PORTLAND (AP) – The president and chief executive officer of Maine Medical Center is stepping down after 11 years, but the reason for the departure was a mystery.

Vincent Conti’s office reported that he was not responding to media interview requests on Wednesday, a day after the hospital’s trustees announced that Conti will step down on June 15.

In a prepared statement, the board praised Conti for his service on Tuesday. Richard Petersen, Maine Med’s chief operating officer, will serve as interim CEO and president, the board said.

“Vince has accomplished a great deal during his tenure, and Maine Medical Center is stronger than ever,” the statement said. “A great number of the medical center’s recent successes can be directly attributed to Vince’s leadership.”

Conti, 59, took over in March 1997 from Don McDowell, who left to head MaineHealth, Maine Med’s parent organization. Conti previously worked at Yale-New Haven Medical Center.

In Portland, Conti led the hospital through a decade of growth, during which he raised its national profile.

When he arrived, $20 million worth of construction was under way for the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital and Marshall L. & Susan Gibson Pavilion. The site has continued to grow under Conti’s watch, with a helicopter pad completed this year, and a new birthing center and new emergency department to be finished later this year, all part of a $170 million project.

The Maine Medical Center Research Institute, which got a new home in Scarborough campus in 2001, also is drawing award-winning scientists who are conducting research on stem cells and blood disorders.

Owen Wells, president and CEO of the Libra Foundation, worked with Conti before leaving Maine Med’s board of trustees in 2003. He told the Portland Press Herald he had heard from “time to time” of friction between Maine Med and its parent company, but said he had no idea if this had anything to do with Conti’s departure.

“MaineHealth is a big organization, with a lot of other hospitals and organizations under its purview,” Wells said. “And Maine Medical Center is clearly the gorilla in the room as far as MaineHealth is concerned, and the financial engine for MaineHealth.”

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Information from: Portland Press Herald, https://www.pressherald.com

AP-ES-03-19-08 1212EDT