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Chief Wellness Officer
Neace Lukens
Indianapolis

Mike Campbell is known as an especially passionate advocate for his clients. "A lot of people can be good at what they do but they do not have Mike's passion," said Betty Blunk, director of human resources and Six Sigma at MacAllister Machinery Co., in Indianapolis.

Like others, Blunk cited Campbell's high degree of integrity.

In the past year, Campbell laid a lot of the groundwork that allowed the company to open its own internal health clinic.

"We've been on a wellness adventure with Mike in various stages since 2003, but this was really a step up," Blunk said. "This year we've taken our entire clinic staff on a minimum of one visit to all 17 of our locations, as well as going back and visiting with chronic patients even more than that."

At Pratt Visual Solutions, an Indianapolis-based company which provides visual solutions to retail customers, John Kirby, director of project management and human resources, praised Campbell for his long-term vision.

"But that vision is grounded in a lot of experience and expertise and good listening ability," Kirby said. "Mike really reads the market, he reads the customers. He understands that success is based on everybody partnering together."

Kirby said that Campbell is a tireless advocate for him and his firm. "I've never seen anybody work harder to deliver what we ask for."

Kirby also said his firm had a very tough renewal year with a couple of particularly difficult claims, but that Campbell was able to achieve remarkable savings.

Chief Wellness Officer
Neace Lukens
Louisville, Ky.
Category: Health Care

Often Imitated, Never Duplicated

Mike Campbell, chief wellness officer for Neace Lukens in Louisville, Ky., is the kind of man who doesn't expect anyone to be able to duplicate his efforts. Follow his lead maybe, but not match him. For in the benefits space, he's done just about anything you can think of.
From instituting wellness programs in corporate settings, to spreading the word about the importance of wellness at home and in social settings, to running his own benefits company, CLS Benefits Solutions Inc., Campbell has contributed more than his fair share. His mission is simple. It is to "see people change for the good."

In an era of rising obesity, a time when corporations are cutting back on benefits, and when health care costs continue on the up and up and up, Campbell must sometimes feel as if he's fighting an uphill battle. That's exactly the point. Why even be in the business if you are not there to try and make a difference?

Campbell, who has served such organizations as The Leapfrog Group, a large-employer purchasing group, Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation, and the Indiana Healthy Weight Initiative Task Force, sees the promotion of wellness at work and at home as his inalienable duty.

He is a wellness fundamentalist, and proud of it. The holder of a theology degree from Kentucky Christian College, Campbell brands himself as an independent thinker. That's part of why he deserves to be named a Responsibility Leader®. "If you are going to succeed and survive, you must have a fundamentally different thought process, one that focuses on studying and practicing personal wellness as an integral part of your life," he said.

Over a 25-year career, Campbell has saved his clients millions of dollars in medical expenses, and if he hasn't saved hundreds of lives in repeating the wellness mantra, he's certainly extended lives by several years, even decades.

Senior Vice President
Wells Fargo Insurance Services USA Inc.
Houston

For some, it might have been considered a miracle. But for Tracy Dieterich, senior vice president with Wells Fargo Insurance Services USA Inc., it was all in a day's work. Last year, an employee of one of his clients, Big Brothers Big Sisters Lone Star, realized the organization's carrier had made an error in the printed material that had been distributed to covered employees. It said that in vitro fertilization was covered, but in reality it was not.

The employee was devastated; his wife needed the treatment. So he contacted Dieterich to see if he could find a miracle way to help. After all, in vitro coverage is very expensive, and trying to get it added to a plan would require a significant additional expense to his employer -- more than $20,000 a year -- which the nonprofit organization could not absorb.

Dieterich contacted senior management at the carrier and, using creative problem-solving techniques, negotiated the added benefit -- at no additional cost to the employer. For the client, it was worth more than $20,000 annually in real value. But to the employee affected, it was priceless. He and his wife are now expecting a baby.

Dietrich himself was a Little Brother as a child and today serves on the board of directors of Big Brothers Big Sisters. He attributes much of his success in life and business to his mentor.

"As he's grown," said Dan Stuchal, the vice president of Big Brothers Big Sisters Lone Star, "he has helped pay back the agency in so many ways -- personally, financially, through time and resources."

