Akron Children's CEO salary and executive pay
Akron Children's paid its CEO, Christopher A Gessner, $1,791,308 for the fiscal year ending December 2024. That is up $59,834 (3.5%) from the fiscal year ending December 2023. Total revenue on that return was $1,540,288,244, up 11.4% from $1,383,190,674 for the fiscal year ending December 2023. Akron Children's ranks 189th of 229 hospital systems on this site by CEO pay. Akron Children's has 3 Form 990 returns on record, for fiscal years ending 2022 to 2024.
Last updated from IRS e-file data. EIN 34-0714357, Akron, OH.
CEO, fiscal year ending December 2024
$1,791,308
- Total revenue
- $1,540,288,244
- CEO pay vs. peers
- Higher than 39%
Source: Form 990, fiscal year ending December 2024, IRS object ID 202523179349300537.View the filing
Peers: the 183 other hospital systems on this site. Ranked 112th of 184 by top pay as a share of revenue. Pay is 0.12% of revenue, our calculation from the same return. Revenue is Part I, line 12; peers are compared on their latest full-year returns.
Highest-paid people on the latest return
On the latest return, 16 people were paid more than $500,000, 9 of them more than $1 million.
| Name and title | Total |
|---|---|
| Christopher A Gessner CEO BOD/OFFICER-PRESIDENT AND CEO | $1,791,308 |
| Shawn LydenCHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER - PART YEAR | $1,693,201 |
| Anjay KhandelwalDIR BURN SURGERY | $1,194,136 |
| Todd Ritzman MDSURGEON IN CHIEF | $1,165,454 |
| Katherine Wolfe MDCHIEF MATERIAL FETAIL MED SVS | $1,126,765 |
Also paid on the latest return: Tsulee Chen MD (DIRECTOR NEUROSURGERY), $1,124,787; Lisa Aurilio (CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER), $1,093,025; Richard Lou (BURN SURGEON), $1,088,036; Robert Stewart MD (DIRECTOR CARDIOTHORACIC SURGERY), $1,085,490; Mark Wulkan MD (DEPARTMENT CHAIR SURGERY-PART YEAR), $990,535; Gordon Edwards (BOD/OFFICER-CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER AND TREASURER), $963,211; Tarun Bhalla MD (CHIEF CLINICAL OFFICER), $847,812; Michael Bigham MD (CHIEF QUALITY OFFICER), $835,473; Robert McGregor MD (CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER - PART YEAR), $798,874; Rhonda Larimore (CHIEF HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICER), $740,806; Kerwyn Jones (PEDIATRIC ORTHOPEDIC SURGEON), $726,409; Kimberly Moses (CHIEF LEGAL OFFICER), $496,826; Shefali Mahesh MD (PRESIDENT OF MEDICAL STAFF/CHAIR PEDIATRICS), $411,826.
Also listed in Part VII of the latest return, with no pay reported: Virginia Addicott (CHAIR OF BOARD OF DIRECTORS), Jodi Vrabec (DIRECTOR), Timothy Burke (DIRECTOR/CHAIR FINANCE COMMITTEE), Paul Catania (DIRECTOR), Patrick Covey (DIRECTOR), Joseph Gingo (DIRECTOR), Mark Oelschlager (DIRECTOR), Montrella Jackson (DIRECTOR), Lisa Jeffries (DIRECTOR), William Kelleher (DIRECTOR), Robert Davis (DIRECTOR), Kara Lewis (DIRECTOR), Rev Lewis Macklin (DIRECTOR), John Mayer (DIRECTOR), Richard Rogers (DIRECTOR), Denise Schaffner (DIRECTOR), Susan McMains (DIRECTOR), Barbara Varley (DIRECTOR), Tucker Marshall (DIRECTOR), Robert Wells (DIRECTOR), Suzanne Locke (SECRETARY - PART YEAR), Lisa Bandwen (DIRECTOR - PART YEAR), Virginia Drosos (DIRECTOR - PART YEAR), Joan Lauck (DIRECTOR - PART YEAR), Glen Stephens (DIRECTOR - PART YEAR), and 1 more.
