I particularly appreciated John and his partners’ list of priorities for their accounting firm: family community, firm. I would add faith as it is an important part of John’s life (note his leadership in the Catholic Communities’ capital campaign).
The focus on family led the partners to decide they would remain a regional firm and not expand outside of the greater Bay Area. That meant being home for their families most nights and sleeping in their own beds, instead nights in hotels while serving clients elsewhere.
The Weekly correctly praised John’s leadership on the ValleyCare Health System board as it went through the transition from long-time CEO Marcy Feit to Scott Gregerson. Gregerson then assembled a new senior management team. Gregerson and the board then evaluated proposals from Stanford and other major health care players (UCSF/Muir) and then decided Stanford Health was the best long-term fit.
With Obamacare, the days of the independent community hospital have ended and Sensiba and the board acted when they could control which organization they joined.
I have known John for a number of years—meeting him in the Pleasanton Rotary—and have been impressed by his wisdom as well as his willingness to humbly serve (picking up boxes of t-shirts, for instance).
He is the type of community leader—through volunteer service—that we are truly lucky to have in Pleasanton and the valley.
I can say the same for the late Ted Wieskamp, who died last month. I attended the memorial service for Ted, whose wife, Ayn, is the East Bay Regional Parks Director for the Livermore Valley. I knew Ted through his commitment to fitness and Livermore Fitness Day as well as his service on the ValleyCare board when it was in a critical period of deciding whether to build the Pleasanton hospital. Ayn served on the Livermore City Council before moving to the regional park board.
It was notable that Ted had his medical care through Kaiser (and gave me a couple of excellent referrals) and yet believed the health care for the valley was so important that he stood for election to the ValleyCare board. The Rev. Bill Nebo presided over the memorial service and told of how he got to know and respect Ted when they served together on the board in as critical a time as John Sensiba and his colleagues have faced over the last couple of years.
