Maria Sileno DeLoughry is the SVP, Deputy General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer (Legal) of Hackensack Meridian Health. In addition to a busy contracting practice, she focuses on the Legal Services Department’s operations, building and streamlining its contract management office and supporting and managing the attorneys and staff of the department. After starting her career as a mergers & acquisitions attorney for Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal (now Dentons), Maria spent 20 years as an in-house attorney at two different manufacturing organizations – Sealed Air Corporation and Ashland.

In 2018, Maria created the role of Vice President, IT Planning & Administration on the leadership team in the IT department at Hackensack Meridian Health. In this position, she oversaw communications, human resources, administration, recruiting, and contract and vendor management issues for the 500-person IT organization. Leveraging her experience as both an in-house counsel and a business client of HMH’s in-house department, Maria joined HMH’s Legal Services Department in 2021 to create the legal operations function and was promoted to her current role in 2022.