> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Jimmy Klein: Keeping a hospital healthy - URL: https://www.smdp.com/jimmy-klein-keeping-a-hospital-healthy/ - Published: 2005-04-18T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T06:40:22.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: Health, Mid-City, #archive-import, Homeless *By LESLIE ANNE JONES Special to the Daily Press* MID-CITY — St. John’s Health Center is a key employer, medical care provider and community entity in Santa Monica — but its trustees are aging. So Jimmy Klein and a few friends got together and formed NexGen: an organization of young professionals dedicated to supporting the foundation and ensuring the future of St. John’s. NexGen, short for the Next Generation, expects to see future trustees rise from its ranks. Its members, mostly aged 30 to 50, meet once a month to discuss fundraising and upcoming events. Klein, 33, is the chair of the organization, which was formed roughly a year and a half ago. Each year the group puts on two fundraising events. Klein attributes his dedication to the health center to a history of quality health care received from St. John’s. “I received most all my medical care my entire life here,” Klein said. Klein and his immediate family were all born at St. John’s: both parents, his wife and his son. Klein and his wife in late May are expecting their second child, who, of course, will be delivered at St. John’s. A true Westsider, Klein was raised in Pacific Palisades. After college, Klein spent seven years in Brentwood before settling in Santa Monica for the past four years. Klein comes from an athletic ilk: His father played for the L.A. Rams. “It was really neat as a grammar-school kid to have football cards with your dad’s face on it,” said Klein, who received a full-ride football scholarship to Stanford. He played for Stanford for two years, before he was injured and had the first of what would become seven knee surgeries, curtailing his sports career. His sister also went to Stanford on an athletic scholarship, for volleyball. She played in the Olympics in 1996 and was a four-time All-American at Stanford and later married an NBA player. Klein’s brother also went to Stanford on a volleyball scholarship. Klein is active in a variety of philanthropies. He serves on the board of the Buck Cardinal athletic scholarship at Stanford, and he is an active alum on the investment committee of Loyola High School in south central L.A. Klein served as chair of the Cahalan awards dinner, where Loyola High honors its distinguished alumni. Last September Klein flew in to Washington D.C. to meet the mayor, Anthony Williams — the 2004 honored alum of Loyola High. This past weekend Klein was busy volunteering at the Jimmy Stewart Relay Marathon, which draws 10,000 runners and spectators. All proceeds from the event went to St. John’s — since 1982, $8.5 million have been raised. During the day, Klein is a private wealth advisor and first vice president of investments in the Merrill Lynch private banking and investment group in Century City. He took time out from his work day to chat with the Daily Press in the St. John’s foundation office. How long have you been involved with St. John’s? “Really the real involvement started with Next Generation, which — call it 16 or 18 months. But even before my parents — my grandparents were not born here, but received most of their medical care here as well. And so I’ve really gotten involved since the birth of the Next Generation group, which I chair.” What makes St. John’s important to you? > “Over time, as part of a member of NexGen, if you were to spend 10 years, and... sit on pretty much any and every committee, and by the end of that you’re going to be pretty far ahead of even most of the current trustees.” “It’s having such a great history of medical care here, my father also works here in the foundation. And so I’ve had more opportunity than most to be exposed to the events and to the people that make up St. John’s. We have a large number of friends here now that are giving birth to children... most everyone that comes through here comments on what a special place it is, and it’s great that there’s a new wing, and the birthing suites are really nice, people comment on that — but actually people spend more time talking about the nurses and the quality of the people that are caring for them, and I think that’s a distinguishing factor of St. John’s. Why do most people get involved? “Everyone on the board has had some tie to St. John’s — they were born here, their parents were born here, they had their children here, and it really was started out with a core group of about five of us, and it wasn’t too difficult to reach out and seek people that wanted to give their time and be involved. And it’s grown to about 22 people.” What was the impetus for NexGen? “The rationale or reason behind this group was the average person has a void from where they’re born, obviously, hopefully if they’re married they have kids, maybe after their kids are born, there’s a period of time somewhere in their 30s to maybe their 50s where they don’t really have a need to have a relationship with the hospital because they’re in good health. And so