Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina named Anthem executive Tunde Sotunde as president, effective June 1.
A pediatrician by training, Dr. Sotunde is president of the Medicaid Business Unit of Indianapolis-based Anthem’s government business division. He oversees a Medicaid business that covers 7.3 million members and $33 billion in revenue across 23 states and Washington, D.C. He previously was CEO of Anthem’s Amerigroup Georgia subsidiary.
Anthem is a publicly traded company that operates Blue Cross plans in 14 states, including California and New York. It’s one of the largest U.S. insurers, serving about 79 million people with revenue of $104 billion in 2019. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina is a not-for-profit that is the state’s dominant health insurer, covering 3.8 million people, or nearly 40% of the state’s population. It had revenue of $9.9 billion last year.
“Dr. Sotunde has a remarkable record of leadership and accomplishment as a physician, an educator, and a business leader,” says Frank Holding Jr., chairman of the BCBSNC’s board and the CEO of First Citizens Bancshares of Raleigh. “He has worked tirelessly and collaboratively across the health system to set new standards and reshape health care for the benefit of patients, customers and communities.”
He’s a former chief of pediatrics at Syracuse Community Health Center in Syracuse, N.Y., and practiced medicine at Port of Spain General Hospital in Trinidad.
Dr. Sotunde called the N.C. insurer “one of the premier health plans in the country,” and he says, “Our work is even more critical at this time as we, together, face the challenges presented by COVID-19.”
Dr. Sotunde will succeed interim CEO Gerald Petkau, who took over after the September resignation of Dr. Patrick Conway, who was convicted of driving while intoxicated in a June 2019 incident.
Dr. Sotunde is a graduate of University of Ibadan College of Medicine in Nigeria (1988) and Howard University’s Hospital Residency Program in Pediatrics (1995). He completed his Executive MBA at the University of Memphis in 2001.
