rich leib, new telecare board member

From Anne Bakar, Â黨ɫÇéƬ President and CEO

It is my great pleasure to announce the appointment of two new Directors to Â黨ɫÇéƬ’s Board. Each of these Directors bring vital expertise to our organization that is essential to the success of our mission; following in the footsteps of Emeritus Directors Ken Newman and Dave Kears, who precede them. Rich Leib will help us to navigate the rapidly changing political and policy climate, especially in California. Mike Goodwin will help us to address the radical ways technology can be deployed to enhance our operations, our business results, and our services.

mike goodwin, new telecare board member

Rich Leib is someone many people at Â黨ɫÇéƬ already know and admire because he has been an invaluable consultant to the company on political and regulatory issues for over 25 years.

He has played an integral role as part of Â黨ɫÇéƬ’s development team under the leadership of Ross Peterson, Faith Richie, and now Dawan Utecht, ensuring our policy perspective is communicated effectively to key legislators influential in behavioral health as well as the Governor’s administration. In fact, it was Rich Leib who first introduced Â黨ɫÇéƬ to former Senator Darrell Steinberg (now Sacramento Mayor Steinberg) and helped us with the statewide campaign to pass Proposition 63 in 2004. More recently, Rich has served with me as a Director of the Steinberg Institute where he has been instrumental in our advocacy efforts around Cal Aim, and legislation such as the MHSA modernization.

Rich was appointed to the University of California Board of Regents in 2018 by Governor Jerry Brown, served as Vice Chair from 2021-22, and was elected Chair of the Board of Regents in 2022. In this powerful leadership role, Rich has elevated the importance of increasing admissions to the CA University system as well as promoting innovation and entrepreneurship at each of the UC campuses.

Rich also has a very successful history of entrepreneurship, building businesses that contract with the government. He spent 15 years as the Executive Vice President and General Counsel for Liquid Environmental Solutions, a company he co-founded and helped grow into the leading non-hazardous liquid waste recycling company in the US. He is also deeply engaged in community activities, such as serving as a Director of the MLK Foundation.

Rich’s education includes a J.D from the Loyola University School of Law, an M.A. from the Claremont Graduate School, a Fellowship with the Coro Foundation and a B.A. from UC Santa Barbara. He lives with his wife Sharon in San Diego, and is the proud father of three girls, one of whom is a mental health social worker!

Mike Goodwin is a transformational Information Technology Executive we are delighted to know through our Board Chair, Mary Ann Tocio, who served with Mike on the Board of Burlington Stores. She recommended him based on his technology-cyber security expertise, his extensive executive leadership at companies with cultures and scaling challenges familiar to Â黨ɫÇéƬ, and his soft-spoken but very impactful manner as a Board Director.

For the first 8 years of his career, Mike served in the U.S. Army. The next 24 years he worked at Hallmark Cards, Inc, a 100-year-old family- owned company based in Kansas City, Missouri, that grew to over $4 billion during his tenure. He started out as an IT Technology Analyst in 1990 and became the SVP of Information Technology in 2014. With a budget of $120 million and internal staff of 250, he had global responsibility for developing and implementing IT strategies that enhanced operational efficiency, metrics to drive shared business results, and innovative customer-marketing applications.

At the pinnacle of his career at Hallmark, Mike left to become the CIO, SVP of Information Technology at PetSmart, a $7B company (when public in 2014) in Phoenix, Arizona, which grew significantly after transitioning to private equity ownership. In this role, Mike had an IT department of 400 staff and transformed PetSmart’s customer-facing capabilities by launching new ecommerce and mobile applications that included on-line ordering. Mike retired from PetSmart in 2023. He currently serves on the boards of Burlington Stores, Eckerd Connects and the Strategic Council of Plexus Worldwide.

Mike was attracted to a profession in technology at a young age. In the United States Military Academy, he majored in computer science, and then went on to get an MBA at the University of Kansas. He also holds a NACD Board and Cyber Risk Oversight certifications from the National Association of Corporate Directors.

Mike’s interest in serving on the Â黨ɫÇéƬ’s Board stems in part from his concern about the youth mental health crises. He has experience on the Board of two not-for-profit community-based organizations serving kids. In his not-for-profit and for-profit Board roles, Mike brings Audit Committee, Succession Planning and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion expertise. Mike lives with his family in Maricopa County, Arizona.

I am honored to welcome these two outstanding new Board Directors!