Mayor Bynum to join Saint Francis Health System after leaving office in December (2024)

Mayor G.T. Bynum doesn’t plan to take any time off after he leaves office on Dec. 2.

On Dec. 3, he starts work at Saint Francis Health System as vice president of community and government affairs.

“I will be supervising all of the health system’s interactions with local, state and federal governmental officials and agencies and then also supervising the health system’s community engagement, which is something I am really excited about,” Bynum said.

Saint Francis Health System President and CEO Dr. Cliff Robertson described Bynum as a visionary leader.

“We are proud to add him to the Saint Francis team,” Robertson said. “I was able to work closely with Mayor Bynum following the 2022 tragedy at the (Saint Francis) Natalie Building, and I found him to be a smart, compassionate leader who allows strategy and data to drive the best decisions available.”

Bynum has been a fixture at City Hall for nearly two decades. He was elected to the City Council in April 2008 and was sworn in as mayor in December 2016.

He said he has had several job opportunities since announcing that he would not seek another four-year term but that the chance to work at Saint Francis in a newly established position was one he could not pass up.

“This is the one that I just felt is the best fit,” Bynum said. “The capacity for Saint Francis to do good in Tulsa is just tremendous, and that is what I have dedicated my career to — what I want to continue to dedicate my career to — is serving our community, and I just can’t think of anywhere better to do that than at Saint Francis.”

Bynum said he believes the contacts he has made and the knowledge of the city he has gained while in public office will serve him well in his new position.

“I have been immersed all that time in what the greatest needs in the community are and will be going to an organization that wants to play a part — and is already playing a tremendous part but wants to play an even bigger part — in addressing a lot of those needs in a smart, strategic way,” Bynum said.

Bynum’s ties to Saint Francis go back generations. His great grandfather, Joseph LaFortune, moved to Tulsa from South Bend, Indiana, in 1920 and eventually went to work for William K. Warren Sr., founder of Warren Petroleum.

LaFortune would later become co-owner of the company with Warren, and in the 1950s they sold it to Gulf Oil.

“My great grandfather LaFortune used part of that to help build LaFortune Park,” Bynum said, “and Mr. and Mrs. Warren used part of their proceeds to found Saint Francis.”

Bynum said one of the most influential things he’s ever read was a 2005 editorial in the Tulsa World by John-Kelly Warren. Warren is chairman of the Saint Francis Health System Board of Directors and a Saint Francis Health System trustee.

“I had just moved home from (Washington) D.C. from working in the Senate, and he had this op-ed in the World about we should not be comparing ourselves to the next town over; we should be focused on being one of the best cities in the world,” Bynum said. “I have totally ripped that off and used it over and over and over again since then.

“But that kind of mindset he was challenging us to have in Tulsa is the same mindset that they’ve applied at Saint Francis.”

Bynum said his respect for the institution has only grown in the last several years as he has seen close up how workers have responded to myriad challenges — from the pandemic to the Natalie Building shooting that took four lives, including three of the hospital’s own employees.

“I have gotten spoiled from 16 years of working at the city getting to work with people who save lives every day, and so the chance to do that continuing after I leave City Hall — granted in a different way — working with health care providers and those kinds of people is just really exciting,” Bynum said.

Of course, that’s still a ways off, and Bynum said he’s got plenty to keep him occupied until then. Zink Lake opens over Labor Day weekend, and construction of the new Gilcrease Museum building is scheduled to be completed in the fall.

“It is great to know what I’ll be doing the day after I walk out the door, but that doesn’t mean I’m letting my foot off the gas at all,” Bynum said. “There is still so much I want to get done while I am mayor, and I have 172 days (as of Thursday) in which to get it done.”

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