And performing the occasional miracle as well.

Senior Vice President
Wells Fargo Insurance Services USA Inc.,
Houston, Texas
Category: Health Care

Committed to the Community

Tracy Dieterich, senior vice president of Wells Fargo Insurance Services USA Inc., has been as committed to serving his clients and his employer, as he has been to serving his community in and around Houston.

He's used to giving his customers top-flight customer service, even if there's a chance that his clients may jump to another broker following an acquisition. In one particular case, he fought hard to reinsert in-vitro fertilization coverage to a policy. The coverage had inadvertently been left out of the policy by a health insurance carrier.

Ultimately what matters most is that he does the right thing. That can mean working weekends for clients, or volunteering for an array of nonprofit organizations. No surprise then, that Dieterich has been chosen to serve on different carriers' broker advisory councils and on the board of directors of three nonprofit organizations, one regional, one state and one national.

Dieterich, who has an engineering degree from Texas A&M University, has also made every effort to mentor the future generation into the benefits industry, for he knows the industry is competing for talent.

As his company's local practice leader, Dieterich, who has more than 25 years of experience in benefits both on the carrier and on the brokerage sides, has over the past few years recruited and trained new account managers.

Today, he still mentors them as they make their way up the industry ranks, knowing that they will one day become industry leaders in their own right.

"It's important to give back and leave our world a better place," Dieterich said.

Senior Vice President
Aon Hewitt
Clayton, Mo.

When it comes to wellness programs, employers sometimes have to use a "stick" approach rather than a "carrot" approach. That, at least, is what clients of Kathleen Gantz, senior vice president with Aon Hewitt in Clayton, Mo., have found.

One client, a leading manufacturer in the consumer products industry, realized a significant program cost reduction from a benefits strategy that Gantz developed and executed. The program encourages employees to exhibit healthier behaviors by treating health benefits as an element of total rewards. The challenge during the strategic development process included balancing employer goals with employee views, executing strategic tactics that maintained program competitiveness while reducing costs, and engaging employees and their dependents in healthy behaviors.

By designing and communicating a wellness program that drives employee engagement in healthy behaviors, consolidating vendor partnerships, partnering with best-in-class vendors to develop short-term and long-term program efficiencies, and providing a competitive benefits package that includes choice and reduced employee cost with adherence to program requirements, the company achieved $2 million in savings last year, and anticipates $5.3 million in savings over three years. A key goal moving forward is to shift to rewarding for actual improvement in health. In short, the creative solution has produced positive outcomes for the company as well as its employees.

"We have a rich plan and people use it," said one client, the senior vice president for compensation and benefits of a health care company. "Of course, there will always be some people who don't, but still, we were able to be below trend last year because of the direction we're moving."

Senior Vice President
Aon Hewitt
Clayton, Mo.
Category: Health Care

Most Fair and Ethical

Kathleen Gantz, a senior vice president with Aon Hewitt in Clayton, Mo., is known in the industry for being fair and exceedingly ethical. Clients often mention that her requests for proposals are the most complete in the industry.

She asks a barrage of questions up front, and she's capable of delivering the numbers as well. Key accomplishments include savings of more than $2 million in one year and $5.3 million over three years for clients, while keeping cost increases from 2011 to 2012 to 2 percent, well under the industry average.

She was the 2007 Aon Global Innovation Winner in the Operational Excellence category. She won the recognition for submitting a process improvement idea for tracking and managing budgets at the account level and for helping create a tool to improve the pricing of services.

Partly as a result of these efforts she was selected to sit on Aon Hewitt's national Large Case Management Committee and lead the committee sales SWAT team. In addition, she has also served a three-year term on Aon Hewitt's national compliance committee.

Gantz, a 1983 biology major from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, makes for a great example to the next generation of benefits brokers following in her footsteps. Gantz is a complete mentor for new college graduates and midlevel managers of the benefits broker team. She routinely helps younger brokers learn the business so that they can flourish in their careers.

She is a member of the St. Louis Employee Benefits Association and the Business Health Coalition, and she's an active volunteer with the youth in her local church.

Senior Vice President
HUB International
Metairie, La.

