Maui Health System Names Jim Diegel as Chief Strategy Officer

Maui Health System announced the selection of James “Jim” Diegel as Chief Strategy Officer for its three hospitals and two clinics in Maui County. Diegel has more than 30 years of experience building and leading executive teams, operations, and strategy, in major hospitals and healthcare systems around the nation. He started in the new position on Maui on June 17, 2019.

Jim Diegel.

“I feel very honored to join the Maui Health System leadership team and excited to be able to contribute to its vital role of improving the health and well-being of the people of Maui and Lānaʻi,” said Diegel.

Diegel most recently served as CEO for Howard University Hospital, a 285-bed academic training, urban, essential hospital located on the campus of the historic Howard University in Washington, DC.

Prior to that he was President and CEO at St. Charles Health System, a multi-site, not-for-profit health enterprise serving a 32,000-square mile area in central and eastern Oregon. At SCHS he managed a 261-bed regional medical center, an acute-care hospital, and two critical access hospitals, as well as the system’s 195-provider/19-specialty physician group, certified sleep disorder center, crisis and residential behavioral health center, and home health and hospice centers.

Diegel is also a healthcare industry consultant providing strategic advisory and coaching services to organizations in the areas of leadership, governance, strategy, and organizational development. In addition, he has served on a multitude of national, state, and community boards, including the American Hospital Association, and has been faculty for the Institute of Healthcare Improvement and The Governance Institute.

“Jim’s specific expertise in cultural and system transformation, community engagement, and creating strategic partnerships, among many other strengths and achievements, is very impressive,” said Michael Rembis, Maui Health System CEO and who has known Jim for 30 years. “We’re looking forward to his valuable contributions to our organization and our mission to provide the absolute best health care to our community.”

Diegel is a former Peace Corps Volunteer who lived with an indigenous mountain people in the Philippines for two-and-a-half years, learning three Filipino dialects along the way. His wife of 35 years, Vicky is from Naga City, Philippines. Jim and Vicky have two married adult sons: Justin, and his wife Emma, are family medicine physicians with Kaiser in Portland, OR; Justin also received his master’s degree from the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa. Julien, and his wife Jessi, also reside in Portland where Julien works in the bio-pharmaceutical industry and Jessi in early childhood special education. In the early 1990s, Jim worked for the Ministry of Health Services in the Republic of the Marshall Islands as the administrator of Ebeye Hospital in the Kwajalein Atoll.

Diegel earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Michigan State University, and Masters in Health Service Administration from St. Mary’s College of California.