Steve Tarr has extensive academic and industrial experience providing senior leadership in a wide range of industries including higher education, healthcare, senior living, and technology. Highlights include:
Fellow – Drucker School of Management, Claremont Graduate University
Board Member – EvergreenHealth
Board Member – Granger Cobb Institute, Washington State University
Senior Executive Partner – Gartner
Chief Operating Officer – Acucela
Executive Vice President – Brookdale/Emeritus Senior Living
Chief Information Officer – Santa Clara Valley Health and Hospital System
Chief Information Officer – Honor Health, Phoenix
Chief Technology Officer – University of Washington Medicine
Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer–Advanced Radio Telecom
Vice President of Information Technology – Verizon Wireless/AirTouch
Instructor – University of Massachusetts, Isenberg School of Management
Instructor – Washington State University, Carson College of Business
Notably, Colin Powell honored Tarr as a Global Breakaway Leader in New York City, recognizing his broad experience building and leading stakeholder-focused teams in high-pressure, highly regulated environments that have delivered exceptional business growth and performance.
Tarr is presently a Fellow at the Drucker School of Management where he develops practices that support and extend Peter Drucker’s wisdom for people-centered management with lifelong learning for society’s benefit.
Steve Tarr Consulting LLC, focuses on strategy and execution with an emphasis on a systems approach to problem solving. His public service roles include healthcare and higher education strategy, leadership, mentoring, and advisory guidance. He writes about the digital commons and information overload at TechnologyAndDemocracy.org and publishes The Thoughtful Leader series on Medium.
Previously, he was Senior Executive Partner at the global technology advisory Gartner Group, guiding company executives on business goals and the role of technology. Prior to that he was Chief Operating Officer at Acucela, an early stage pharmaceutical company where he was responsible for clinical trial operations, research, formulation, and manufacturing of candidate drugs for age-related macular degeneration.
Tarr led transformations at a number of healthcare organizations in the U.S., including Brookdale/Emeritus Senior Living, Santa Clara Valley Health System in San Jose, California, Honor Health in Phoenix, Arizona, and the University of Washington Medicine in Seattle, Washington.
In mobile and broadband wireless, Tarr served as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Advanced Radio Telecom, a company with service across the U.S., the U.K. and Scandinavia. Most notably, he was the VP of IT at AirTouch Cellular, which is now the western U.S. division of Verizon Wireless.
He earned his PhD studying under the renowned Harold Linstone at Portland State University, U.S, focusing on the use of multiple perspectives for decision-making. Tarr earned an MS in Computer Science and BS in Biology from Washington State University, U.S.