CEO pay by year
Each row is the CEO on that year's return.
| Fiscal year ending | Name and title | Total | Revenue | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 2024 | Christopher A Gessner CEO BOD/OFFICER-PRESIDENT AND CEO | $1,791,308 | $1,540,288,244 | Filing |
| Dec 2023 | Christopher A Gessner CEO BOD/OFFICER-PRESIDENT AND CEO | $1,731,474 | $1,383,190,674 | Filing |
| Dec 2022 | Christopher Gessner CEO PRESIDENT & CEO | $1,263,902 | $1,208,071,774 | Filing |
How this pay was reported
The parts of each total, as reported on the return for the fiscal year ending December 2024.
Source: Form 990, fiscal year ending December 2024, IRS object ID 202523179349300537.View the filing
| Part VII | Schedule J | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name and title | From org | Other | Base | Bonus | Other | Deferred | Nontaxable | Total |
| Christopher A GessnerBOD/OFFICER-PRESIDENT AND CEO | $1,475,726 | $315,582 | $1,000,002 | $472,501 | $3,223 | $279,014 | $36,568 | $1,791,308 |
| Shawn LydenCHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER - PART YEAR | $1,571,036 | $122,165 | $454,034 | $144,491 | $972,511 | $102,877 | $19,288 | $1,693,201 |
| Anjay KhandelwalDIR BURN SURGERY | $1,169,159 | $24,977 | $507,207 | $558,966 | $102,986 | $20,700 | $4,277 | $1,194,136 |
| Todd Ritzman MDSURGEON IN CHIEF | $1,121,356 | $44,098 | $682,109 | $294,926 | $144,321 | $24,150 | $19,948 | $1,165,454 |
| Katherine Wolfe MDCHIEF MATERIAL FETAIL MED SVS | $1,070,455 | $56,310 | $797,740 | $180,000 | $92,715 | $20,700 | $35,610 | $1,126,765 |
These figures come from Akron Children's' Form 990 returns, as the IRS publishes them. The methodology page explains how they're chosen. To report an error, email corrections@ceopaycheck.com.
How Akron Children's compares
Ranked 189th of 229 hospital systems by CEO pay.
- Previous in this ranking: 188th, Southcoast Health, $1,798,618
- Next in this ranking: 190th, Community Health System (Fresno), $1,767,621
Closest in revenue among the hospital systems on this site:
Reading Hospital$1,229,468 (CEO), fiscal year ending Jun 2025
Christ Hospital$1,872,912 (CEO), fiscal year ending Jun 2025
Tufts Medical Center$1,816,696 (CEO), fiscal year ending Sep 2025
BayCare Health System$3,027,169 (CEO), fiscal year ending Dec 2024
Lakeland Regional Health$1,740,097 (CEO), fiscal year ending Sep 2025
Common questions
Christopher A Gessner (BOD/OFFICER-PRESIDENT AND CEO) was paid $1,791,308 for the fiscal year ending December 2024: $1,475,726 from Akron Children's and $315,582 in other compensation (Part VII columns D and F).
The CEO, Christopher A Gessner, was the highest-paid person on the latest return, at $1,791,308.
Akron Children's paid its CEO, Christopher A Gessner, $1,791,308 for the fiscal year ending December 2024. That is up $59,834 (3.5%) from the fiscal year ending December 2023. The earliest return on record is for the fiscal year ending December 2022, when the CEO was Christopher Gessner, paid $1,263,902. By fiscal year end: December 2022, $1,263,902 (Christopher Gessner); December 2023, $1,731,474; December 2024, $1,791,308.
Akron Children's' return for the fiscal year ending December 2024 reports total expenses of $1,353,888,762 and total revenue of $1,540,288,244 (Part I, lines 18 and 12), so revenue exceeded expenses by $186,399,482. Expenses were $1,251,288,721 for the fiscal year ending December 2023, so they rose 8.2%. The CEO's pay of $1,791,308 equals 0.13% of expenses, our calculation.
From the 3 Form 990 returns Akron Children's filed with the IRS for fiscal years ending 2022 to 2024. The latest full-year return was filed on November 13, 2025. Schedule J of the fiscal year ending December 2024 return breaks down pay for all 5 people in the pay breakdown above.