An 80-employee industrial firm had been advised by its broker years ago to move to a self-funded medical plan. It did, and the move was a disaster. Shortly into the new plan, the company realized its mistake. The contract basis for the reinsurance was not sufficient, and the client was left fully exposed to an annual claims tail, making it difficult to return to a fully funded insurance plan. At each renewal, the reinsurance carrier increased the cost for the coverage, shifting more exposure back on to the client.

The incumbent broker told the company it would just have to suck it up.

But it didn't. Instead, it turned to Liz Raymond, whose specialty in complex issues was a significant asset in determining a solution to the company's problem. After months of negotiations, she found a carrier who took the client on a fully insured basis, and agreed to a competitive stand-alone run-out on the reinsurance policy.

By moving back to a fully insured plan, the client was able to budget accurately for its medical plan costs and realize a savings of almost $200,000 last year, Raymond's first year as its broker. The savings meant a 21 percent increase to the bottom line of the company.

"I don't know what magic she did, and I don't care," the company's controller said. "She got us back with a fully insured plan, and got us every dime possible.

"From a cash flow standpoint, I can breathe. I don't have to panic," she added. "Now I can run the business and manage the cash.

"We are absolutely delighted."

Senior Vice President
HUB International
Metairie, La.
Category: Health Care

Where Does She Find the Time?

Like most of her benefits consultant peers, Liz Raymond covers all her professional bases, from negotiating hard for the best price for clients, to emphasizing the value of the consultative aspect of her work, to cutting costs, to leading teams and "parachuting" in at the last minute and rejiggering benefits programs for clients large and small.

But Raymond, senior vice president with HUB International, does far more, and her list of pro-bono activities are extensive, from organizing impromptu blood drives to providing a lifeline, literally, to businesses that were in danger of going under in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in April 2010.

Raymond, based in Metairie, La., is active in supporting the Susan G. Komen Foundation, the American Heart Association, Second Harvesters Food Bank, the American Diabetes Association, Kingsley House, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the National MS Society, the Muscular Dystrophy Association and Cooper Life Fund which provides support for families with newborns in the neonatal intensive care unit at Terrebonne General Medical Center in Houma, La., south of New Orleans.

For the past eight years, Raymond has mentored two college graduates, providing career and professional guidance to both. Raymond is also mentoring a college sophomore interested in exploring the benefits brokerage industry. The student also shadows Raymond during summer holidays and school breaks.

Raymond joined HUB International through the acquisition if Hibernia Insurance Agency in 2007, and she is the recipient of numerous sales awards from both organizations. Previous to her insurance agency experience, she was a sales manager with Unum and a senior vice president with the health insurance giant United Healthcare.

Area Vice President Employee Benefits
Gallagher Benefit Services
Bloomington, Minn.

Clients of Brian Owen, area vice president of employee benefits with Gallagher Benefit Services, said that his ability to easily explain the complexities of benefits coverage issues to employees at any level takes the fear out of making benefits changes.

"Brian and his partner Sandy Oleson are great translators and they are very accessible," said Denise Griffith, director of human resources at Cottage Grove, Minn.-based South Washington County Schools ISD 833. "It's amazing how quickly we get callbacks from Brian and his team. They're great advocates for our organization."

Griffith said one program in particular created by Owen has greatly benefitted her school district. The program is called "Hot Topics."

"Brian and his team go out and do employee information workshops on specific topics such as how to pick the best insurance plan, because we offer a couple of different options; or how to save money on your prescription drugs; or how to understand your health care alternatives," Griffith said.

"They'll go out to a third of the schools in our district and tape them (the workshops) and put them on our Web and use them for seminars," said Griffith.

Another school district, Mounds View Public Schools in Shoreview, Minn., has achieved excellent results through calling on Owen and his team to make in-person appearances to employees.

"Brian is always very good about coming out when we need him to talk to our employees, to do demos on training or about new products that we're offering," said AmyJo Johnson, employee relations and benefits manager at the school district.

In the past year Owen and his team managed to negotiate a 10 percent reduction in the district's health insurance premium for 2012, which Johnson described as a "huge" accomplishment.

