COOPERSTOWN — Bassett Healthcare Network announced that Robert Hanft, former executive at J.P. Morgan and current senior adviser with Strategic Financial Services in Utica, has recently been elected chair of Bassett’s board of directors.

Hanft will serve a three-year term, which formally began on July 11, following formal election at the board’s annual meeting in Cooperstown. Hanft succeeds Douglas Hastings, who was elected as chair of Bassett’s board of directors in 2019 and has finished his term.

Hanft joined the Bassett Healthcare Network board in 2020. He has served as a member of Bassett’s executive committee, chairman of its finance committee, and as a member of Bassett’s strategic planning committee. He also serves on the board of directors for Bassett Medical Center, which he joined in 2017, and Templeton Foundation. Hanft’s other local community work includes serving on the boards of Pathfinder Village, Fenimore Art Museum, and Springbrook.

Originally from Seaford, on New York’s Long Island, Hanft is an alumnus of Hartwick College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics. He later attended Long Island University, where he received an MBA in finance. In 2018, Hartwick College awarded Hanft an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. He served on Hartwick’s board for 18 years, including six years as chairman of the board. Hanft said it was his “treasured memories” as an undergrad student in Oneonta and his time on Hartwick’s board that attracted him to move to upstate New York in 2008 from Ridgewood, New Jersey.

Hanft worked for J.P. Morgan in New York City for 30 years. Joining the firm directly after he graduated from college, he progressed through the company, serving as senior managing director in the firm’s global equities and derivatives business, holding positions including chief operating officer, co-head of global equity research and sales, and president of J.P. Morgan Securities. Hanft eventually left J.P. Morgan and served as a senior VP with AIG International and a managing director with the Trinsum Group, an investment banking and consulting firm. He is currently a senior adviser with Strategic Financial Services, a Utica–based wealth management firm.

“Bob is an experienced leader who has a deep knowledge of Bassett and a passion for rural healthcare,” Staci Thompson, president and CEO of Bassett Healthcare Network, said in the announcement. “We are fortunate to have Bob at the helm of our network board. He brings decades of strategic business knowledge, along with a striking devotion to our communities, a love for upstate New York, and an unwavering faith in Bassett’s values and mission. Bob will continue to help lead Bassett Healthcare Network forward as we evolve and grow to meet the needs of our patients and communities.”

Bassett Healthcare Network is an integrated health system that provides care and services to people living in a 5,600-square-mile region in upstate New York. The organization includes five corporately affiliated hospitals, over two dozen community-based health centers, more than 20 school-based health centers, two skilled-nursing facilities, and other health partners in related fields.