Philip O. Ozuah, Chief Executive Officer of Montefiore Medicine, Montefiore Health System (MHS) and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, has donated $1 million to the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan (CoMUI). 

Ozuah made the huge monetary donation as he served as the keynote speaker and fundraiser-in-chief at the sod turning ceremony for CoMUI’s new students hostel on Monday. 

Olayinka Omigbodun, Provost of CoMUI, organised the sod-turning ceremony of the CoMUI new hostel in partnership with the Ibadan College of Medicine Alumni Association Worldwide (ICOMAA-WW). The ceremony also marked the beginning of the third year of Omigbodun’s administration. 

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John Odigie-Oyegun, the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council of the University of Ibadan, attended the ceremony. Other dignitaries in attendance included Emmanuel ‘Dipo Otolorin, the President of ICOMAA Worldwide, and Abib Olamitoye, a former President of ICOMAA Worldwide.

Olamitoye and Omigbodun were Ozuah’s classmates from CoMUI’s graduating class of 1985. Omigbodun had asked the alumni of CoMUI to help build a much-needed new hostel for students of CoMUI.

“This is a clarion call of all members of the College of Medicine University of Ibadan Alumni Association to join us, to partner with us, strengthen and scale up the College of Medicine University of Ibadan structures and systems,” Omigbodun said.

“He (Ozuah) expanded access to underserved communities, under his leadership, Montefiore health systems specialties have run top 100 percent of the nation’s hospitals.

“He receives more than $200 million in annual research awards from the NIH.”

Ozuah is among the highest paid hospital executives in New York City.

A 2020 New York Post article reported that he got $13 million in compensation.

Ozuah got a $9 million payout in early-retirement money in 2018 when he was president of the Montefiore Health System. He also received a $1.6 million additional bonus to his $2.8 million salary, according to Montefiore’s tax filing.

Ozuah’s payout “had been earned over 13 years of service as an executive at Montefiore,” the New York Post quoted a hospital spokesperson to have said.

Ozuah announced his donation of $1 million to the new Hostel Building Fund on behalf of his family after his keynote speech over Zoom. He said that CoMUI made him the man he is and it was only right for him to give back to the college.

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Recognised nationally for excellence in patient care and medical education, Ozuah’s keynote speech was themed “From Initiative to Finitiative – An Academic Journey”. He explained the five dimensions of being a ‘Predictor’, ‘Builder’, ‘Ambassador’, ‘Communicator’ and ‘Determinator’, as he narrated his journey from Ibadan to the Bronx.

Ozuah is a Distinguished Alumnus of the Graduating Class of 1985 on the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) programme at CoMUI. He received his Master’s degree from the University of Southern California, and a PhD. in Educational Leadership and Administration from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Ozuah became president and CEO of Montefiore Medicine in 2019 after 34 years of service as a medical practitioner. Montefiore Medicine is the umbrella organisation for the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System. Ozuah is responsible for overlooking Montefiore’s 13 member hospitals and 300 clinical locations with 7.5 million annual patient encounters. 

The Albert Einstein College of Medicine is one of the US’s premier centres for research, medical education and clinical investigation. 

These organisations employ 10,000 physicians and 53,000 employees and is home to 800 M.D. students, 190 Ph.D. students, 120 students in the combined M.D./Ph.D. program, and 250 postdoctoral research.