By Sunayana Prabhu
RED BANK – Hackensack Meridian Health has named a new president and chief hospital executive for Riverview Medical Center, the health system announced July 29. Kenny Esser, 45, takes over the role amid major expansion projects as the hospital nears its 100th anniversary in 2028.
Before joining Riverview as interim leader at the beginning of the year, Esser was part of Riverview’s Edison-based parent system. He joined Hackensack Meridian Health (HMH) in 2018 as senior vice president and chief of staff. He will continue to serve as the network’s executive vice president of behavioral health.
Esser’s first week at Riverview came during the January blizzard that dumped over a foot of snow in the region. His introduction to the staff was “like a crash course on meeting everybody,” he said after spending two straight days with the leadership team at the hospital.
“It was just a great opportunity to see the leadership team in action, to be part of it, to see the team members springing into action and really get to know the culture and what the hospital was about,” he said.
The frontline employees, he said, are the hospital’s greatest strength; “they’ve proved themselves during COVID and time and time again.”
“Riverview’s been part of the community since 1928,” Esser said. “We’re coming up on our 100-year celebration. We’ve supported generations of families and look forward to supporting generations further.”
Esser’s path into healthcare wasn’t part of a long-term plan. He spent much of his career in state government and energy policy before joining Hackensack Meridian Health for his first job in the healthcare industry eight years ago.
“I’ve always believed in doing something that’s bigger than myself, and for a long time, I thought that that something was things like climate change and things related to energy policy,” Esser said.
Serving as chief of staff to HMH’s chief executive Robert Garrett during the COVID-19 pandemic changed his mind. “Seeing the heroic actions by our physicians and frontline team members on really a nightly basis – that’s what inspired me,” he said.
That experience led him first into behavioral health, and now to Riverview.
Investment and Expansion
Esser takes the helm as Riverview is in the middle of roughly $60 million in capital projects. About $50 million is going toward an expansion and reorganization of the hospital’s emergency department (ED). Construction began in February and is expected to be completed by mid-2028. The project will expand the ED by about 50% and add on-site imaging services, Esser noted. The expansion will “help improve throughput time; it’s also going to help improve patient experience,” he said, adding that as patients come through the ED, “we’re going to be able to treat, do the imaging, and either admit or discharge a little bit quicker than we’re able to today.”
The remaining roughly $14 million funded a newly renovated oncology unit, which opened in February and is now fully operational. “Both those projects were made possible by the incredible generosity of our community,” Esser said, “which demonstrates a deep belief in Riverview and its future.”
Competition, Identity and Technology
While Riverview has been a favored community hospital in the Two River area for decades, Monmouth County residents now have many options to meet their healthcare needs. Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) operates in nearby Holmdel and Monmouth Medical Center (MMC), an RWJBarnabas Health (RWJBH) facility, is building the Vogel Medical Campus with a Specialty Cancer Care Center in Tinton Falls. The property located at Corregidor Road and Pearl Harbor Avenue spans nearly 32 acres of the former Fort Monmouth property in Tinton Falls.
Esser said he isn’t concerned.
“Our reputation speaks for itself,” he said, noting Riverview already collaborates with MSK on coordinating care for shared patients. He pointed to recognitions from Healthgrades for patient safety and high-performing ratings from U.S. News & World Report in COPD, heart failure, and hip and knee replacement, as well as the hospital’s cardiovascular program.
“If we continue to put our best foot forward, both with other hospitals and practices, but also with our patient community, the success will speak for itself,” he said.
Looking ahead, Esser said the hospital’s strategy will lean into areas where Riverview already has a strong reputation, including women’s health, orthopedics and emergency care, while navigating industry “headwinds,” he said.
He noted some hospitals and healthcare systems continue “pushing procedures to ambulatory sites. Some of the reimbursement rates are currently falling through Medicare, Medicaid. We’re at this critical moment in time where we need to be very strategic about where we take the hospital from here.”
Community hospitals are also facing rising costs, workforce shortages and increasing demand. “It’s the fact that they’re all coming together at roughly the same time, so it gives us much less margin for error,” Esser said of those pressures.
But Riverview’s physicians, staff and donor base give him confidence.
“We are a true community hospital that’s connected to the local community, and when we build in all these strengths, that’s really what gives me optimism that we can meet the headwinds,” he said, noting the focus will be on getting the “strategy right.”
“We need to be able to execute. That’s where my focus is going to be,” Esser said.
On artificial intelligence transforming healthcare, Esser said being part of the larger HMH network gives Riverview an edge. “We don’t have to figure it out on our own,” he said.
But he was clear about its limits. “A.I. is not a replacement for people. At the end of the day, healthcare needs to remain person to person.”
When asked what he hopes never changes about Riverview, Esser praised “the frontline staff.” “The roots run deep at Riverview,” he said. “We’ve got people whose kids now work there with them, and it’s just that community atmosphere is contagious. It makes you want to be there, and it makes you want to build upon all the success and create something really terrific going forward.”
Esser is a 2003 graduate of Rutgers University and earned an executive MBA this year through TRIUM, a joint program of the London School of Economics, NYU Stern School of Business and HEC Paris. He lives in Bordertown with his wife, Danielle; the couple has been married 19 years and has two daughters, Arielle, 15, and Layla, 13. He said a move closer to Riverview isn’t off the table once his children finish high school.
“It’s a beautiful community,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of friends in the area, a lot of contacts, and that only grows as I spend more time at Riverview.”
Esser succeeds Tim Hogan, Riverview’s former chief executive, who remains a fixture with the organization and a mentor. “Tim’s a good friend and a good guy,” Esser said. “I’ve learned a lot from him throughout this transition.”
The article originally appeared in the August 6 – 12, 2026 print edition of The Two River Times.
