Lois Quam is president of Blue Shield of California, a nonprofit health plan with $25 billion in annual revenue serving 4.8 million members in the state's commercial, individual and government markets.
Before joining Blue Shield, Quam was chief executive officer and president of Pathfinder, which works across Africa, South Asia and the Middle East to improve healthcare access for women and girls, with a focus on maternal and reproductive health care. While at Pathfinder, Quam helped to expand services and shift its headquarters from the U.S. to South Asia and Africa.
Previously, Quam worked at UnitedHealth Group for 18 years, starting as the research and analysis director before leading the business that served the federal government, states and AARP (formerly American Association of Retired Persons) as one of the company’s most senior leaders. In that role, Quam was responsible for 27,000 employees across all 50 states and Great Britain and $32 billion in revenue.
Quam left UnitedHealth Group to explore other interests, including devising civic and financial strategies in the U.S. and Norway to address climate change. She was selected by then-President Obama to head his signature Global Health Initiative at the Department of State, which provided more than $8 billion annually to help solve major health challenges facing millions of individuals across 80 countries. Reporting directly to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, she advanced a comprehensive strategy to increase U.S. global health diplomacy, created a $200 million public private partnership, and introduced integrated systems approaches for global health problems.
Quam was named three times to FORTUNE’s list of the most influential women. She graduated from Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota before attending Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.