Our Leaders

Michael Gaulke is chair of the Sutter Health Board. He is also the chairman of Exponent, Inc. For 18 years, he held senior management roles at Exponent, Inc., including 13 years as CEO of the organization, which specializes in engineering and scientific consulting. Before joining Exponent, Mr. Gaulke served as the executive vice president and chief financial officer of Raynet Corporation, a fiber-to-the-curb telecommunications company. Earlier in his career, he was a senior executive at Spectra-Physics and a consultant with McKinsey & Company. In 2008, Oregon State University inducted Mr. Gaulke into its Engineering Hall of Fame. For 30 years, Mr. Gaulke has focused on advancing health care quality and access as a board of trustees member of Sutter-affiliated Palo Alto Medical Foundation. He also currently serves as a member of Sutter Health’s Bay Area Board of Directors.
Mr. Gaulke and his wife live in Atherton.

Herbert (Gubby) Brereton Barlow, former CEO of Premera Blue Cross, joined Sutter’s board of directors in February 2017. Prior to holding senior leadership positions as CEO, chief operating officer and executive vice president at Premera Blue Cross in Mountlake Terrace, Wash. for almost two decades, Barlow served as chief financial officer and senior vice president at AHI Healthcare Systems in Downey, Calif. He previously served as chief financial officer and held other senior leadership positions at Health Net in Woodland Hills, Calif. Prior to joining Health Net, Barlow was a partner with Deloitte & Touche, where he specialized in auditing and accounting, and assisting clients in mergers and acquisitions. Barlow’s past healthcare industry leadership includes the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association Board of Directors, National Institute of Health Care Management Board, Seattle University College of Nursing Advisory Board, Washington Healthcare Forum Board and the Center for Corporate Innovation.

Vinita Gupta, founder and chairman of Digital Link Corporation, joined Sutter Health’s board of directors in January 2017. Digital Link, which engaged in the design, manufacture, marketing and support of digital wide-area network access products for global networks, went public in 1994 and was later renamed as Quick Eagle Networks. Gupta still serves as chairman, chief executive officer and president. In her early career, Gupta worked as an engineer for GTE Lenkurt and later held engineering management positions at Bell Northern Research (now part of Nortel Networks). Gupta holds two U.S. Patents—one for solid state relay issued in 1984 and another for a square root circuit issued in 1986.

After serving on the Sutter Health West Bay Region board of directors, Peter Jacobi joined the Sutter Health board of directors in January 2011. Applying his experience in international business from nearly 30 years with Levi Strauss & Co., Mr. Jacobi serves as a member of the board of directors for Crocs Inc., a casual-shoe manufacturer. His leadership led him to serve on several not-for-profit boards, including the Levi Strauss Foundation, the Prince of Wales Business Leadership Forum, the Michigan School of Engineering, the President’s Advisory Board of San Jose State University, the New Hampton School board of trustees and the Marin Theatre Company. A business and industrial management graduate of San Jose State University, Mr. Jacobi lives in Mill Valley.

John F. Koster, M.D., who joined the board in 2015, is the former CEO and president of Providence Health & Services based in Renton, Wash. He retired from a 16-year career with the not-for-profit Providence system, which operates hospitals and other health care services in Alaska, California, Montana, Oregon and Washington. He served for a decade as CEO and president and earlier as chief operating officer and chief medical officer for Providence. Before joining Providence, Dr. Koster served as senior vice president of VHA Inc., a membership organization serving the health care industry. He also held senior leadership positions at Presbyterian Healthcare Services in Albuquerque, N.M., and at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. An internist, Dr. Koster has appeared frequently on Modern Healthcare magazine’s annual list of Most Influential Physician Executives.

Sharon McCollam retired in 2016 as executive vice president, chief administrative officer and chief financial officer for consumer electronics firm Best Buy Co. Inc. Ms. McCollam has decades of experience as a senior leader in the retail industry. Before joining Best Buy, she served as executive vice president, chief operating officer and chief financial officer for home-goods retailer Williams-Sonoma Inc. She also held various finance-related executive positions at Dole Fresh Vegetables Inc., including chief financial officer, vice president and controller. Ms. McCollam serves as a member of the board of directors for Art.com, an online specialty art retailer. She served on the boards of directors for Williams-Sonoma from 2010 to 2012 and for Del Monte Foods from 2007 to 2011. She holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Central Oklahoma and is licensed as a certified public accountant. She lives in Redwood City.

