Barry Wolcott

I’m the son of New England public school teachers, the husband of my college sweetheart, the father of two boys, and the grandfather of five. After graduating from Middlebury College, I joined the Army, attended Johns Hopkins Medical School and then completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

My career began with a series of plum military assignments: faculty member of a residency program at an Army teaching hospital; emergency medicine consultant to the Surgeon General; department chairman at the military’s medical university; medical staff officer for an Army Corps; graduate studies at the Army War College; commander of the Army hospital at West Point, and commandant of the military’s medical university.

Afterwards, I was one of four founders of a highly successful venture-funded startup eventually purchased by McKesson. I then served as the Chief Medical Officer for WebMD during its period of most rapid growth, and subsequently joined a UK-based firm creating advanced medical decision support software for multi-national companies and organizations.

Success in these various environments resulted from my learning how to make fewer stupid mistakes than did others, from enlisting the support of colleagues and subordinates in identifying and eliminating stupid policies and processes that stifled efficiency, and being able to teach those skills to those working with me.