Senator William H. Frist, MD is Special Partner at Cressey & Company and Chairman of the firm’s Distinguished Executives Council. He assists Cressey with developing valuable perspectives on industry, policy, and regulatory trends, and leads the clinical quality program across the firm’s investment partnerships.

Prior to joining Cressey in 2008, Bill represented Tennessee in the US Senate for 12 years, where he served on both the Finance and HELP committees responsible for writing all health legislation. Bill was elected Majority Leader of the Senate, having served fewer total years in Congress than any person chosen to lead that body in history, and his leadership was instrumental in passage of Medicare Part D prescription drug legislation and PEPFAR funding to fight HIV/AIDS at home and around the world.

Prior to the Senate, Bill spent 20 years in clinical medicine, completing surgical training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Stanford. He founded the Vanderbilt Multi-Organ Transplant Center, where he performed over 150 heart and lung transplants. Currently an adjunct professor of Surgery at both Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Meharry Medical School, he serves on the board of directors for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Kaiser Family Foundation.

Bill earned an MD from Harvard Medical School and a BA from Princeton University.