With more than 40 years of real estate investment experience, David Nasaw is co-founder of Metropolitan Real Estate Equity Management in New York and founder of Metropolitan Real Estate Advisors in San Francisco. The two firms manage more than $3 billion of equity in residential, commercial and industrial properties in the United States, Europe and Asia. Mr. Nasaw graduated from Northwestern University and holds a master’s degree in business administration from the Kellogg School of Management. He lives in Ross.

Dr. Peabody is a board-certified ophthalmologist with more than two decades of medical experience. He earned an undergraduate degree from Stanford University and a medical degree from the George Washington University School of Medicine. He completed his internship at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and residency at Texas Tech University. Dr. Peabody practices within Medical Vision Technology Inc., an eye care group with offices in Davis, Roseville and Sacramento. In addition to seeing patients in his clinic, Dr. Peabody has served as the group’s president since 1989. Dr. Peabody holds several leadership positions at various Sutter Health affiliates. He serves as a steering committee member and chairman of the Ophthalmology Department at Sutter Physician Alliance; on several Sutter Independent Physicians committees since 2003, including appointment to the board in 2006 and election as board chairman in 2009; and on the boards of Fort Sutter Surgery Center and Sutter Outpatient Services. With extensive experience as a consultant, Dr. Peabody has advised on medical and legal cases, acted as an expert witness and provided patient examinations for workers’ compensation, malpractice and civil cases. He lives in the Sacramento area.

A member of the Sutter Health board from 1996 to 2006, Michael Roosevelt rejoined the board in 2009. A Berkeley resident, Mr. Roosevelt served on the California Pacific Medical Center board of directors when the medical center’s then-parent organization, California Healthcare System, merged with Sutter Health in 1996. He was among the original members of the post-merger board and served as board chairman in 2006. In 2007, he led the Sutter Health governance assessment steering committee, which recommended a new regional governance structure for the organization. A shareholder in San Francisco law firm Friedman, McCubbin, Spalding, Bilter, Roosevelt & Montgomery APC, Mr. Roosevelt is a Harvard University graduate. He earned his law degree at Columbia University. Mr. Roosevelt has served as a board member and chairman of San Francisco Home Health Services and the Visiting Nurse Association of San Francisco. A former director of the Berkeley Community Fund, Mr. Roosevelt participates in several professional associations. He serves on the board of directors of the Association for the Preservation of the Presidential Yacht Potomac.

A long-time executive with the internationally respected Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Scott joined the Sutter Health board of directors in November 2016. Until she retired in July 2016, Scott was the Gates Foundation’s senior advisor, providing strategy counsel and support. She joined the Foundation in 2006 as chief operating officer, overseeing all major operational functions. Scott currently serves as principal at the McClintock Scott Group.

Prior to joining the Gates Foundation, Scott was president and CEO of Seattle-based Group Health Cooperative, a member-governed, non-profit health care system that coordinates care and coverage for more than 600,000 residents of Washington and North Idaho. Her eight-year tenure as CEO capped a distinguished 25-year career with Group Health where she also served as executive vice president and chief operating officer. In 2005, the University of Washington and Group Health created the Cheryl M. Scott/Group Health Cooperative Professorship in Health Care Leadership in the School of Public Health.

An orthopedic surgeon with Modesto-based Sutter Gould Medical Foundation, Todd Smith, M.D. specializes in surgery of the hand and upper extremities. A native of Fresno, Dr. Smith earned an undergraduate degree from University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in business administration from California State University, Hayward. He graduated from Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., and completed his residency training at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn. He also completed a fellowship in hand and upper extremity surgery at the University of Virginia. Dr. Smith currently serves on the board of directors for Sutter Health Bay Area.

A family medicine physician and site director of the Davis track of the Sutter Health Family Medicine Residency Program, Dr. Smith-Maclean served on the Sutter Health Sacramento Sierra Region board of trustees from 2000 to 2011. She is a former chief of staff at Sutter Davis Hospital and has been a member of the medical executive committee since 1992. A Davis native and longtime family medicine physician in Yolo County, Dr. Smith-Maclean helped establish Davis-based Sutter West Medical Group and served on its board of directors for many years. She helped found the Sutter Health Family Medicine Residency Program and is a clinical professor of family and community medicine at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Smith-Maclean holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UC Davis and is a graduate of the College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University. She lives in Davis.

Barry Williams is the retired managing general partner of Williams Pacific Ventures, a San Francisco-based venture investment and consulting firm. He previously worked at McKinsey & Co. and Bechtel Investments and served as CEO of the American Management Association. A graduate of Harvard University, Mr. Williams has participated on the boards of several health care institutions, as well as several corporate boards. He lives in Oakland and Menlo Park.