Education
Janet Griffin received her bachelor’s degree in political science from The Pennsylvania State University and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Iowa, College of Law.

Career
Griffin is responsible for Wellmark’s public policy initiatives in Iowa and South Dakota. She also serves as Board Secretary. She is one of two public members of the South Dakota Risk Pool’s Governing Board. She previously chaired Iowa’s State Risk Pool Board. Griffin joined the company in 1982, and has served as corporate counsel, provided oversight of compliance and regulatory affairs and served as business ethics office. Before Wellmark, she served as staff attorney and First Deputy Insurance Commissioner for the State of Iowa.

Education
A native of Jamaica, W.I., George Hanna received his bachelor’s degree in Finance from the University of Miami where he graduated Magna Cum Laude. He also earned his law degree from the University of Miami School of Law where he graduated Cum Laude.

Career
Hanna joined Wellmark in August 2007, as Senior Vice President, General Counsel, and Business Ethics and Compliance Officer for Wellmark, Inc. dba Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa. He is currently Senior Vice President and General Counsel.

Prior to joining the Wellmark Legal Department, Hanna was General Attorney and Associate General Counsel for AT&T, Inc. in Atlanta, GA, after its merger with BellSouth. During his 12-year career at BellSouth, he served in various roles, including Vice President & Group General Counsel for its Advertising and Publishing Group, its Intellectual Property Group, and its international operations.

Education
A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Keith Heckel received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from West Virginia University with majors in Finance and Marketing.  He is trained in LEAN, and has completed executive leadership courses at the University of Michigan and Duke University.

Career
Keith joined Wellmark in March 2009 as Group Vice President of Sales and Marketing.  Prior to that, he was with Discover Financial Services in Chicago.  He started his career with Discover as an Account Representative for Novus Networks and held multiple roles throughout his tenure, including Vice President, National Accounts and Vice President, Sales and Marketing.  Keith’s most recent roles were Senior Vice President, Cardmember Services and Senior Vice President, External Enterprises.  He has over 20 years of combined experience in sales, marketing and operations. 

Education
Patty Huffman received her bachelor of science degree in business administration from the University of Phoenix. She is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries, a Member of the American Academy of Actuaries, and a Fellow, Life Management Institute.

Career
Huffman is the chief actuary at Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield. She is responsible for all actuarial activities, including financial IBNR reserves, financial forecasting, health care trends, new product pricing, medical care research, and maintaining policyholder enrollment data.

Education
Laura Jackson received her undergraduate degree in psychology from Iowa State University, and a master's degree in human resource management from Marymount University in Arlington, Va.

Career

When Jackson joined the company in 2002, she served as the Senior Vice President of Human Resources.

In the fall of 2008, Jackson led the development of an expanded strategy to collaboratively build a sustainable health care system in our two states by 2014.  This ultimately means that the average increase in health care costs for our members will be equal to the Consumer Price Index, a standard measure of inflation.  This led to her appointment In September 2009, to be the Group Vice President, Provider Relations and Health Management.

Prior to joining Wellmark in July of 2002, Jackson was second vice president of human resources at The Principal Financial Group in Des Moines, where she worked for four years. Before that, she worked in human resources at Professional Property Management, Inc., and Younkers, Inc., both in the Des Moines area, and at Michael Baker, Jr., Inc., and Short Brothers, Inc., both in Virginia.

Jackson is a member of the Society of Human Resource Management and the World at Work and participates on the NAACP – Health and Education Committee and is a current board member of the Wellness Council of Iowa. She is also a past sub-committee member of the Iowa Business Council, former Salisbury House Foundation and Orchard Place board member. Jackson possesses three certifications: Professional in Human Resources (PHR), Certified Compensation Professional (CCP), and certified facilitator of the Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument.

Education
Dr. Karazija received his bachelor’s degree in Pre-Medicine studies from Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois where he graduated Magna Cum Laude.  He received his Medical Doctorate from Rush Medical College in Chicago and completed Internal Medicine Residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin Affiliated Hospitals in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Paul is currently Board Certified in Internal Medicine.

Career
Dr. Karazija joined Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield in May 2008 as a Medical Director.  He is currently our Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, appointed to that position in May 2009.  Prior to joining Wellmark, Dr. Karazija was a Medical Director for Medica Healthplans in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  He also served as Vice President of Provider Reimbursement Policy for UnitedHealth Networks, a division of the UnitedHealth Group prior to joining Medica.  Dr. Karazija is a member of the American College of Physicians.

McCullough also is a Certified Internal Auditor and a Fellow, Life Management Institute.

Career
McCullough joined Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield in September 2007, as vice president of Audit Services.  In this role, she oversees Internal Audit, the Special Investigations Unit, and Quality Review and Reporting.

