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Mark R. Laret is president and chief executive officer of UCSF Health, which is comprised of Benioff Children's Hospitals San Francisco and Oakland, Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital and Clinics and the Faculty Practice. Laret, who joined UCSF in 2000, is a 30-year veteran of health care management and a national leader in health care reform. His career began at UCLA Medical Center, where he served from 1980 to 1995 in several leadership positions, before being named CEO of UC Irvine Medical Center, which he led from 1995 to 2000.

As CEO of UCSF Medical Center and UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals, Laret heads one of the most distinguished medical institutions in the world, one that is consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top hospitals in the United States and as the best in Northern California. At UCSF, he has led initiatives to improve quality of care and patient safety and to modernize facilities and equipment. He led an effort to build a $1.5 billion UCSF hospital complex at the Mission Bay campus — including hospitals for children, women's services and cancer — and raised $600 million in private contributions for the new facility.

He is immediate past chair of the California Hospital Association and past chair of the board of directors of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Laret's volunteer service includes membership on the board of the international charity Mercy Ships, which delivers medical care on hospital ships to indigent communities in Africa. He chaired corporate fundraising drives in San Francisco for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and American Heart Association.

He is a member of the board of directors of Varian Medical Systems in Palo Alto and Nuance Communications in Boston, Mass.

Laret earned a bachelor's degree at UCLA and a master's degree at the University of Southern California, both in political science.