 2013 as executive vice president and chief operating and strategy officer.
He previously served as an executive for some of the leading companies and institutions in the world, including DuPont, Stanford, Raytel, US Oncology, and Medtronic. He was president and CEO of MicroPort Medical Co. in Shanghai and Cellnovo in London.
McKeon holds a Bachelor of Science in legal studies from Roger Williams University and a master’s degree from the University of San Francisco – School of Management.
In 2013, when McKeon arrived, the medical center was bustling, but its growth exploded under his helm. If you haven’t noticed, the skyline of Houston is ever-expanding, much of it from the center’s growth.
McKeon had noted that past management was very proud that TMC had one of the largest parking lots in the world, but not necessarily the most extensive research facilities and the best cancer doctors. He changed all that. Today, there is little doubt about the center’s direction and success under his tenure.
In the future, McKeon plans to build a self-sufficient manufacturing campus that would house all needed to handle a pandemic if it happens again.
“We want to have that capability within the United States and to have it here in mid-country, as we call it in Texas, so perfectly located to supply chain to both the East and West coasts. Those are big, audacious Texas goals, but they were already underway. But we’re not waiting. We believe in our ability to execute these plans, and we have the entire medical center arm-in-arm together in this vision, so it’s not my vision alone. It’s a shared collective vision across the entire Texas Medical Center.”
Today, the Texas Medical Center is the world’s largest medical complex and has played a pivotal role in shaping the future of healthcare. According to its mission statement, TMC aims to further accelerate healing by harnessing collective expertise in innovation, research, development, production, and patient care within a single, centralized medical ecosystem.
TMC Timeline
1925: Hermann Hospital Opens
1942: University of Texas Establishes MD Anderson Hospital
1943: Baylor University Vollege of Medicine Moves from Dallas to Houston
1949: Blue Bird Circle Pediatric Neurology Clinic Openswith methodist until 1998 and it joins with Texas Children’s
1954: St. Luke’s and Texas Children’s Opens
1962: Texas heart Institute Founded
1968: Debakey leads multi organ transplant
1976: LifeFlight launched at Hermann Hospital
2014: Launch of TMC Innovation
2021: TMC3 and Helix Park Break Ground
TMC Fun Facts
Begins a surgery every three minutes on average.
Other Notable TMC statistics
10 million patient encounters per year
180,000+ annual surgeries
750,000 ER visits per year
9,200 total patient beds
50 million developed square feet
13,600+ total heart surgeries
$3 billion in construction projects underway
120,000+ total employees
8th largest business district in the U.S.