David Wester brings more than 25 years of healthcare experience to his role as President of VITAS Innovative Hospice Care®, one of the nation’s oldest and largest providers of end-of-life care.

Under David’s leadership, VITAS has built a strategic planning capability focusing on new business opportunities, significantly upgraded its human resources department, rolled out a number of vital information technology upgrades and enhancements, established a national accounts function and maintained the company’s long tradition of cost-effective back-office operations. David successfully shepherded privately held VITAS through its February 2004 acquisition by minority shareholder Chemed Corporation.

As a member of senior management, David has helped guide VITAS through a period of record growth and expansion. He joined VITAS in 1997 as vice president and chief financial officer (CFO) and was promoted to executive vice president and CFO in 2002. He served on the VITAS board of directors from 2002-2004 and was named to his current position in late 2004.

David came to VITAS from Foundation Health, a Florida Health Plan, Inc., where he served as executive vice president with oversight responsibility for statewide operations and revenues of approximately $300 million. Foundation Health is a diversified provider of managed health care benefits and related services for individuals, employers and government agencies. He previously served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Care Florida, Inc. (formerly Heritage Health Plan), where he had operational and financial responsibility for a $190 million HMO.

Before his work with two of Florida’s largest managed care organizations, David served in various senior capacities for companies affiliated with Foster Management, a private investment firm, where he participated in the development of several healthcare companies involved in physical therapy, orthopedics and prosthetics, and managed care.

David began his career as a senior accountant with Price Waterhouse offices in New York City and Milwaukee, where he mainly worked with public corporations. He is a certified public accountant and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He also serves on the board of Medical Staffing Network, a publicly held company providing staffing services to the healthcare industry.

David received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.