The board announced this week that the employment offer had been withdrawn and the CEO search will continue.
“Rocking Horse Center has rescinded the Sept. 27 employment offer made to Dr. Jose Rodriguez-Diaz to be the organization’s next CEO,” Board President Gus Geil said in a statement. “As is standard practice, the offer was contingent upon satisfactory completion of a background check and verification of credentials, which we were not able to accomplish.”
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He didn’t return calls seeking comment on Wednesday.
Kent Youngman will continue in his role as interim CEO while a nationwide search is resumed for a CEO for the center.
Rocking Horse leaders declined further comment because it’s a personnel matter, Youngman said in an email. Youngman also didn’t respond to an e-mail from the Springfield News-Sun asking for more details.
Rocking Horse, which opened in 1999, has 140 employees at four locations in Clark and Madison counties, including offices at Keifer Academy and the Mulberry Terrace apartment complex.
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In 2013, the organization completed an $8 million expansion at its facility near downtown Springfield. The Rocking Horse Center serves more than 12,000 patients annually and provided about 51,000 doctor visits last year.
Rodriguez-Diaz was the co-founder and senior managing partner at Tulsa, Okla.-based Pacific Health Partners, a consulting group where he leads the practice transformation and strategic planning division, according to a news release from Rocking Horse. He was previously the CEO of AID Atlanta, a nonprofit that provides HIV/AIDS-related services.
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