Healthscope appointed Gordon Ballantyne managing director and CEO, effective May 15.

Ballantyne succeeds Robert Cooke, who will step down May 14 and assist in the company's leadership transition until April 2018.

Ballantyne will also join the Healthscope board May 16. He founded Telstra Health, and served as group executive at Telstra's domestic retail business. He also held senior leadership roles at Hewlett Packard, T-Mobile and Dell.