Prior to joining Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, McCullough was vice president, Corporate Audit and Security for Ohio Casualty Group in Fairfield Ohio (2005-2007); group director of Internal Audit Services for Ernst & Young LLP in Des Moines (1999-2005); and spent 13 years in various audit and risk-control positions for The Principal Financial Group in Des Moines, including 5 years as the General Auditor at Principal Financial Group.

Education
Debbie Miner is a graduate of Northwest Missouri State University. Debbie received her bachelor’s degree in accounting and office administration and has taken graduate course work at the University of Iowa. She is a certified public accountant.

Career
Since joining the company in 1978, Miner has served numerous leadership roles in Finance and Operations. Her most recent positions were Vice President of Membership and Enrollment and Vice President of Customer Service.

On January 1, 2009, Miner became the President and CEO of First Administrators. First Administrators is a third party administrator that provides benefit solutions for employer groups. First Administrators has offices located in Des Moines, Sioux City, Sioux Falls and Rapid City.

Miner has supported many community organizations, and currently is a Board Member of the Central Iowa Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association where she serves as the President.

Education
Sandy Nelson has a degree in business administration and computer science.

Career
Nelson joined Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield in 1998, and was named vice president of Information Systems, Applications in 2000. She assumed her current position of vice president, Project Management and Shared Services in August of 2005. Nelson is responsible for the establishment and operation of Wellmark’s Project Management Office. She also oversees the Shared Services responsibilities. She previously was responsible for Information Management, Electronic Commerce and various other corporate systems.

Prior to joining Wellmark, Nelson was at the Principal Financial Group, where she held various positions in the Information Systems environment.

She serves on the board of the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society and also is on the Education Advisory Board for Grand View College.

Education
Noecker graduated from Central College with a degree in Business Management. She holds several professional designations, including Certified Health Consultant (CHC), and Fellow, Academy for Healthcare Management (FAHM). She is a member of the Terrace Hill Foundation and serves on the board of the National Labor Office of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

Career
Cathy Noecker is vice president, Key and National Account Sales, at Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield. In this role Noecker has responsibility for:

• National Accounts retention and sales support for plans with 750+ covered employee lives
• Key Accounts retention and sales support for 101- to 749-life plans
• Inter Plan and Marketing Information Unit, which supports Wellmark’s relationship with other Blue plans and the Consortium Health Plan; prepares requests for proposal (RFPs) and bid solicitations; manages Association-level sales initiatives, and
• Labor, as liaison to labor unions to support sale and retention of Taft-Hartley business (insurance purchased directly by labor unions with labor contributions) and other labor affiliated business

Education
Elaine Palmer obtained her bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa.

Career
Palmer joined Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield in 1993 and has leadership responsibilities for customer and provider service, BlueCard^® inquiries, and Federal Employee Program operations. Palmer’s background includes 22 years of experience in health insurance, leading teams in both operations and information technology. Before joining Wellmark, she held various operations and information technology leadership positions for McNerney Heintz, Inc., most recently serving as vice president of management information systems specializing in integrated systems supporting managed health care and physician/clinic practice management. Palmer recently served as Vice President, Claims Administration, for Wellmark.

Education
Lyndon Peterson holds a master's degree in business administration from Drake University, a master's degree in hospital and health administration from The University of Iowa, and a bachelor's degree in business administration with a major in finance from The University of Iowa. Peterson is also a Fellow, Life Management Institute, and Associate, Customer Service as designated by the Life Office Management Association, and a Health Insurance Associate as designated by the Health Insurance Association of America.

Career
Peterson joined Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield in 1983 and currently serves as vice president, Sales and interim vice president, Corporate & Marketing Communications. In these roles, Peterson has responsibility for:

• Iowa individual <65 new sales and retention
• Iowa individual >65 new sales and retention
• Iowa small group (2-100 lives) new sales and retention
• South Dakota new sales and retention, all segments
• Iowa and South Dakota sales operations including broker training, distribution planning & marketing systems, project management, and sales process improvement
• Corporate communications
• Marketing communications

Education
Rick Riley's educational background includes an undergraduate degree in liberal arts and a master’s degree in health planning — both from the University of Iowa.

Career

Riley is accountable for the underwriting activities of Wellmark, Inc. He provides corporate leadership on risk evaluation for individual, small group, and large group business -- this includes fully insured, stop loss, and alternative funding arrangements across the product continuum -- from indemnity plans to HMO plans. Other responsibilities include consulting with sales and customers on benefit plans and financial arrangements and providing overall underwriting direction for meeting corporate objectives. Riley has been with Wellmark since 1982, and has served in various leadership and professional capacities during that time.

