BJC Health System CEO Rich Liekweg Announces Retirement, Successor

Posted June 25, 2025

BJC Health System today announced that CEO Rich Liekweg will retire effective October 1, and the health system’s current president, Nick Barto, will succeed him.

With a career of over 40 years, Liekweg spent 16 years serving at BJC Health. He began in 2009 as president of Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital and served as group president of BJC HealthCare. He went on to serve as executive vice president and then president of BJC HealthCare in 2015. In 2018, he became CEO of BJC Health System.

During his tenure as CEO, Liekweg oversaw major expansion initiatives for the hospital, including the integration of Saint Luke’s Health System of Kansas City, forming a healthcare system valued at over $10 billion. He also helped carry out the agreement between CoxHealth in Springfield and St. Louis Children’s Hospital to expand pediatric care throughout Southwest Missouri.

Following a comprehensive succession planning process, the BJC Health System Board of Directors appointed Nick Barto, the current BJC Health System president, to succeed Liekweg as president and CEO effective October 1, according to a release.

“It has been an honor to serve and lead our team members these past 16 years as they deliver exceptional care to our patients and communities,” Liekweg said in the release. “Together, we successfully navigated through unprecedented times in the industry, never losing sight of our singular purpose to improve the health and well-being of the communities we serve.”

Barto joined BJC in 2018 as chief financial officer. He was named president of BJC Health System in 2023, then named president of the East Region in 2024. He previously held senior leadership positions at Catholic Health Initiatives, Novant Health and at several financial services organizations in the health care industry, according to the release.

BJC Health System president, Nick Barto, will take the role of CEO effective October 1. Photo credit: BJC Health System.

“I am honored to be selected to succeed Rich Liekweg as BJC Health System’s President and CEO,” Barto said. “I look forward to working with our 47,000 team members to build on Rich’s vision that grew BJC into a super-regional health care leader, to continue to provide extraordinary care to the communities we serve, and to position BJC as a mission-oriented academic health care leader for all future generations.”

BJC employs 47,000 healthcare workers who provide care to over a million patients each year across 24 hospitals and more than 250 clinics throughout Missouri, southern Illinois and eastern Kansas.