About

‘Robert Waterman, senior vice president and general counsel of HCA since 1997, is a legal pioneer in the healthcare industry. Waterman oversees the 116-lawyer legal department at Nashville-based HCA Healthcare, the nation’s leading provider of healthcare services, which is made up of locally managed facilities that include 174 hospitals and 119 freestanding surgery centres located in 20 US states and in the UK. Waterman has led numerous negotiations of large corporate transactions that have shaped HCA, including the sale of 21 hospitals in 1998 for $1.2bn, and the acquisition of the Health Midwest system in Kansas City for $1.12bn in April 2003. In 2006, under his supervision, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Bain Capital, together with Merrill Lynch and the Frist family (which had founded the company) completed a $33.6bn acquisition of the hospital company, making it privately held again 17 years after it had first been taken private in a management buyout. The HCA buyout was the first of several to set new records for the largest, eclipsing the 1989 buyout of RJR Nabisco. In 2010, HCA announced that the corporation would once again go public, and in 2011 HCA sold 126.2 million shares for $30 each, raising about $3.79bn, making it, at that time, the largest private-equity backed IPO in US history. In addition to leading transformative deals, Waterman also introduced significant cost savings to HCA. Between 2006 and 2008 – leading up to the financial crisis – he cut the company’s outside legal fees by nearly 25%. Those savings came despite the high regulation and litigious climate surrounding the healthcare industry. HCA was also operating under a corporate integrity agreement with the government and went through what was the largest leveraged buyout in history. He achieved his budgetary goals through a combination of bonus structures for the in-house legal team, aggressive risk management and innovative fixed-fee arrangements. He also tied part of his lawyers’ bonuses to aggressive legal fee goals. During his tenure at HCA, Waterman has forged crucial, strong relationships with federal and state agencies. He has brought to HCA a laser-like focus on antitrust compliance and other regulatory compliance, helping to further HCA’s mission of being the leader in healthcare quality, patient focus and innovation. In fact, despite being a for-profit company, HCA remains dedicated to providing service to the uninsured and under-insured. Outside of work, Waterman is a member of the board of directors of University School of Nashville and also a member of Leadership Nashville. He is an active supporter of numerous Nashville charitable and non-profit organisations. For the foregoing reasons, I strongly support Waterman’s nomination for The Legal 500 GC Powerlist’.