Riley has been involved in several community activities and currently serves on the WellPAC Board of Directors and is a member of the West Des Moines Library Board of Trustees.

Education
Denis Roy is a graduate of Adelphi University, N.Y., with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

Career 
Denis Roy joined Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield in March 1997 and currently serves as Group Vice President and Chief Information Officer.  He is responsible for all Information Technology needs for the corporation, the Business Intelligence and Reporting group, and Wellmark’s Third Party Administrator, First Administrators, Inc. where he is also Chairman of the Board.  During his tenure at Wellmark, Roy has led the transformation of Information Technology from simply a claims and membership processor to a full service provider of web based services and data analytic capabilities.  He serves on several Blue Cross Blue Shield Association advisory groups and the Boards of the Iowa Better Business Bureau, the BCBS IT Round Table, and the Iowa CIO Forum.  He is still an active member of both the IT Round Table and the CIO Forum.  Roy had previously served as Regional Vice President of Electronic Data Systems (EDS) where he was responsible for all EDS service delivery at several Blue Cross and Blue Shield organizations, including Iowa and South Dakota. Roy joined EDS in 1980 as a systems programmer and progressed through several executive leadership roles during his career at EDS.  

Education
Signor graduated from William Penn University with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. 

Career 
Signor joined Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield in 1977 and has leadership responsibilities for claims administration and BlueCard® operations.  Signor’s background includes 32 years of health insurance experience, leading teams in training, information technology, membership/enrollment, customer/provider service and claims.  Signor most recently served as BlueCard Executive and director of Inter-Plan operations, specializing in and supporting national account operations.

Education
Dave Southwell is a graduate of Kent State University, with a master’s degree in business administration from Eastern Michigan University.

Career
Southwell joined Wellmark, Inc. in August 1997, as the company’s group vice president, financial officer and treasurer. As group vice president, he is responsible for the finance functions, including actuarial, underwriting, investments, real estate, as well as facilities and shared services.

Southwell’s background includes more than 20 years of provider experience in the health business, all in the University of Michigan hospitals’ financial services area. He spent 10 years as chief financial officer of the University of Michigan Health System, where he was responsible for the financial operations of seven hospitals and a number of primary and specialty clinics with combined assets of more than $1.4 billion. In addition, Southwell helped establish a health maintenance organization, in which he developed reimbursement and provider contracting systems.

Southwell is currently serving on the board of directors of ChildServe and Variety — The Children’s Charity.

Education
Frank Stork is a graduate of Loras College and the University of Iowa College of Law, where he served as Notes & Comments Editor of the Iowa Law Review. He also received a master’s degree in public affairs from the University of Iowa.

Career 
Stork is responsible for developing, implementing and overseeing the company’s government relations program at the state and federal levels.  Also, as a member of the legal staff, he provides legal support for the company’s public policy initiatives and other business areas.  Stork joined Wellmark as a corporate officer in 2001.

Prior to joining Wellmark, Stork served as executive director of the Iowa Board of Regents.  He also practiced law in Des Moines and was a partner/shareholder in both the Gamble & Davis and the Dickinson law firms.  He has extensive experience in state government, including employment as director of state relations at the University of Iowa, Secretary of the Iowa Senate, and assistant attorney general in the Iowa Department of Justice.  Stork has served on several public boards and commissions, including the Iowa Board of Regents, the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors, the Iowa College Student Aid Commission, the State Board of Tax Review, and the Iowa Supreme Court Commission on Unauthorized Practice of Law.

Education
Tim Weber received a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering as well as a master’s of business administration, both from the University of Iowa.

Career
A native Iowan, Weber’s career began with the U.S. Postal Service in Washington, D.C., where he was part of the national industrial engineering team. He moved back to Iowa in 1993, as the plant engineer for the Des Moines Processing and Distribution Center of the U.S. Postal Service.

Weber joined Kirke-Van Orsdel, Inc., now a part of Mercer Health & Benefits, in 1995, and was responsible for a number of large-business process re-engineering initiatives. He transitioned into product development and was a member of several different leadership teams responsible for the development and management of new business initiatives. These included the development of a third-party administrator (TPA) that provided health plan administration services for large employer groups, and development of a benefits administration capability to service national mid-sized employer groups.

Weber joined Wellmark as the group leader of Research & Development in December, 2004, and was promoted to vice president of Marketing in July 2006. His responsibilities include market segment management, market strategy, market research, and product development. He was named president and CEO of the company’s health management organization (HMO), Wellmark Health Plan of Iowa, Inc. (WHPI) in January 2008.

In the community, Weber serves as vice chair of the board of directors of the Iowa Arthritis Foundation. He also serves on the board of education of the St. Francis of Assisi school.