Northwell board of trustees elects new chairman

The Northwell Health board of trustees has elected Michael A. Epstein as its new chairman, the health system said Friday.

He succeeds Mark L. Claster, who served for five years as chairman of the 31-member board.

Epstein of Sands Point is a senior partner at the law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP in Manhattan and has served as a Northwell trustee for 14 years. He was an associate trustee before that, beginning in December 2002.

In addition, he has been a board member of Northwell’s Feinstein Institute for Medical Research since 2002.

“Michael Epstein has been a good friend and strong supporter of the health system for 17 years,” said Michael J. Dowling, president and CEO of Northwell Health, in a statement. “He is a community-minded, mission-driven individual who has been very active with numerous other philanthropic endeavors. We all look forward to working with him.”

Epstein serves on boards of the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services and the Jonas Salk Foundation. He is a past member of the Dean’s Advisory Council for the College of Arts & Sciences at Lehigh University as well as advisory panels to Congress and the National Academy of Sciences’ National Academy of Medicine on intellectual property matters.

Epstein chairs his firm’s technology and intellectual property transactions practice group. He is a member of the American Bar Association’s Intellectual Property Law Section and Section on Business Law, as well as the New York State Bar Association’s Intellectual Property Law Section.

The health system also said it has created the Mark L. Claster Annual Lecture in Neurosurgical Leadership, which will be held annually at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan. 

New Hyde Park-based Northwell Health is the largest private employer in the state, with 69,000 employees.