Columbia University Rowe has been the Julius B. Richmond Professor at
Columbia University's
Mailman School of Public Health in the Department of Health Policy and Management. He has also served as professor at
Harvard Medical School, authoring more than 200 scientific publications, mostly on the aging process. Rowe was previously Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the
University of Connecticut. In 2010, he donated $2 million to the university’s foundation for a program that encourages students from minority groups and low-income families to enter health professions. Rowe also gave a separate $1 million for aid to help students recover from the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Aetna Prior to Columbia, John Rowe was the CEO and executive chairman of the
health insurance company Aetna from 2000 to 2006. During his tenure, he transformed Aetna into a large, profitable company. Between May 2001 and March 2007, the company's stock price jumped from $5.80 to $43.87 a share. By the mid-2000s, Aetna’s operating income recovered from a $300 million loss to a $1.7 billion gain. In 2005, Rowe's compensation was $22.2 million.
Mount Sinai New York Health Prior to Aetna, Rowe was President and Chief Executive Officer of Mount Sinai New York Health from 1998 to 2000. Before that, he was President of
The Mount Sinai Hospital and the
Mount Sinai School of Medicine in
New York City from 1988 to 1998. In 1998, Rowe led the (now dissolved) Mount Sinai NYU Health merger that brought together five hospitals, becoming the system's president and chief executive.
Tax patents In 2006, the
Wealth Transfer Group sued Rowe for infringement of a
tax patent. The patent was , entitled "Establishing and managing grantor retained annuity trusts funded by non-qualified stock options" (i.e.
SOGRAT). The case was settled for undisclosed terms.
Publications Rowe has published more than 200 scientific publications, mostly in the field of
gerontology, and a textbook in the same field. He co-authored the book
Successful Aging with
Robert Kahn. ==Personal life==