After 5 years at helm, Northern Light Health CEO says he'll retire at year's end

Photo /Courtesy of Northern Light Health Timothy Dentry, president and CEO of Northern Light Health since April 2020, plans to retire at the end of this year.

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By Renee Cordes and Peter Van Allen

After five years at the helm of Northern Light Health, Timothy Dentry has announced plans to retire as president and CEO of the Brewer-based health system at the end of this year.

Dentry took over as CEO less than three weeks into the pandemic — the announcement was made March 25, 2020, and he started the following week.

In the hospital system's news release this week, Dentry was credited with leading Northern Light "through the unprecedented challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting post-pandemic financial burden that has plagued health care institutions throughout the nation."

"Together, we confidently navigated one of the most challenging and unprecedented crises in our century — the COVID-19 pandemic," Dentry wrote in a message to employees. "Whether you served on the front lines or supported our caregivers, you all have made me a better leader by being witness to your unwavering greatness. You not only rose to this challenge with grace, compassionately caring for our patients who were suffering from this evolving virus, but you did so with grit — a true form of grit that is unique to Maine.”

Dentry also introduced numerous talent development initiatives, including a psychiatry residency program, nurse training expansion and physician assistant training for rural health in affiliation with the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta.

Investment initiatives on his watch include the $27 million modernization of a critical access hospital in Greenville and boosting behavioral health care capacity statewide, particularly for children and adolescents.

Maine’s second-largest health care system has also faced recent financial headwinds, with plans to close Northern Light Inland Hospital and associated service in Waterville amid monthly operating losses of $1 million to $1.5 million.

Clinical services at Inland are planned to continue through May 27, according to a spokeswoman for the system.

Northern Light has enlisted a national recruiting process to find its next leader. The Brewer-based health system is staffed by 10,000 employees.

Looking back

Dentry, the son and grandson of country doctors, spent much of his career overseas focusing on improving health care in places including Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates.

An unexpected opportunity, relayed in an episode of the Mainebiz podcast recorded in 2022 and archived here, led the Maryland native back to this country in late 2016 to join Northern Light Health as chief operating officer.

“With all that I have seen in my last eight-plus years, I know there are many great things yet to come for Northern Light Health and our Maine communities,” said Dentry.

“As my wife and I plan our retirement here in Maine, I look forward with confidence, as a consumer and neighbor, to an ever stronger and compassionate health care organization, reflective of the communities we serve,” he added.