Swedish Board of Trustees welcomes four new members
We welcome our new board members, congratulate a new board leader, and express our gratitude to those who are ending their terms of service.
Swedish Health Services is governed by a board of trustees whose dedicated members volunteer their time for the essential work of policy establishment and organizational management and planning, including the performance improvement promotion and the provision of resources.
Recently, our Swedish Health Services Board of Trustees welcomed four new members: Christina Prkic, Javier Saade, Brian Surratt and Erik Wexler. The board also welcomed a new chair – Diankha Linear – who joined the board in 2021 and previously served as vice chair.
Additionally, Rod Hochman, M.D., Omar Riojas, Kristen Swanson and Robert Andrews completed their terms of service and Swedish—and the entire Providence family of organizations—expresses our most heartfelt thanks for their unfailing dedication to the organization and the community. (View all board member profiles here.)
Please join us in wishing our departing board members well and congratulating Diankha and all our new board members:
Christina Prkic
Christina Prkic is Vice President and Regional Executive of the Seattle Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco. In this role, she engages with members of the business and banking sectors, as well as with community and government leaders in Washington and Alaska as part of the Bank’s commitment to understanding and reflecting the communities it serves. Christina is a senior leader representing the Fed in the region and overseeing the Seattle Board of Directors and Advisory Councils, including their contribution to monetary policy decisions.
Before joining the San Francisco Fed in 2013, Christina practiced as an attorney the public and private sectors, including the aerospace industry, where she supported global business operations and large-scale corporate integrations. She currently serves on the board of the Washington Council for Economic and Financial Education and is a member of the International Women’s Forum.
When she is not at work, Christina enjoys traveling and time outdoors with her husband and elementary school-aged daughter.
Javier Saade
Javier Saade is Founder & Managing Partner of Impact Master Holdings, an organization that builds, governs and invests in companies creating values-driven value; Venture Partner at Fenway Summer, a venture capital firm that has backed more than 120 enterprises innovating at the intersection of finance and technology; and Operating Partner at Presidio Investors, a leading private equity firm that acquires technology, media and financial services companies and whose partners have deployed over $6 billion of capital.
Javier serves as chairman of the board at GP Funding, Inc and The Only Agency. Additionally, Javier sits on the board of Vcheck Global Holdings, Global Technology Acquisition Corp. and the Board of Advisors of Harvard University’s Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship. In 2013, Javier was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Associate Administrator, Office of Investment and Innovation.
Brian Surratt
Brian Surrat is President and CEO of Greater Seattle Partners (GSP), a public/private partnership that advances inclusive economic growth for the Puget Sound region. GSP is focused on attracting new investment and talent, promoting international trade and growing existing industries to create and sustain opportunity and prosperity for every community in Greater Seattle.
He has served as the mayor-appointed Director of Economic Development for the city of Seattle, overseeing significant efforts that spanned workforce development, manufacturing growth, foreign-direct investment, and anti-displacement strategies, including negotiating the city’s $1.6 billion development agreement to build Climate Pledge Arena and serving as the policy lead in Seattle’s historic efforts as the first major city in the United States to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour.
Brian serves in a range of community and public governance roles, including as Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Seattle Colleges District, the state’s largest community college system; board member for Swedish Health Services and the Downtown Emergency Service Center; commissioner for the Washington State Housing Finance Commission; and on the Public Facilities District.
Erik Wexler
Erik Wexler is president and CEO of Providence. He is responsible for a diverse, seven-state family of organizations focused on delivering health for a better world by ensuring access to high-quality, compassionate care through 51 hospitals, 1,000 clinics, a global operations center in Hyderabad, India, 129,000 caregivers, and innovative programs in the communities Providence serves and beyond.
Since joining the organization in 2016, Erik has held several executive leadership positions, including Providence’s chief operating officer; president of operations and strategy for Providence’s South Division; and regional chief executive for Providence Southern California.
Earlier in his career, Erik served as chief executive for Tenet Healthcare’s Northeast Region, overseeing operations in three states. He also worked for Vanguard Health Systems, and prior to that was senior vice president of LifeBridge Health System. Erik is a member of several boards, including R1 and the Board of Directors of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. He also serves on the FBI Healthcare Advisory Council.
“On behalf of our entire community, I extend our warmest congratulations and welcome to the members of our board of trustees. I know that our work together will be productive and meaningful. The board’s guidance, expertise and insight will play pivotal roles in shaping the strategic direction of our institution, navigating challenges and ensuring that we continue to uphold the highest standards of care and innovation,” said Elizabeth Wako, M.D., Swedish Health Services president and CEO. “We also deeply appreciate the service and dedication of our departing board members. Their work exemplifies health care excellence and the commitment to advancing the well-being of our patients and the communities we serve.”
About Providence Swedish
Providence Swedish has served the Puget Sound region since the first Providence hospital opened in Seattle in 1877 and the first Swedish hospital opened in 1910. The two organizations affiliated in 2012 and today comprise the largest health care delivery system in Western Washington, with 22,000 caregivers, eight hospitals and 244 clinics. A not-for-profit family of organizations, Providence Swedish provides more than $406 million in community benefit in the Puget Sound Region each year. The health system offers a comprehensive range of services and specialty and subspecialty care in a number of clinical areas, including cancer, cardiovascular health, neurosciences, orthopedics, digestive health and women’s and children’s care.
