News release: Colorado - Denver/Boulder

November 19, 1999

For more information, call:
Steve Krizman
Kaiser Permanente
Phone: (303) 344-7932
E-mail: Steve.A.Krizman@kp.org

Kathryn A. Paul announces retirement after 30-year career

Denver, CO – Kathryn A. Paul, president of Kaiser Permanente's Group Operations West, today announced her decision to retire after 30 years with the nonprofit health care organization.

"A reorganization of the management structure of Kaiser Permanente regions outside California, and a change in laws governing my retirement plan gave me an opportunity I couldn't refuse," said Paul, 52.

Paul oversees all western Kaiser Permanente regions outside of California, including Colorado, Kansas City, Hawaii and Northwest (Washington and Oregon). Under a reorganization announced Friday, all Kaiser Permanente regions outside California will be managed by one group president.

That position will be taken by the current president of eastern Kaiser Permanente regions, Bernard Tyson.

The reorganization is driven in part by the downsizing of Kaiser Permanente's non-California operations. By the end of the year, the organization will have divested itself of its Northeast and North Carolina regions, the result of financial and membership losses there.

Kaiser Permanente has 8.6 million members nationwide, with two-thirds of that membership in California.

Paul, whose resignation is effective Nov. 30, said she will remain involved in the Denver community. She is chairwoman of the Denver Branch of the Federal Reserve Board, and serves on boards of directors for the Denver Zoological Foundation, the Denver Art Museum, Mile High United Way and Colorado Business Committee for the Arts.

Paul began her career with Kaiser Permanente in the purchasing department in Oakland, Calif., in 1970. She came to Denver in 1979 to be manager of the region's medical facilities and was promoted to associate regional manager in 1982. She became president of the Rocky Mountain Region in 1994 and was named president of Group Operations West in March 1999.

Paul is in charge of regions that employ 11,000 people and have a combined revenue of $2.5 billion. During her tenure, the regions have maintained positive operating margins as Kaiser Permanente nationwide worked to turn around two years of financial losses.