Area Vice President, Employee Benefits
Gallagher Benefit Services
Bloomington, Minn.
Category: Health Care

Taking Trainees Under His Wing

Bloomington, Minn.-based Brian Owen, an area vice president and senior consultant for Gallagher Benefit Services, wields plenty of influence among his peers and young brokers.

In 2011, the company had six interns and Owen reached out to all of them. He provided job shadow opportunities for them and set aside time to answer their questions, encourage their growth and teach them the nuances of the benefits brokerage trade as it undergoes far-reaching changes under health care reform.

Last year, Owen took a new sales trainee under his wing, and due in large part to his mentorship and guidance, this trainee was the first among her peers in the company to win an employee benefits sale.

Owen also coaches and mentors youth sports and has dedicated hours of his time to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the National Neurofibromatosis Foundation.

Owen, a graduate of North Dakota State University, is a veteran of the benefits business, having been a part of it since 1989. In the past 23 years, he's worked on the carrier side and on the agency side of the business. Working with corporations of all sizes with diverse workforces, Owen has seen every kind of benefit plan permutation you can think of. He has also helped to implement more consumer-directed health plans and wellness programs than he probably cares to admit.

But like all the consultants named Responsibility Leader® on these pages, Owen has reached out and done more than simply serve clients day in day out. It's the work that doesn't carry any remuneration for which he's now getting noticed.

Vice President
T&H Benefits LLC ¿ Alliant
New York

Clients and colleagues alike agree: Chris Reynen continually demonstrates out-of-the-box thinking that not only saves money for clients, but also improves employee-benefits and wellness programs.

After beating out several major competitors to win the benefits account of a large, New York-based real estate owner/manager, Reynen immediately helped the client recover $22,000 in long-term disability overpayments and retooled the benefits program he inherited.

One of the cost-saving strategies of the new program was changing the coverage from an employer-paid benefit to an employee election to avoid a taxable event if a covered employee went on disability.

In addition, his negotiations with in-force carriers resulted in renewal reductions in the client's medical plan -- an annual net cost equivalent of $1.5 million -- along with multiyear rate guarantees in the dental program.

T&H Benefits, which was bought by Alliant Insurance Services last year, also took a shared program of risk management for many prominent buildings owned or managed by many real-estate companies, and created a dedicated product which saved clients approximately $1.5 million annually and provided protection solely for right of first refusal without shared limits and deductibles.

Reynen's expertise is not limited to bottom-line savings: He recently suggested that Goya, a food manufacturing client, hire a nutritionist to use the studio/kitchen it built to film TV commercials to hold regular nutritional cooking demonstrations for its employees with the help of the company's executive chefs.

"He's somebody who can really cover your back in the workplace," said Tony Rico, Goya's director of human resources.

Vice President
T&H Benefits LLC - Alliant
New York, N.Y.
Category: Disability Benefits

A Mentor and a Leader

Chris Reynen, vice president with T&H Benefits LLC - Alliant in New York, recently discovered that one of his clients had paid too much in long-term disability premiums over the four-year term of the benefits contract. After an audit of the benefits program, Reynen helped the client recover as much as $22,000 in overpayments.

Benefits consultants like Reynen are why Alliant Insurance Services, one of the nation's largest specialty insurance brokerage firms, decided to buy T&H Benefits in early 2011. And when it comes to extracurricular activities outside of work, Reynen is tough to beat.

He's served on the church council of the Advent Lutheran Church in Wyckoff, N.J., for eight years, supporting charities such as local food shelters and Rebuilding Together, a nonprofit dedicated to refurbishing homes for families in need of shelter.

Reynen, who is active in the Boy Scouts and the organization's mentoring programs, has also participated in Disabled Sports USA. The organization sponsors events for disabled Americans, including war veterans.

For several years, Reynen has participated as a captain for the New York MS Bike Tour, a 100-mile bicycle ride. He's been personally responsible for raising an average of $3,000 a year over the last few years for the multiple sclerosis research fundraiser.

Perhaps no more activity is more hands on with regard to improving the lives of those around him and minimizing risk than Reynen's volunteer participation in the Community Emergency Response Team in Bergen County, N.J. CERT provides help ranging from natural disaster preparedness to storm clean-up, crowd control and event management.

It is examples of efforts like these that make Reynen, a 1991 graduate of the University of Vermont, stand out.