there’s a group of young professionals in their 30s to 50s who’ve come together to recognize that St. John’s has played a valuable role in their lives, their families lives, and frankly the community’s lives. And our mission is to help fill that void in the time where we hopefully wouldn’t have reason to be here, and we come together to help support the efforts of the foundation and really help ensure that the St. John’s that we know today, the center that provides topnotch health care, it will be there for us and for others in the future.” How many members of NexGen are there? We are, on the steering committee, roughly 20 and, again, we’re still in our infancy, but we’re participating — we’re not looking to recreate the wheel so to speak — so we have roughly two events a year that we put our own name on. The next such event is coming next month, we’re having a wine tasting party in the Palisades at my sister and brother-inlaw’s house. But tomorrow and Sunday we are volunteering, we are volunteering tomorrow and participating Sunday in the Jimmy Stewart Relay Marathon. And so we’ll have somewhere about 50 people, 50 to 100 actual active people that we’ve invited, and we’ve also sponsored a number of teams to run and race in the marathon on Sunday. I’ve sponsored a team in my office.” Are there physicians in NexGen? “As NexGen evolves, one initiative we’ve taken in recent months was including physicians as members. So it’s a good opportunity for all of us, we’re all in different professions, but we’re adding on the physicians, and one of the benefits we have as NexGen members is relationships with the hospital, relationships with the people that are working in the hospitals, so that if we walk in the door with some sort of emergency they will hopefully know us, as opposed to just another face off the street.” What do NexGen members do when they meet? “It’s essentially the board getting together and talking about what is it that we’ve done, where are we going, who are new interested members. We’ve essentially split ourselves into some sub-committees and a membership committee, special-events committee, and we talk about basically how we’re doing and do we have any more ideas for the future. So we’ll get together on Tuesday and talk about how the marathon went, but also focus on the upcoming wine-tasting reception, we’re expecting about 100 people to that, so we’re figuring out who those people are and making sure they receive the invitation and what not. How does the group interact with the board of trustees? “One thing I’d also like to mention that I neglected was the board of trustees has extended an offer to the board of NexGen to sit on their committees as ad hoc members. So we’re in the process of selecting certain members of NexGen to actually go and participate as a full participating member on the finance committee... and things of that nature. So that was something that will be a great experience for us all and also add to the allure of being part of NexGen. How long do you plan to chair? “That’s a little bit undefined. I would say it’s a couple years. Part of what we like to do is allow people who have the desire to have the opportunity to serve in whichever capacity they wish. There are some very motivated and qualified people that I think would like to be chair too. So I envision myself serving in this role for a couple years and then letting someone else take the reins so to speak. But it’s very much of a democracy; this isn’t at all a dictatorship or monarchy by any stretch.” What’s the future of NexGen? “I think that we have the framework now to move forward, and our goal is really to create or grow in membership of the NexGen at large. And frankly it’s open to anyone and everyone who have an interest in being involved with St. John’s. So it’s really not a club or anything of that nature. We’re looking for anyone and everyone who’d like to come and participate. Our motto really is for events that anyone is welcome to come, meet everybody, and kind of get a firsthand look at who we are and what we’re doing. And if people come to a second event, we’ll go and ask them if they want to become a full member of the NexGen. There is currently a $250 membership fee... There is an open invitation to join NexGen.” What’s your favorite thing about Santa Monica? “I love Ocean Avenue... one of the things my wife and I really became attached to is walking up and down Ocean Avenue and Montana. I think it’s being close to the ocean and being outdoors. And it’s a good mix of a nice neighborhood to raise a family, but also has a lot to offer in terms of restaurants and what’s left of my night life.” What’s the most critical issue in Santa Monica? “I’m a pretty ‘glass is half-full’ kind of guy. I’m not a big complainer. If there was one thing that would be nice — and I don’t know the answer — but it would be nice to figure out the homeless problem in this city. That would be something that would be nice to address and figure it out.” ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/041805-03_01.jpg) (Photo: Special to the Daily Press) *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 18, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/041805.pdf?ref=smdp.com)