Dr. Steele became President and Chief Executive Officer of the Geisinger Health System on March 1, 2001. In this capacity, he serves as a member of the Geisinger Health System Foundation Board of Directors, ex-officio of all Standing Committees of the Board and Chairman of the subsidiary boards.

Dr. Steele joined Geisinger from the University of Chicago where he served as the Richard T. Crane Professor in the Department of Surgery, Vice President for Medical Affairs and Dean of the Division of Biological Sciences and the Pritzker School of Medicine.

Prior to that, he was the William V. McDermott Professor of Surgery at Harvard University Medical School, Chairman of the Department of Surgery of New England Deaconess Hospital, and President and Chief Executive Officer of Deaconess Professional Practice Group.

Dr. Steele is widely recognized for his investigations into the treatment of primary and metastatic liver cancer and colorectal cancer surgery. He is a past Chairman of the American Board of Surgery and serves on the editorial boards of numerous prominent medical journals.

His laboratory investigations have focused on the cell biology of gastrointestinal cancer and pre-cancer. A prolific writer, he is the author or co-author of more than 450 scientific and professional articles.

Dr. Steele is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the New England Surgical Society, a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the American Surgical Association, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Society of Surgical Oncologists, The Commonwealth Fund, Healthcare Executive Network, the U.S. Department of Health's National Advisory Committee on Rural Health, and the Center of Corporate Innovation (CCI). He is a past chair and a current examiner for the American Board of Surgery and serves on several scientific advisory boards including Simon Healthcare (University of Rochester) and the Institute of Medicine's study of early detection of breast cancer.

He serves on the American Hospital Association Health Care Systems Governing Council and is presently serving as Chair '05. He also serves on the AHA Strategic Policy Planning and Hospital/Medical Staff Committees. In addition to serving on the boards of Bucknell University and Priority Healthcare Corporation, he most recently became March of Dimes - Honorary Chair of the Pennsylvania Prematurity Campaign.

Dr. Steele was born in Baltimore, Maryland, received his BA degree in history from Harvard College in 1966 and his MD degree from New York University School of Medicine (New York City) in 1970. He completed his internship and residency in surgery at the University of Colorado, where he was also a Fellow of the American Cancer Society. He earned his Ph.D. degree in microbiology at Lund University in Sweden in 1975. He is married to the former Lisa LaBossiere. Their daughter, Lara, is currently at Boston College; son Joshua and wife Connie are located in Washington, D.C.; daughter Kirsten is a recent graduate of Emory University and currently attending the University of Pennsylvania.