CLEVELAND – Margaret Hewitt has been appointed Vice President of Construction at University Hospitals. In this new position, Ms. Hewitt, an architect with more than 15 years of experience in project analysis and management, will be responsible for all construction management activities and projects within the University Hospitals (UH) system and will take the lead role in the construction phase of all Vision 2010 master facilities projects
Ms. Hewitt brings to UH a wealth of experience in managing large, complex multi-site construction projects. She has managed over 1,400 new construction/renovation projects at nearly 600 facilities and prepared/managed five-year budgets exceeding $3.5 billion. At UH, she will develop a centralized system level construction management organization which will facilitate standards for construction, policies and procedures for construction management and enable the UH branding program through the various physical plants and new facilities UH is currently developing. Her span of control and responsibilities will include all hospitals, ambulatory centers and non-clinical facilities owned or leased by UH.
“As University Hospitals gears up for multiple new construction projects throughout Northeast Ohio, we are thrilled to have someone with the extensive experience of Margaret Hewitt at the helm of these significant projects,” says Steven Standley, UH Senior Vice President of System Services. “Our health system is seeing terrific growth through our Vision 2010 strategic plan and we have begun construction and are looking forward to groundbreakings of several new hospitals and ambulatory centers which will be an important part of the services provided by University Hospitals.”
Vision 2010 projects including the construction of a new, free-standing 150-bed cancer hospital on the campus of University Hospitals Case Medical Center and the University Hospitals Ahuja Medical Center, a 600-bed hospital to be built in phases at Chagrin Highlands in Beachwood. An outpatient ambulatory medical Center, the UH Twinsburg Health Center, is being constructed in Twinsburg and will be finished in October 2007. Other Vision 2010 construction plans include renovation and expansion of the Emergency Department at UH Case Medical Center and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital.
Ms. Hewitt comes to UH from Cedarwood Development in Akron where she was Director of Development and managed the development of retail locations for CVS in Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas. Previously, as Project Implementation Manager at Progressive Insurance she was involved with the management of a nation-wide construction program and helped to manage the process of identifying, constructing and opening new offices new offices across the country.
Ms. Hewitt also has worked for URS, an international engineering and architectural corporation, on a consulting engagement with the Akron Public Schools which facilitated rebuilding or renovating the district’s nearly 60 buildings. In that process, she led a team of six firms to conduct physical condition inventories of every building to determine disposition; demolish and build new, renovate or close permanently.
Ms. Hewitt also gained extensive construction oversight experience with the Chicago Public Schools where she established a document that became the reference and budget manual for a nearly $4 billion capital improvement program. She directed capital improvements consisting of nearly 1,500 new construction/renovation projects at 567 schools. Ms. Hewitt also was Assistant Development Manager with the Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority in Chicago, providing management direction for multiple projects associated with a $987 million, 2,000,000-square-foot addition to McCormick Convention Center.
Ms. Hewitt received a B.S. in architectural studies from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. She resides in Stow, Ohio.