Gary Strong has retired as the CEO of the American Red Cross California Gold Country Region, responsible for leading, engaging, and recognizing staff and thousands of volunteers in execution of the mission of preventing and alleviating human suffering in the face of emergencies.

As an audit manager in the Los Angeles office of Ernst & Young, he developed expertise in defense contracting and media companies. Strong was director of auditing for the Times Mirror Co. and controller of the Los Angeles Times, where he led the financial integration of acquisitions, enterprise financials systems implementations, and adoption of Sarbanes/Oxley controls. For a decade as senior vice president of finance of The Sacramento Bee, he was responsible for all financial operations and held interim assignments for leading marketing, interactive publishing, and printing operations.

Strong is a board member of the Nasdaq-traded Oak Valley & Eastern Sierra Community Bank, where he serves on the audit and investment committees. He is a Qualified Financial Expert and is NACD Directorship Certified®.

As Red Cross board chair, he led the integration of several independent chapter boards during a series of geographical consolidations. He is a past board chair for the American Leadership Forum—Mountain Valley Chapter and currently serves as treasurer and finance committee chair. He has served as finance chair and audit chair for both KVIE public television and the Sacramento Region Community Foundation, as well as board member for several other not-for-profit organizations.

Strong holds a bachelor of arts in business economics from UC Santa Barbara. In addition to his certified public accountant designation, he has earned qualifications as a certified fraud examiner and certified information systems auditor.