2006 Champion for Health Award: Kathleen Brown
“Simplifying An Irrational System with Common Sense Solutions”
The Impact of Kathleen Brown’s Advocacy in Healthcare
Champion for Health AWARD Recipient
“For a system that is critical to the well-being of
our society, healthcare is irrational and overwhelmingly
complex,” observes Kathleen Brown as she surveys the
healthcare landscape today.“With so many special interests with their lists of
wants and need that have developed over the years, we
need to set aside differences and establish common
ground among consumers, roviders, and payer interests to
craft simpler, practical, common sense solutions that
will have high impact.”
Ms. Brown’s career-long commitment to responsible
financing through her civic and business leadership
complements her strong and passionately held views about
the urgent need to re-shape healthcare to address issues
of access to healthcare and better use of the
healthcare/business dollar. Her prominent roles on the
Board of Directors of The California Endowment, a major
health foundation, the California Women’s Foundation,
and her long-time position on the Childrens Hospital Los
Angeles Board inspires her leadership of a business
group that carries a prominent role in bond financing
for health facilities.
Her extensive experience in municipal finance and
government includes service as Treasurer of the State of
California, Democrat Party nominee for Governor of
California, co-chair of the Presidential Commission on
Capital Budgeting, and as a Board member of the Los
Angeles Unified School District and the Los Angeles
Board of Public Works, providing oversight, investment,
and administration of public money. As a board member of
the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS)
and the California State Teachers' Retirement System,
Brown became a leading national spokesperson on
executive compensation reform and corporate
responsibility. Brown has twice been elected co-chair of
the National Council of Institutional Investors.
As Treasurer, the state's official banker, Brown was
responsible for managing the state's $24 billion
investment portfolio, administering bond sales to
finance schools, parks, prisons, housing, health
facilities and environmental programs. During her
tenure, Kathleen Brown saved taxpayer dollars by
eliminating perks, streamlining her office's operation
and maximizing returns on the state's investment
portfolio to earn $4 billion for California taxpayers
and put California dollars to work through her CalVest
investment program which generated $700 million into the
state economy. Ms. Brown was honored by City and State
magazine as the Most Valuable Public Official at the
state level for 1993 for her work in generating more
than 175,000 new jobs through the sale of a then record
$12 billion in bonds.
She has spent a substantial part of her career in the
private sector, first as an attorney in the Capital
Markets Group with the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers,
then in the Investment Management Group at Bank of
America where she was President of the Private Bank. She
now heads the Public Finance Group for the West Region
at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in Los Angeles. In addition to
her service on boards of several non-profit
organizations, Ms. Brown serves on the Board of
Directors of Countrywide Financial Corporation and the
Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
A fourth generation Californian, Kathleen Brown is a
graduate of Stanford University and Fordham University
School of Law. She is married to Van Gordon Sauter, with
whom she shares five grown children and three
grandchildren.
For her consistent dedication and impact in protecting
the integrity of the public’s finances which affects
California’s health and well-being, and for her advocacy
of responsible private sector governance, fiscal
management, and policy changes to improve health care
services, Partners honors Kathleen Brown as Partner in
Care Foundation’s 2006 Champion of Health.
