John Wallis Rowe is an American businessman and academic physician, who served as Chairman and CEO of Aetna Inc., a large health insurance company based in Connecticut, titles he retired from in February 2006.
[1] During his Aetna tenure, Businessweek named Rowe as a “Manager of the Year.”[2] After leaving the company, he became an active philanthropist, supporting aging research and other causes.
In 2010, he donated $2 million to the university’s foundation for a program that encourages students from minority groups and low-income families to enter health professions.
[7] Prior to Columbia, John Rowe was the CEO and executive chairman of the health insurance company Aetna from 2000 to 2006.
In 1998, Rowe led the (now dissolved) Mount Sinai NYU Health merger that brought together five hospitals, becoming the system's president and chief executive.
[18] Rowe lives in New York City and Cape Cod, Massachusetts with his wife, who is a retired professor at Fordham University.