Steve Edwards retires after 30 years with CoxHealth

CoxHealth President and CEO Steve Edwards is set to retire tomorrow after 30 years with Springfield's largest employer.

Edwards, 56, reflected on his career, the last 10 of which have been in his current role, in an interview this morning with Springfield Business Journal.

"The things that are most meaningful to me in hindsight seemed the most insignificant at the time," he said. "There are things you do that didn't seem to be a priority in a day filled with tasks and responsibilities. It was these moments you had with someone who might need a little help with something."

To Edwards, the COVID-19 pandemic represented the most trying time in his career.

Edwards grew up in the health care system, as his father, Charlie Edwards, was a previous CEO of CoxHealth. So, he has some 70 years of perspective to draw from.

"It challenged us in every angle, from staffing and morale to finances to the well-being of our community to the political discord," Steve Edwards said of the pandemic. "Running up against government and state and federal bureaucracies added to that frustration."

Edwards has been an active voice amid the pandemic, and he's garnered recognition from the Missouri Hospital Association and was named 2020 Humanitarian by Community Foundation of the Ozarks. During the pandemic, CoxHealth added a multimillion-dollar COVID-19 ward at CoxHealth with support from Prime Inc. and The Sunderland Foundation, among others, according to past reporting.

In 2021, Edwards also announced he was diagnosed with cancer. He's now happy to report that he recently received follow-up test results after undergoing surgery. It "indicated no cancer," he said.

In retirement, Edwards said he plans to spend more time with family. He said he’ll eventually want to teach and do some consulting while remaining active civically on boards.

"The best way to describe it is if you ask a fifth-grade boy what his plans are for the summer vacation. Mine would sound a lot like that," he said, describing plans to fish and attend baseball games on the East Coast.

Edwards intends to stay low key in retirement for at least six months before getting involved in the workforce and community again, he added.

Edwards' successor, Max Buetow, has been preparing for the role since being selected in March.

Buetow, who is currently executive vice president and chief operating officer for the health care system, started at CoxHealth in 2012 when he was hired as director of clinics for its Springfield Neurological and Spine Institute. He completed his MBA at Drury University in 2009 and accepted a job the next year in the manufacturing industry with Sara Lee Bakery Group, according to past reporting.

“From a personal perspective, 10 years from hot dog buns to CEO of a health system is a rapid pace," Buetow said of his career trajectory in an April SBJ article.

As president and CEO, he'll lead a health care system with $5.7 billion in 2021 revenue and 12,178 employees.