Benjamin R. Aune, President and CEO

Benjamin Aune provides leadership and serves as the organization’s senior representative to all constituencies, both external and internal. Ben is responsible for the overall management of the organization in the following areas: program administration, planning, fundraising and community development, Board relations, financial management, budgeting, advocacy, human resource management, marketing and communications.

Before joining Operation Access, Mr. Aune was Executive Vice President of the Benedictine Health System, the nation’s largest Catholic provider of services to the elderly with 70 owned and managed hospitals and nursing homes in 10 states. Prior to the Benedictine Health System, he was President and CEO of InterHealth, the nation’s sixth largest healthcare alliance at the time, with offices in St Paul, MN and Washington, D.C. Mr. Aune’s other executive positions in health include: Corporate Director of Health Systems for Honeywell, Inc. in Minneapolis, MN; Executive Director of the Governor’s Council on Health Promotion and Wellness for the state of Minnesota; and Executive Director of the Center for Health Promotion, Brooklyn Center, MN.

Mr. Aune also taught on the mission field of Papua-New Guinea, directed a group home for delinquent youth, and for six years ran a work experience/career exploration program in a junior high school designed to prevent 9 th grade students from dropping out of school.

Mr. Aune is active in the community serving on the Board of the Marin Symphony, The Institute for Health and Healing Community Council, The San Francisco Foundation Oral Health Initiative Advisory Council, the San Francisco Charity Care Working Group, The Association for Community Health Improvement Health Assessment Committee.

Mr. Aune is recent participant in the 2006-2007 Leadership San Francisco (LSF), a ten month program offered through the SF Chamber of Commerce to develop “future community leaders who are both knowledgeable about the city and concerned with its well-being.” Ben is also an inaugural member of the Advisory Council for Operation Giving Back, the surgical volunteerism initiative of the American College of Surgeons.

Mr. Aune earned a Bachelor’s degree from Luther College, Decorah, IA; a Master of Arts degree from the College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota; and a Master of Arts degree from Yale University Divinity School, New Haven, CT. He has a certificate in strategic management from the American Management Association, and post-graduate executive management training from Penn State University.