Manatee Memorial Hospital names new CEO

Manatee Memorial Hospital has a new CEO. Darin Roark will lead the Bradenton-based institution, which was founded in 1953 and serves residents of Manatee, Hillsborough and surrounding counties. Roark's appointment took effect Nov. 2.

“With more than 70 years of dedicated service to our community, Manatee Memorial Hospital has a strong foundation on which to build,” Hugh Miller, chairman of the hospital’s Board of Governors, says in a statement. “We look forward to this next chapter of leadership, growth and continued excellence.”

Roark comes to Manatee Memorial from New England, where he was most recently the president and CEO of Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in New Hampshire, part of Mass General Brigham. There, he helped advance key performance measures, including operating performance, length of stay, emergency department throughput, operating room utilization and clinical outcomes, according to a statement.

Before joining Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, Roark spent more than a decade in leadership roles with Baptist Health in Jacksonville. Among them, he was president of Baptist Medical Center Clay. His experience includes physician recruitment, service-line expansion, emergency services, ambulatory care development and the growth of a new hospital, according to a statement. Throughout his career, Roark has been focused on employee engagement, patient experience, quality and clinical outcomes, the statement says.

“My family and I are excited to relocate to Manatee County and look forward to joining the community at Manatee Memorial Hospital,” Roark says in the statement. 

Roark succeeds Andy Guz, who started a position in July at Columbus Regional Health in Indiana as its president and CEO.

Manatee Memorial includes a 295-bed hospital, three freestanding emergency rooms, four imaging and diagnostic centers, two rehabilitation and sports medicine centers and affiliated physician practices. It has more than 1,300 employees. The hospital is owned by Universal Health Services, a for-profit health care network based outside Philadelphia. Universal Health Services posted $17.37 billion in revenue in 2025. It operates 29 inpatient acute care hospitals, 346 inpatient behavioral health facilities and 168 outpatient facilities.