Michael J. Barber

Michael J. Barber is a GE Officer and the VP of GE's healthymagination business strategy on global health. The healthymagination charter is (by 2015) to improve the quality of care by 15% or more, reduce the cost of procedures and processes through the appropriate use of GE technologies and services by 15% and increase access to technologies and services essential to health by 15%.

Prior to this position Barber, a 25+-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.

When Barber was selected to lead healthymagination in June 2009, 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.”