John Hunter, M.D.

Dr. John Hunter was born in Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1955. He attended Harvard College, where he graduated with a degree in English Literature, and then attended medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. He completed his surgical residency at the University of Utah, and fellowships in surgical endoscopy at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Western Ontario. Following his fellowships, Dr. Hunter returned to Utah in 1988 to start the surgical endoscopy and minimally invasive surgery program at the University. In 1992, he relocated to Emory University in Atlanta, where he served as Chief of GI surgery and Vice Chair of Surgery (clinical). Nine years later, in 2001, Dr. Hunter traveled to Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) to become the Mackenzie Chair of Surgery and Surgeon in Chief of the OHSU Health System. He was the Interim Dean of the OHSU School of Medicine in 2016-17, then became the Chief Clinical Officer and Chair of the OHSU Practice Plan. Since late 2017, Dr. Hunter has served as Executive Vice President of OHSU and Chief Executive Officer of OHSU Health, a four-hospital University-based health system in Portland, Oregon.

Dr. Hunter served on the American Board of Surgery (ABS) for 13 years, chairing the ABS in 2016-17. He has been President of several international surgical societies, including the SSAT and SAGES. Dr. Hunter is currently the President of the International Society of Surgery (ISS-SIC). He has received several honorary fellowships, including the European Association of Endoscopic Surgeons, the European Surgical Association, the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the Spanish Society of Surgeons. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the World Journal of Surgery from 2005 until the end of 2017.