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(AP) -- COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) -- The University of Missouri Health Care system will have a new leader starting in 2013.

Chief executive officer Jim Ross plans to retire effective Dec. 31. He will be succeeded by Mitch Wasden, the system's chief operating officer. Wasden will still keep his old job.

Ross joined the university system in 2004 after working as president and chief operating officer of University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina in Greenville, N.C.

Wasden joined MU Health Care in June from Ochsner Medical Center in Baton Rouge, La., where he served as chief executive officer.

He has also worked as chief operating officer and vice president of Tympany Medical Inc. in Stafford, Texas, and vice president of clinical services for Ochsner Health System in New Orleans.

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