Leadership

Michael J. Barber is a GE Officer and the VP of GE’s business strategy on global health for the corporation. The healthymagination charter is (by 2015) to improve the quality of care by 15% or more, to reduce the cost of procedures and processes through the appropriate use of GE technologies and services by 15% and to increase the access to essential technologies and services essential to health by 15%. When selected for this role, GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt remarked “Over the last four years, Mike has led all aspects of product development for advanced healthcare technologies, Mike knows how our technology can help patients, he knows what doctors, clinics and hospitals need to improve care and cut costs and he knows how to lead teams. With his deep experience in engineering and technology and his strong operations and process-driven expertise, Mike is the right leader to lead healthymagination and to grow our healthcare partnerships globally.”

Prior to this position Barber, a 29-year GE veteran, was Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for GE Healthcare leading a technology team of more than 7,000 engineers, technologists and scientists working in diverse fields such as MRI, CT, Ultrasound, patient monitoring, anesthesia, life sciences, imaging contrast agents and health-related R&D at GE Healthcare. Healthcare’s revenue totals over $17B and the company spends over $1B annually for R&D.

Barber started with GE in 1982 and has had a variety of roles in engineering, operations and product management. As the Manager of the Digital X-ray Detector Platform, Barber led a team that eliminated the need for film in X-ray procedures. Barber holds patents for novel X-ray system designs and has been directly involved with many product advances in the field of diagnostic imaging.

Barber is also an active champion of GE’s African American Forum, GE’s premier Affinity group addressing professional development for the company’s African-American employees. Barber’s role includes being the executive sponsor for the sustainability portion of GE’s $30+ million philanthropic commitment to improve healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa. He has also served as chair of the Milwaukee Chapter of the Elfun Society (a volunteer organization of GE employees).

Barber was named a Black Enterprise ‘Master of Innovation’ in 2009, serves as a Regent at his alma mater (Milwaukee School of Engineering) and serves on the board of National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME) and is a member of the corporate advisory board for the Council for Opportunity in Education.

Barber is also a member and former Treasurer of Sweet Communion Baptist Church, is married to Jacqueline Herd-Barber who serves on several non-profit boards in Milwaukee and has 2 children; Lauren (20 studying Molecular and Cellular Biology at Harvard) and Justin (18 enrolled at the U of Minnesota).