Dr. Robert Pearl's teaching combines theoretical models of strategic thinking and strategic change with his experience as the CEO of a 7 billion a year organization. He believes that there is a disciplined approach which successful leaders follow to maximize their chance of identifying and responding to changes in the competitive environment. As part of his teaching this approach he uses case studies, video material and individual participation and practice. He believes that successful leaders must be both technically and interpersonally excellent and that both can be learned. His focus is on both analytic frameworks and leadership skills.

Dr. Robert Pearl is Executive Director and CEO of The Permanente Medical Group. As CEO of the largest medical group in the nation, Dr. Pearl is responsible for the health care of over 3 million Kaiser Permanente members. The Permanente Medical Group is comprised of over 6,000 physicians and 25,000 staff members and operates 19 medical centers in Northern California. He was selected as Executive Director and CEO of The Permanente Medical Group in 1998.

Board certified in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Dr. Pearl received his MD from Yale University School of Medicine. He completed his residency in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Stanford University where he has been a faculty member since 1978. In addition to being Clinical Professor of Plastic Surgery, Dr. Pearl served as the Residency Director of Stanford’s Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery program from 1984 to 1990. He is the current director of Stanford University School of Medicine’s nationally recognized review course on Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

Selected by Modern Healthcare as one of the most powerful physician-leaders in the nation, Dr. Pearl has published more than 100 articles in various medical journals and has been a contributor to many books. He has made over 75 presentations at national meetings in the areas of both clinical medicine and medical economics. In the past several years, he served as a visiting professor at Stanford Business School, Duke University School of Medicine and Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Pearl was a featured speaker at the 2006 World Health Care Congress and addressed the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco in 2003. At present, he teaches an executive program on strategic thinking and strategic change at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

As a frequent lecturer on health care, Dr. Pearl is an advocate for the power of physician-led, integrated medical delivery systems. He believes that organizations like Kaiser Permanente in which physicians collaborate rather than compete, and in which a multi-specialty medical group works in partnership with a not-for-profit health plan and hospital system, are able to provide superior quality of care over fragmented insurance-based systems.

Over the past decade, he has been a leader in implementing advanced information technology systems across Kaiser Permanente. By combining an integrated delivery system with Internet technology he believes that Kaiser Permanente is uniquely positioned to redefine the practice of medicine as we know it today and develop the health care solutions for the 21st century.