Who is Ralph de la Torre? The CEO of Steward Health Care with a $40 million yacht

Once a respected cardiac surgeon, Dr. Ralph de la Torre, chairman and CEO of Steward Health Care, has been publicly criticized for living a lavish lifestyle — owning not one but two yachts — while running his company into the ground.

De la Torre bought his $40-million yacht after Steward sold its hospital properties to Medical Trust Properties (MTP), a real-estate investment trust, in 2016 — a deal that resulted in a massive payday for executives while leaving the Steward-operated hospitals to face steep annual rents as they transitioned to being tenants under MTP’s ownership.

On Monday, those financial troubles came to a head when Steward filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

When de la Torre first started Steward in collaboration with Cerberus Capital Management, a New York-based private equity firm, his self-described goal was to create an affordable approach to healthcare that served vulnerable populations.

Instead, doctors, nurses and elected officials have criticized the for-profit network for prioritizing their own profits over patient care.

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Does Steward’s CEO have a $40 million-dollar yacht?

In February of this year, Boston Globe columnist Brian McGrory revealed that Steward’s CEO owns not one, but two yachts.

De la Torre bought the $40 million, 190-foot yacht named the "Amaral" a few years ago, according to McGrory’s reporting for the Globe. De la Torre's other yacht is a $15 million, 90-foot sport fishing boat named the ‘Jaruco.'

The Amaral is a massive, six-bedroom yacht that costs about $4 million a year to run, according to SuperYacht Fan.

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According to reporting by The American Prospect, Steward acquired at least two business jets and a private suite at Dallas’s AA Arena, where the NBA’s Mavericks play.

Where did Ralph de la Torre work before Steward?

In 2008, de la Torre became the CEO of Caritas Christi Health Care, a struggling hospital network in Massachusetts. A few years later, he made a deal with Cerberus Capital Management to start Steward Health Care and invest money into struggling hospitals.

Is Ralph de la Torre a medical doctor?

De la Torre graduated from Duke University in 1988 and got his medical degree from a joint program between Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1992, according to his biography.

Before his stint as CEO of Steward, he was the founder and CEO of the Cardiovascular Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Cardiovascular Management Associates, according to his biography on Steward’s website. He also worked as the Chief of Cardiac Surgery at BIDMC.

What is Ralph de la Torre’s salary?

According to reporting by The American Prospect, an individual familiar with Steward’s finances estimated he makes about $16 million per year.

In 2020, de la Torre bought Steward from Cerberus for $335 million, but with his own stake in the investment company, used Steward’s cash to pay himself a $100 million dividend, according to that same reporting.

Where does Ralph de la Torre live?

According to reporting by the Globe, de la Torre lives in a Dallas "mansion" and shares a neighborhood with former President George W. Bush and Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and longtime panelist on ABC's "Shark Tank."

When de la Torre was living in Boston, he lived in a seven-bedroom home in West Newton that he sold for more than $6 million in 2013, according to reporting by Boston.com.

Who is Ralph de la Torre’s wife?

According to reporting by the Globe, de la Torre met his first wife, Wing Cheung de la Torre, a native of Hong Kong while he was in medical school. They married in 2004 and had twin boys in 2008. In 2018, she filed for divorce.

He later remarried Nicole Acosta, a self-described real estate representative, according to the Globe.

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Steward Health Care CEO Ralph de la Torre: Everything you want to know