House’s hospital boss for most of the early seasons of House M.D. is Lisa Cuddy.
Cuddy is the dean of medicine and hospital administrator at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. She supervises House, protects the hospital from some of his worst excesses, and repeatedly balances his diagnostic talent against his disregard for rules and authority.
Lisa Edelstein played Cuddy from the series’ beginning through season seven. Cuddy and House have a long, complicated relationship involving professional conflict, mutual attraction, and disagreements over responsibility. Her administrative position also makes her different from James Wilson, who leads Oncology, and House, who heads Diagnostic Medicine.
Cuddy does not appear in season eight, after Lisa Edelstein left the regular cast. That change is why the wording “for most of the early seasons” is important: the hospital’s leadership and House’s professional circumstances change later. Cuddy’s role remains one of the show’s major sources of institutional pressure and practical judgment.