Akumin’s founder and CEO steps down days after radiology provider completes bankruptcy process
Akumin Inc.’s longtime President and CEO Riadh Zine is stepping down days after the radiology provider exited the bankruptcy process.
The Plantation, Florida-based organization announced Feb. 6 it had successfully deleveraged from $470 million in debt, moving under the ownership of lender Stonepeak. With the transaction complete, Zine—who founded Akumin and served as its chief since 2014—is vacating the top post.
Krishna Kumar, MBA—who joined Akumin in June as president and chief operating officer—now takes over as CEO. Prior to becoming COO, he spent more than 13 years with Philips, most recently as senior VP and business leader in precision diagnostics. Kumar also served as CEO of Philips’ healthcare businesses in India and for four years led its global pathology, oncology and neuro divisions.
Graham Brown, member of the Akumin board and managing director at Stonepeak, thanked Zine for his “dedication to the company” and its mission.
“With Krishna and a strong leadership team at the helm, we believe Akumin is well-positioned for its next phase of growth and innovation,” Brown said Feb. 8.
Zine also has served as executive chairman of Roadmap Capital and was previously managing director in global investment banking at RBC Capital Markets, according to Crunchbase. He oversaw Akumin’s ascension into the No. 2 (their designation) overall radiology services provider in the U.S.
However, the company was weighed down by the heavy debt load it took on after acquiring Alliance Healthcare Services for $820 million in 2021. This after acquiring a 34% stake in an artificial intelligence firm for $4.6 million and six freestanding imaging centers for $39 million. Akumin has struggled under the weight of this heavy debt load, with delays in equipment delivery, closure of a key imaging center, and other factors also impacting its bottom line.
The challenges culminated with Akumin filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October, seeking to address its strained capital structure.
“Building Akumin into a leading radiology and oncology service provider to U.S. hospitals has been one of the greatest privileges of my life,” Zine said in the announcement. “I am proud of what Akumin has become and the impact the company has had on health systems and patients nationwide.”
Along with the CEO change, Akumin also named Chandra Westergaard as its new general counsel, overseeing the company’s legal and compliance functions. She previously worked with radiology provider Envision Healthcare, which also recently exited bankruptcy. There, she was VP, associate general counsel and chief litigation officer.
In the announcement, Kumar thanked his predecessor while expressing excitement about the prospect of “building on the foundation Riadh has set” and working “alongside our talented and committed leadership team to grow Akumin.”
The company at one point operated a network of over 180 imaging locations, today providing outpatient radiology and oncology services to 1,000 hospitals across 47 states.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.