UAB Health System CEO Will Ferniany to retire at year’s end Updated 11:32 AM; Facebook Share UAB Health System CEO Will Ferniany has announced he will retire at year’s end. Selwyn Vickers, senior vice president and dean of the UAB School of Medicine, will succeed Ferniany as CEO of system and CEO of the new UAB/Ascension St. Vincent’s Alliance, while continuing in his role of dean of the medical school. Ferniany has headed the system since 2008, watching it grow from five hospitals to 11, with revenues expanding from $2.3 billion in 2008 to more than $5.8 billion today. UAB President Ray Watts said Ferniany “has enjoyed a long and distinguished career that led to transformational change for UAB Medicine and health care in Birmingham and across Alabama.”