Want to lead a business where I can make a difference

Becoming CEO of Elevance Health, one of the largest healthcare companies in the US, in 2017, Gail Boudreaux, now 64, manages 70,000 employees.

Prioritize making a difference

Elevance serves more than 119 million people through a diverse portfolio of healthcare, digital, pharmaceutical, and other solutions. Boudreaux's industry experience has earned her accolades from her Wall Street peers. The company's stock has risen 20% in the first two years of her tenure.

While attending Dartmouth College, Boudreaux was one of the school's outstanding athletes, earning All-American honors in both basketball and track. After graduating with honors in 1982, Boudreaux took advantage of opportunities to develop her career. She held leadership positions at several companies in the medical and healthcare industry, including Aetna and BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois. In 2008, Boudreaux became Executive Vice President at United Healthcare. From 2011 to 2014, she served as CEO of the company, playing a key role in increasing the company's revenue by 50% after the 2008 housing crisis.

I look at my sports career and see it as a set of foundational experiences that really guided my thinking and my actions. It's something that's so ingrained in me that it's hard for me to think about leadership in a different way than what I learned from playing sports."

- Gail Boudreaux -

Boudreaux’s leadership philosophy prioritizes creating meaningful impact over financial gain. She emphasizes the importance of leadership focused on making a difference for employees, communities, and the world . “I want to lead a business where I can make a difference,” she says. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Boudreaux and the company demonstrated this commitment by allocating $50 million to relief funds addressing food insecurity, mental health, social support services, and providing protective equipment for healthcare providers.

Building leadership philosophy from sports

Boudreaux said that through playing sports, she learned many things that helped her succeed in business, such as how to be a team player, how to work hard, and how to overcome difficult situations. "What I learned from that team was the importance of putting people in the right roles, making sure they understand their roles, and then supporting their teammates. The same is true in business. Even if you have an incredibly talented individual, if they don't agree with the team's vision and aren't willing to play their role, you have to replace them. Not everyone is a goal scorer," she said.

Boudreaux is from Chicopee, Massachusetts, and grew up in a family of Polish descent. Her mother was a housewife and her father was a mechanic. Her family lived close to her grandparents and other relatives, and they celebrated holidays together. After graduating from Dartmouth, Boudreaux said much of the leadership philosophy that led her to success in the business world originated on the basketball court at Dartmouth. Those things have even stuck with Boudreaux throughout her business career, including being named to Fortune magazine's "50 Most Powerful Women in American Business" and Forbes magazine's "100 Most Powerful Women in the World."

Boudreaux told Fortune in 2019 that she faced many difficult issues in the first 10 years of her career. She worked at companies that were underperforming or had projects that weren't going well. "The lesson for me is that in all of that, there's always something positive. There's always something you can do and there's always something you can learn and overcome challenges," she said. The leader also spends a significant amount of time interacting with customers and frontline associates, finding this invaluable time to seek feedback and maintain a strong connection with the business. For her, the "key" to successful leadership lies in setting the right mission, vision, and values, along with a clear approach and ongoing communication with the company.

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