Chris Allen to join UChicago Medicine as Health System CFO

Chris Allen — a finance leader with more than three decades of experience in healthcare finance, including leadership roles at academic medical centers — has been appointed Executive Vice President and Health System Chief Financial Officer at the University of Chicago Medicine. He will begin his new role on September 1, 2025.

Allen will join UChicago Medicine from Keck Medicine of USC, where he has served as CFO for the health system. He held several key roles during his tenure there, including CFO of Keck Medical Center and executive administrator for financial planning and decision support. He played an integral role in enhancing Keck Medicine’s financial performance, while supporting its clinical growth and academic mission.

At UChicago Medicine, Allen will lead financial operations across the health system and play a vital role in stewarding resources to support the mission of advancing health through excellence in patient care, research and education. He will oversee strategic financial planning, budgeting, revenue cycle, payer contracting and financial reporting and will work with executive leadership on financial priorities for the Health System and to align its strategies with the University’s goals.

“Chris’ appointment reflects our rapid growth and the increasing complexity of managing an integrated academic health system, particularly as we pursue the strategic initiatives outlined in our Elevate 2035 vision,” said Tom Jackiewicz, President of the University of Chicago Health System and the University of Chicago Medical Center, which operate under the UChicago Medicine brand.

In recent years, UChicago Medicine has expanded its geographic footprint to enhance care to the South Side and bring academic medicine to more communities. That includes collaborating with 12 community providers on the South Side Healthy Community Organization collaborative, launching a joint venture in 2023 with AdventHealth to expand health services in the western suburbs, opening a 130,000-square-foot multispecialty center in Northwest Indiana in 2024, and building a 575,000-square-foot cancer care and research pavilion, which will be Illinois’ first freestanding facility of its kind when it opens in 2027.

“As UChicago Medicine expands its reach and impact, we remain dedicated to fostering collaboration across our Health System, the Biological Sciences Division and the broader University to meet the challenges and opportunities of an evolving healthcare and research environment,” said Ivan Samstein, Enterprise Chief Financial Officer of the University of Chicago and UChicago Medicine.

Prior to Keck Medicine, Allen served as CFO for Adventist Health Glendale and held senior finance roles at UC Irvine Health, including interim CFO for UC Irvine Medical Center. Earlier in his career, he worked at what was then known as the University of Chicago Hospitals — making this new role a full-circle moment in his professional journey.

Allen holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and finance from the University of Georgia and a certificate in costing and contribution reporting from the University of Wisconsin School of Business.