Jere W. Thompson, Jr.
Chairman of the Board
Southwestern Medical Foundation Trustees are well respected for their community involvement and well-known through volunteerism, civic engagement, and corporate leadership.
Chairman of the Board
Chairman of the Board
Jere Thompson, Jr. was Co-Founder and CEO of Ambit Energy, an international retail energy provider. Started in 2005, Ambit served 1.2 million electricity and natural gas customers in 17 states, Japan and Canada before being acquired by Vistra Energy, parent company of TXU Energy, in 2019. In 2010, Ambit was named the #1 Fastest Growing Private Company in America by Inc. Magazine. Prior to Ambit, Mr. Thompson founded CapRock Fiber Network which built, owned and operated fiber, voice and data networks across Texas and four neighboring states. He took CapRock Communications public and was CEO until it was acquired in 2000.
Mr. Thompson is past Chairman of the Dallas Citizens Council, and in addition to Southwest Medical Foundation, he sits on the executive boards of the O’Donnell Foundation, the Hoblitzelle Foundation, Dallas Medical Resource and Cistercian Preparatory School. He served for 11 years as a board member, including 6 years as Chairman, of the Texas Turnpike Authority and later the North Texas Tollway Authority.
Mr. Thompson grew up in Dallas and graduated from Cistercian Preparatory School. He received an Economics degree from Stanford University and a MBA from The University of Texas in Austin. He and his wife, Carolyn, have been married 36 years and have five children.
President and CEO
President and CEO
Kathleen Gibson became President & CEO of Southwestern Medical Foundation in 2012. Prior to that, she worked in financial services at Citi, as President of Central US Commercial; also, at Bank of America in various roles including Head of Asset Management Risk, President of Southwest Private Banking, Head of Southwest Corporate Banking, and President of Bank of America Dallas. Gibson is the 10th President in the Foundation’s more than eighty-year history and the first woman to be asked to lead the organization. Under her leadership, the Foundation has established key priorities for growth and long-term sustenance. She is responsible for new efforts to engage a broad community of advocates and contributors, while overseeing the business, endowment, and core programs driving engagement, affinity, and impact. During her tenure, the Foundation celebrated its 75th year – an opportunity to showcase the critical role the Foundation played in building quality health care in our region and re-engage community leadership in advancing the progress essential in health care today.
Gibson has served as both a leader in business and in community. She serves on the board of Southwestern Medical Foundation, as Board Chair for Texas A&M Foundation, and Dallas Committee on Foreign Relations, the Visiting Nurse Association of Texas (VNA), among others. Her north Texas civic involvement has included service on the boards of the Dallas Regional Chamber, Children’s Medical Center, Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation, The Dallas Opera, The Lamplighter School, Dallas Citizens Council, and the Dallas 2012 Olympic Bid Committee.
She is active at Texas A&M University, serving as the Board Chair, as past Chair of The Association of Former Students, and as a member of the Advisory Board of The Bush School of Government and Public Service. She has been recognized by Texas A&M as a Distinguished Alumnus, with the Tyrus R. Timm Honor Registry and Women’s Legacy Awards, as Fish Camp Namesake, and as 2018 Campus Muster Speaker. In 2021, Gibson received the Outstanding Alumni award from Texas A&M’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Gibson has been recognized by the Dallas Business Journal as a ‘Top 25 Industry Leader in Women in Business,’ and by the Profiles in Diversity Journal in the 10th Annual “Women Worth Watching” edition.
Born in Texas, Gibson lived several early years in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Texas A&M University and attended school at SMU in Oxford and SMU in Russia. Kathleen and her husband, Robert, have two daughters, Catherine and Sarah.
(*designates Executive Committee Members)
Jere W. Thompson, Jr.
Chairman of the Board
James R. Huffines
Past Chairman
Kathleen M. Gibson
President and CEO
Kay Schlankey
Senior Vice President and CFO
Emily Davis
Corporate Secretary