Arthur M. Southam

Arthur M. Southam is the former executive vice president for Health Plan Operations and Chief Growth Officer for Kaiser Permanente (KP), America’s largest not-for-profit health system and health plan. With more than $120 billion in annual revenue, KP is a national leader in health plan and care-delivery innovation, quality, and consumer satisfaction. Dr. Southam joined KP in 2001 and retired in February 2023. He had national responsibility for health plan strategy, marketing, sales, products, service, technology, and administration.

Dr. Southam currently serves on the boards of Easterseals of Southern California, SCAN Health Plan, and The SCAN Foundation. He is a member of the RAND Social and Economic Policy Advisory Board and serves on Dean’s advisory boards of UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health and Anderson School of Management. He is a Senior Advisor to McKinsey & Company.

Before joining Kaiser Permanente, Dr. Southam was the chief executive officer of two California-based health plans, Health Net and CareAmerica. He was CEO of Health Systems Design, a developer of software for health plans and physician groups. He has served as board chair of CHRISTUS Health; the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare (CAQH); the California Association of Health Plans; and the Integrated Health Care Association. He was a member of the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on the Quality of Health Care in America, contributing to the widely cited publications, To Err Is Human (pdf) and Crossing the Quality Chasm (pdf).

Dr. Southam received his medical degree and MPH from UCLA, his MBA from Pepperdine University, and his BA in Neuroscience from Amherst College.