SAN ANTONIO (July 7, 2025) — Championing leadership in and advancement of the biomedical industry throughout the region, BioMedSA has selected George B. Hernández, Jr., JD, the visionary former President and CEO of University Health as its 2025 Innovation in Healthcare and Bioscience Lifetime Achievement Awardee. BioMedSA recognizes his decades-long commitment to public health, community service, and health care innovation in South Texas and welcomes the community to celebrate Hernández at its annual awards dinner Sept. 9, 2025 at the Tobin Center.
BioMedSA is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and remains steadfast in its commitment to advancing its mission to “accelerate the growth of the healthcare and bioscience sector, create regional economic benefit, and contribute to the health of San Antonio and beyond.” Understanding that people are the engine of our mission, driving both industry and job growth, BioMedSA is excited to honor Hernández alongside Dr. Larry Schlesinger, President/CEO of Texas Biomedical Research Institute, who was named in June as the 2025 Innovation in Bioscience honoree.
Dr. Schlesinger was named this year’s Innovation honoree for his transformational leadership that enabled substantial growth at Texas Biomed, a private, 501C3 nonprofit pioneering and sharing scientific research to protect against the threat of infectious diseases. Texas Biomed has nearly doubled the number of employees since 2017 and changed its business model that now boasts a 50/50 split between federally funded basic research and translational contract-type research with the goal of moving diagnostics, therapies and vaccines research toward FDA approval faster.
Research and healthcare are intrinsically linked, and Hernández has dedicated much of his career to ensuring quality healthcare for the San Antonio and South Texas community. He spent 34 years with University Health and led University Health as President/CEO from 2005 until his retirement in 2024. He is credited with transforming the Bexar County-owned health system into one of the nation’s leading public health systems. Under his leadership, University Health expanded access to care for underserved populations, championed critical infrastructure investments—including the development of the Robert B. Green Pavilion, a one million square foot Sky Tower hospital addition in 2014 to the original hospital built in 1968, and the $573.7 million Women’s & Children’s Hospital that opened in 2023.
“When I became CEO, our facilities did not match our level of service nor meet the high-quality community standards San Antonio deserved,” Hernández said. “We were doing great work in trauma and transplants – helping people get access to healthcare and saving lives. But, some of these facilities were built in the 1960s and 80s and sent a negative subliminal message about the quality of care. We needed to reinvest in these community assets, so we initially infused the project with $120M in 2008 from University Health reserves and continued to reinvest from the University Health’s positive bottom line with the Women and Children’s Hospital.”
Speaking to what he was most proud of during his tenure at University Health, Hernández mentioned the bricks and mortar changes made but reinforced that these investments were bigger than the buildings; they reflected what was in the hearts and minds of the staff who work at University Health – San Antonio deserves high quality healthcare. Hernández noted that in 2024, University Hospital’s Leapfrog Safety Grade was “A” and the Lown Institute Hospitals Index, which ranks social responsibility among hospitals, also awarded University Hospital an “A” grade and recognized it as one of America’s most socially responsible hospitals, particularly in patient outcomes, value of care and community benefit.
“That happens because people are treated with kindness and compassion; the care they get; how staff views their job, and that is what I am most proud of,” Hernández said. “We invested in building great staff and the staff invested in the community.”
Reflecting Hernández’s inability to settle for good to achieve great includes his leadership in the development of the non-profit HMO, Community First Health Plans, Inc., University Physician Associates, a Non-Profit Health Organization, and numerous investments in technology. In particular, the Epic Electronic Health Record significantly improved the patient experience and overall health system efficiency. That $170 million investment in Epic infrastructure was the backbone of University Health’s ability to successfully administer over 550,000 doses of COVID vaccine at Wonderland of the Americas and other Bexar County locations in 2021.
University Health is recognized as a three-time Magnet health care organization by the American Nurses Credentialing Center and a Digital Health Most Wired Level 10 leader for acute and ambulatory care from the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME).
At the heart of his achievements is a focus on the community and building a better system to support what San Antonio and South Texas needs. Hernández recalled the vision behind developing University Medicine Associates, which today staffs of over 700 providers serving University Health patients. The concept came from his attendance at a health care seminar that discussed the importance of an integrated physician group practice in improving efficiency, the patient experience and patient safety within a health care system.
“We relied heavily on the UT Health San Antonio for physician’s services, but there were missing elements, including what our patients needed most – primary care,” Hernández recalled. “John Guest, our CEO approved the project in 1999, and what started with 39 primary care doctors now has more than 250 doctors, 200 nurse practitioners and physician assistants and another 250 leased UT Health physicians that work throughout University Hospital.”
A Boy Scout growing up, Hernández can still rattle off the 12 core values of the Boy Scout Law, which have become his own personal mantra, describing leadership as a willingness to understand that a commitment to the mission of an organization involves risks, so there must also be a strong commitment to values and stewardship.
Raised in San Antonio from the age of two, Hernández is a true local leader, having earned a bachelor’s degree from St. Mary’s University and law degree from George Washington University School of Law inWashington, D.C. He began his career as an attorney and served in several public service roles before joining University Health as their inaugural Vice President for Legal Services in 1990. His tenure as CEO was marked by a relentless focus on quality, community health outcomes, and long-term sustainability. He also led initiatives to enhance behavioral health services and spearheaded workforce development programs to address critical staffing shortages in health care.
Relaying one of his core philosophies that a person’s future is created, Hernández shared the story of receiving a bumper sticker from a printing company when he first became CEO at University Health that read, “The best way to predict the future is to help create it.” He placed the sticker under his desk glass top until his retirement. It reminded him that you don’t wait for opportunities to come to you, you go toward opportunity and create the future you want. He shared he later Googled the quote and discovered Abraham Lincoln was its author.
In his nomination letter, Henry Cisneros, Chairman of CityView and former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, said of Dr. Hernández, “I believe he is one of the most effective public leaders in our region. He has championed measures that have led to University Health becoming one of the most respected health systems in the nation.”
The Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented at BioMedSA’s annual award event on Sept. 9 at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, where colleagues, civic leaders, and health care professionals will gather to celebrate his contributions. To learn more about previous award winners, sponsorship opportunities or to register for the 2025 Award for Innovation in Healthcare and Bioscience, visit biomedsa.org/innovation-award.
