George C. Halvorson

George C. Halvorson was named chairman and chief executive officer of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, headquartered in Oakland, California, in March 2002. Kaiser Permanente is the nation's largest nonprofit health plan, serving more than 8.4 million members in 9 states and the District of Columbia.   Mr. Halvorson has more than 30 years of health care management experience. He was formerly President and CEO of HealthPartners, headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Prior to joining HealthPartners, he held several senior management positions with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota.  He was also president of Senior Health Plan, and president of Health Accord International, an international HMO management company.  

Mr. Halvorson serves on a number of boards, including those of the America's Health Insurance Plans, the Alliance of Community Health Plans, and Safest in America, an organization dedicated to patient safety.  He is the current president of the International Federation of Health Plans and a member of the Harvard Kennedy School Healthcare Delivery Policy Program, and the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System.  

Mr. Halvorson is the author of books on health care, including Epidemic of Care published in April of 2003, and Strong Medicine. He is currently writing two new books, one about racial prejudice around the world, and one about how to build and lead a health plan from the ground up, based on his own experience creating a health care cooperative in Uganda. He has written numerous articles on subjects ranging from health information technology to the changing marketplace.  

Mr. Halvorson has lectured in a number of settings to academics, policy-makers, and health industry leaders including the HR Policy Association, the World Bank, the European Health Care Congress, the National Business Group on Health, the Microsoft Annual Health Plan Executive Forum, the National Governors Association, and the World Health Care Congress. He has served as an advisor to the governments in Great Britain, Jamaica, Uganda and Russia on issues of health policy and financing.