John Couris

About John Couris

John D. Couris is the President and CEO of the Florida Health Sciences Center (FHSC), which comprises a portfolio of organizations, including Tampa General Hospital, one of the nation’s leading not-for-profit academic health systems, in partnership with the University of South Florida. Under Couris’ leadership, Tampa General’s footprint has grown from 17 facilities to now include six hospitals and more than 150 care locations statewide, employing approximately 14,000 team members and physicians. Couris also serves as Chair of the Board of Managers of the three hospitals that comprise TGH North (formerly Bravera Health).

Couris is recognized as a national expert in health care as well as organizational leadership, and workplace culture transformation and management, having successfully built companies nationwide by driving innovation, operational excellence, team member and stakeholder engagement and strategic collaboration.

Couris provides counsel and works closely with elected officials at all levels to help address issues impacting the health care industry in Tampa Bay, in Florida and on a national scale. He was recently appointed to a three-year term as a member of the Florida Health Care Innovation Council by Senator Kathleen Passidomo, President of the Florida State Senate.

Since taking the helm of the Florida Health Sciences Center in 2017, Couris has championed innovation. Under his leadership, Tampa General established an artificial intelligence and predictive analytics care coordination center designed to improve the safety, quality and affordability of health care. Couris helped launch a venture capital fund, TGH Ventures, which is dedicated to fostering a culture of innovation within the organization while supporting early-stage startups and direct investments. Today, Couris is executing Tampa General’s largest master facility plan in the health system’s history, a $550 million capital commitment to bring the most advanced technology and innovative care by creating a growing medical and research district in downtown Tampa. This district, inspired by renowned medical districts in the nation’s greatest cities, houses an ever-growing hub of world-class clinical care, academics, research and biotechnology anchored by Tampa General and the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.

Before joining the Florida Health Sciences Center, Couris served as President and CEO of Jupiter Medical Center in Jupiter, Florida, for eight years, where he forged partnerships with notable institutions such as The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, Florida, creating robust service lines and elevating the hospital to a regional medical center. Couris served in various executive leadership roles at BayCare Health System over a 10-year period before moving to Jupiter. He began his career at Massachusetts General Hospital, one of the nation’s premier academic medical centers.

Couris often speaks and presents at conferences across the country and internationally on topics relating to leadership, organizational transformation and growth, regulatory impact, consumerism, innovation and design, and empowering and leading high-performing teams across the health care space and various sectors. His most recent speaking and panelist engagements include Veterans Health - MIT Hacking Medicine 2024 at the USF Morsani College of Medicine, the ViVE 2024 conference, Harvard Medical School (2024), JP Morgan Healthcare conference (2024), Press Ganey 2024 Human Experience Summit, Vizient Inc. Annual Meeting, (2024), Milken Institute Future of Health Summit (2023), KLAS (2023) and the ACHE Annual Meeting (2023).

Couris serves as an expert source and contributor to multiple national publications, offering insights on topics ranging from his visionary approach to care coordination to the principles of authentic leadership. He was recently featured in “Three Healthcare CEOs Discuss Evolving Priorities and the Potential of AI and Big Data,” in Healthcare Business Today (April 2024). His peer-reviewed case study, “Tampa General Hospital: Harnessing Authentic Leadership to Transform an Academic Health System,” was recently published in Management in Healthcare (Volume 8 / Number 4 / Summer 2024).

Couris has earned national recognition for his leadership, including being named to the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s “Power 100” list of Tampa Bay’s most influential leaders for 2022, 2023 and 2024 and the Journal’s “25 People to Watch in 2022.” He was also included in Modern Healthcare’s 2022 class of Top Innovators, which recognizes leaders instituting innovation and leading transformative programs that improve care by achieving measurable results and contributing to their organization's clinical and financial goals. Couris was recently recognized as a top academic health systems CEOs in the U.S., according to the Becker’s Hospital Review 2024 list of “96 Academic Medical Center CEOs to Know,” and as a national health care leader with his inclusion on the Becker’s 2024 and 2023 “Great Leaders in Healthcare” list and the Becker’s 2023 “60 Health System CEO Influencers.”

Couris was recently named Tampa Bay Business Journal’s “10 Most Admired CEOs and in June 2024, Couris was recognized as Business Leader of the Year by the South Tampa Chamber of Commerce. In May 2024, Couris was awarded the President's Fellow Medallion from the University of South Florida, one of the highest honors the USF President can bestow. He was honored with the 2022 Tampa Bay Chamber H.L. Culbreath Jr. Profile in Leadership Award, and the 2022 Dean’s Award from the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. He has also been named to Florida Trend’s “Florida 500” list of most influential business leaders in the state for the last four years (2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024), INFLUENCE magazine’s "150 most influential people in Florida politics" for 2022 and 2023, City & State Florida’s “Health Care Power 100” (#4 in 2022), and Florida Politics’ “Influence 100” list of most influential people in Florida politics. Couris was inducted into the Tampa Bay Business Hall of Fame in 2023.

Couris is also committed to serving his community and professional organizations as a member of the Executive Advisory Council of the University of South Florida Muma College of Business, Chair of the Board of Tampa Bay Thrives and Chair of the Board of The Florida Aquarium and serves on the boards of Boston University, Florida Chamber of Commerce, the Florida Council of 100, the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida, the New Hampton School and the PGA TOUR Valspar Championship. In addition, he is a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization and many national health care associations. Recently, Couris completed his appointment as Vice Chair to the Florida Council of 100 Healthy Florida Committee and the Florida Hospital Association Political Advisory Committee.

Couris is a graduate of Boston University and holds a Master of Science in Management from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He holds a doctorate in business administration, management sciences from the University of South Florida Muma College of Business, where he is a Research Fellow. His dissertation examined the impact of the practice of authentic leadership on teams and organizations.

Couris resides in Tampa with his wife and is the proud father of two children.