Mayo Clinic taps AI program head Dr. Matthew Callstrom as next CEO

By Daniel Okafor

Mayo Clinic named Dr. Matthew Callstrom, medical director of its Generative Artificial Intelligence program, as its next president and CEO on Friday, Nov. 13. He takes the post Jan. 1, 2027. That date matters: it gives the health system 14 months of transition, and it gives Callstrom that long to prove his AI agenda scales beyond the pilot stage.

Callstrom succeeds Dr. Gianrico Farrugia, who has led the institution since January 2019. Callstrom currently sits on the Board of Trustees that selected him — a fact the announcement did not dwell on.

Who is Dr. Matthew Callstrom?

Callstrom has served on Mayo Clinic staff since 2002 — nearly 25 years. His board biography credits him with work in "artificial intelligence and interventional tumor ablation and image-guided treatments of lung, liver, kidney, bone, and soft tissue neoplasms." He is a former chair of the Department of Radiology.

His academic path is unusually long even by medical-executive standards. A native of Albert Lea, Minnesota, he completed a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering and a chemistry doctorate at the University of Minnesota, followed by a postdoctoral position at Harvard University and several years as a chemistry professor at The Ohio State University. He then returned to Minnesota for medical school, residency and fellowship training — all at Mayo Clinic.

Richard Davis, chair of the Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees, praised the pick in a news release: "His leadership across patient care, research, strategy and innovation, combined with his ability to translate scientific discovery and emerging technology into meaningful advances for patients, prepares him exceptionally well to lead Mayo Clinic into its next chapter."

Note what the endorsement stresses: translation of technology into care. That is the same promise Mayo has made repeatedly under Farrugia. Results have been uneven.

What did Callstrom promise?

"I am deeply honored to have the opportunity to lead Mayo Clinic in this moment," Callstrom said in a statement. He pledged to accelerate "the translation of discovery and emerging technologies into better care" and to extend Mayo Clinic's impact "to more patients, wherever they are."

That last clause deserves scrutiny. Under Farrugia, several Mayo Clinic Health System clinics and hospitals in rural Minnesota closed or cut back services — the opposite of extending reach to patients wherever they are. The statement offered no specifics on how the new CEO would reverse that pattern.

At Mayo's 2025 AI Summit, Callstrom was more concrete about the technology thesis. "We're building AI into the fabric of Mayo," he said. "The future of health care — and it's not very far away — we actually use technology in a different way. We push it into the background; we enable and empower our physicians and caregivers so that they actually have the information that they need in a way that is most effective."

Ambient, background AI is the industry's current pitch. Callstrom now owns delivery of it.

What record follows him?

In February, Callstrom testified in a civil trial between Mayo Clinic and Dr. Michael Joyner, who alleged retaliation by the health system. Callstrom led the 2020 internal investigation into Joyner's behavior that resulted in a reprimand. A judge ultimately ruled in Mayo Clinic's favor.

What does Farrugia leave behind?

At the end of 2026, Farrugia will have held the top job for eight years. His tenure produced the Mayo Clinic Platform, created early in his tenure, which trains and validates healthcare AI tools on de-identified medical records from Mayo Clinic and other large global institutions. He also launched campus expansions, including the $5 million "Bold. Forward. Unbound. in Rochester" project — a modest sum against the scale of a global health system.

Farrugia's own record spans more than 40 years at Mayo Clinic. A gastroenterologist and Malta native, he earned his medical degree from the University of Malta Medical School, then immigrated to the U.S. as an internal medicine resident at Mayo. He spent four years as CEO of Mayo Clinic in Florida and previously directed Mayo Clinic's Center for Individualized Medicine. A PubMed search credits him with more than 300 coauthored research papers.

His 2024 salary was $4.88 million — a 13% raise over the previous year, roughly $650,000 more annually. Callstrom's compensation was not disclosed.

Why the bylaws narrow the field

Since its founding, Mayo Clinic has only been led by physicians. The bylaws require the top executive to be a medical doctor and a Voting Staff of Mayo Clinic member for at least five years. Before Dr. John Noseworthy, Farrugia's predecessor, Mayo had separate chief executives for the Rochester campus and the global enterprise.

Today the president and CEO heads both the organization and the Rochester campus. The Arizona and Florida CEOs oversee their respective campuses as vice presidents of the health system.

Callstrom inherits an AI program he built, a rural network under strain, and a board he sat on. The next 14 months will show whether the transition plan addresses any of that — or just the calendar.