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UMDNJ hires top U. Tenn official as its new president

Trustees of the embattled University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey yesterday named physician William F. Owen Jr. as its new president. Owen, 51, is chancellor of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, the largest academic health center in the Southeast, and vice president for Health Affairs for the University of Tennessee.

Trustees of the embattled University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey yesterday named physician William F. Owen Jr. as its new president. Owen, 51, is chancellor of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, the largest academic health center in the Southeast, and vice president for Health Affairs for the University of Tennessee.

He spent 12 years as a clinical and academic staff physician with Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. His academic career includes 25 years of experience with Harvard Medical School and Duke University. Owen has a bachelor's degree from Brown University and a doctor of medicine degree from Tufts University. He begins his five-year contract July 1 and will be paid $570,000 annually.

UMDNJ has been under scrutiny amid an investigation into alleged Medicare and Medicaid fraud. A federal monitor has been overseeing its finances since December 2005. The school has been accused of overbilling and awarding millions of dollars in no-bid contracts. Bruce Vladeck, a national health-care policy expert, has been serving as interim president. - AP