photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

LMH Health CFO Rob Chestnut speaks during the LMH Health Board of Trustees meeting on Wednesday, May 29, 2024.

At Wednesday’s LMH Health Board of Trustees meeting, a familiar face joined the group as the hospital’s new top financial leader.

The meeting was longtime Lawrence leader Rob Chestnut’s first as CFO since he joined the organization on May 20. As the Journal-World reported, Chestnut was hired in early April. He previously spent four years on the Lawrence City Commission and 12 on LMH Health’s Board of Trustees, including six years as chair of the finance committee.

The hospital’s last CFO, Mike Rogers, was terminated after hospital officials discovered he was a convicted felon who had legally changed his name in 2022 and failed to disclose those details during his hiring process.

Chestnut told board members he didn’t have much to report after just a week on the job, but he did say he’d had an opportunity to meet with his staff, who he applauded for continuing their work for the roughly six months while LMH was without a CFO.

“I’m really impressed and excited to get started,” Chestnut said. “I think there’s a lot of good work that’s being undertaken. A lot of it’s just that we’ve had a group of people in the finance area that have really worked without a leader for a pretty good period of time, so it’s really working with them and raising them up, because they’re really a great team.”