Jill C. Klar named UNM Medical Group CEO, Chief Operating Officer

Jill C. Klar has been named CEO and Chief Operating Officer of UNM Medical Group, Inc., the physician faculty practice group for the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and UNM Health System.

Klar had served as interim CEO since last year. In her new role, Klar plays a major role in the UNM Health System, the clinical arm of the UNM Health Sciences Center.

"Jill Klar brings many years of solid experience to the job," said Michael E. Richards, MD, MPA, vice chancellor for Clinical Affairs. "She is a strategic, goal-oriented team player with proven success in managing a large physician provider group."

Klar, a health care executive with more than 20 years of leadership experience and recent graduate of Leadership New Mexico, joined the medical group in January 2016 as chief operating officer, assuming responsibility for revenue cycle operations, information technology, human resources, communications, marketing, facilities and telehealth services.

She was appointed interim chief executive officer in June 2016, taking on full fiscal and operational responsibility of the medical group, the not-for-profit faculty practice plan for the UNM School of Medicine, with more than 1,000 clinical practitioners in more than 150 specialties.

Klar joined UNM from ABQ Health Partners, where she had served as COO since 2011. There, she helped transform the medical group, originally part of an integrated health care system, into a profitable, independent, physician-owned and led multi-specialty practice.

Klar supported the merger between ABQ Health Partners and DaVita Healthcare Partners, which led reengineering efforts to foster a new coordinated and preventive care model called Total Care.

Klar has also served as interim COO for the Lovelace Health Plan and held various positions within the Lovelace Health System, Molina Healthcare of New Mexico and Presbyterian Healthcare Services in Albuquerque.

Klar earned her bachelor's degree from the University of New Mexico, has served on the UNM Lobo Club Board and is an American Heart Association Circle of Red founder. She is also a 2014 ABQ Business First Woman of Influence honoree and currently serves as a Bizwomen mentor.