Bernard J. Tyson (January 20, 1959 – November 10, 2019) was an American health executive. He was the CEO of integrated managed care

consortium A consortium (plural: consortia) is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments (or any combination of these entities) with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for ...

Kaiser Permanente Kaiser Permanente (; KP), commonly known simply as Kaiser, is an American integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California, United States, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney Garfield. Kaiser P ...

, the largest such organization in the United States, which provides health care to 12 million people.

Early life and education

Born in

Vallejo, California Vallejo ( ; ) is a city in Solano County, California and the second largest city in the North Bay region of the Bay Area. Located on the shores of San Pablo Bay, the city had a population of 126,090 at the 2020 census. Vallejo is home to the ...

and a native of the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

, Tyson received a bachelor's degree in health service management and an MBA degree in health service administration from

Golden Gate University Golden Gate University (GGU or Golden Gate) is a private university in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1901, GGU specializes in educating professionals through its schools of law, business, taxation, and accounting. The university offers s ...

Career

Tyson was previously president and chief operating officer of the company for two years. His promotion was announced November 5, 2012, and he was the first African American to hold the position. Tyson worked at Kaiser for over 34 years.

Board memberships and awards

He was named the third most influential person in health care by ''Modern Healthcare'' in 2015, and the second-most influential person in health care in 2014. Tyson was included on the 2017 Time 100, ''Time'' 100 Most Influential People list as a leading authority on public health in America. Tyson was also selected among ''Time'' magazine's 50 Most Influential People in Health Care for 2018. He served on the board of the American Heart Association, which created in his honor the "Bernard J. Tyson Impact Fund." The fund's mission addresses solutions to health care inequity. Tyson's widow, Denise Bradley-Tyson, leads the program and significant donors include Kaiser Permanente, Jeff Bezos and Lynne and Marc Benioff.

Death

Tyson died in Oakland, California, on November 10, 2019, at the age of 60.

Legacy

At Bernard Tyson's memorial service in San Francisco on November 18 at the Chase Center, it was announced that Kaiser's new medical school in Pasadena, California, Pasadena will be named the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine. The school is scheduled to receive its first class in the summer of 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tyson, Bernard 1959 births 2019 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople African-American business executives American chief executives Businesspeople from the San Francisco Bay Area Golden Gate University alumni People from Vallejo, California 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American people