Changing of the guard as chief financial officer announces retirement and successor

Chris Bergman, CPA, will retire as vice president and chief financial officer of Dayton Children's on February 28, 2026. Current executive director of finance, Greg Dillard, will assume that role on March 1, 2026.

Bergman joined Dayton Children's in 2016 at a pivotal time for several major projects. He helped fund more than $800 million in capital projects over the next decade as part of a campus-wide revitalization plan, including a new patient tower, specialty care center and the Mathile Center for Mental Health and Wellness, as well as a massive expansion at the urgent care in Springboro that added an emergency department, surgery center and clinic space.

key initiatives include:

• Creating a vision and implementing a strategic roadmap with the senior leader team that allowed Dayton Children's to triple in size in ten years, going from net patient revenue in 2016 of $247 million to more than $800 million this year.
• Modernizing the hospital's approach to finance and developing the support team with the right skills to fuel that growth, including revenue cycle, analytics and IT.
• Navigating the murky waters of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, keeping employees paid and receiving benefits despite financial uncertainty.
• Raising $240 million in Dayton Children's first ever public bond issue on Wall Street in 2021 to help fund the specialty care center and refinance debt from building the patient tower.
• Maintaining strong ratings with bond agencies, including AA- at Fitch Ratings and A1 from Moody's, which reflect strong liquidity, healthy revenue growth, leading market share and improved operating performance.

"I couldn't be prouder of the work that we have done together," says Bergman. "Through it all, from patient access figuring out a way to register kids quickly while standing out in the rain in our drive thru COVID testing line to watching our first bond offering bring in $1 billion worth of interest on Wall Street as we overlooked the 9/11 memorial, it's been almost surreal all the things we have done together."

"Chris has the gift of strategic mind with a long-term focus - which he needed because we had a lot of growth to fund!" says Debbie Feldman, president and CEO for Dayton Children's. "He was able to see where we needed to go and began laying the groundwork from day one. We will miss him, but he is leaving us in tremendously capable hands. "

successor named

Carrying the torch into the future, Greg Dillard has been at Chris' side for 13 years, first at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati where he led revenue cycle and then at Dayton Children's where he created the revenue cycle division from the ground up. He then expanded his scope to include accounting and created an analytics team to help the hospital make better decisions with data. He has more than 30 years of hospital finance experience, a bachelor's degree in accounting and an MBA.

"I am grateful that Chris has always been confident in my ability to take on a new area and grow through the experience. For the next ten years, my goal is to continue to be a key partner in solving problems with creative solutions while being as precise as possible to take advantage of opportunities and support clinical advancement."

the future is bright

"Neither Greg nor I 'own' finance - every individual at Dayton Children's takes responsibility for making sure we are excellent financial stewards. That's the way that we will continue to be here for the kids of our region for decades to come."