Midwest Business Group on Health Elects New Board of Directors
and Celebrates 30th Anniversary
CHICAGO – The Midwest Business Group on Health (MBGH), one of the nation's leading business groups of private and public employers, announced today its new board of directors. The officers were elected at MBGH’s annual conference where the organization also celebrated its 30th anniversary.
To accommodate the growth of the coalition and the large number of professionals who expressed interest in serving on the MBGH Board, the Board has been expanded from 18 to 22 directors. The new seats were filled by the election of the following individuals:
- Pamela Beemer, Associate Vice President for Human Resources and Chief Human Resources Officer, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
- Phil Belcher, Global Benefits, Eastman Chemical, Johnson City, TN
- Allison Friedman, Manager, Benefit Services, Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago
- John Neuberger, Vice President of Operations, Quad/Med, Quad Graphics, Elm Grove, WI
- Aleksandra Sundberg, Regional Account Scientific Associate Director, Novartis, Algonquin, IL
They join the following directors who have been re-elected for additional terms:
- Kim Dwyer, Director of Benefits, Advocate Health Care, Clarendon Hills, IL
- Dan Pikelny, Director, Health & Productivity, Navistar, Chicago
- Richard Rons, Manager, Employee Benefits, Argonne National Laboratory, Darien, IL
- Mary Wessel, Vice President, Benefits Planning, Harris Bank, Chicago
Full list of MBGH’s Board of Directors
“A key factor in improving the value and quality of health care is the collaboration of employers,” said Larry Boress, president and CEO and a board member of MBGH. “We are pleased to welcome the new board members who represent a wide variety of employers taking a cooperative approach to leverage economies of scale and play an important role in realizing a market-based health care system focused on quality, accountability and affordability. Additionally, we are honored to observe the milestone of three decades of pioneering, persistence and leadership in health benefits management to employers. The role organizations such as MBGH play have become increasingly important in our current economy as employers focus on developing the most efficient plan designs to ensure the highest value and quality of one of the largest cost drivers for most employers.”
Celebrating 30 Years
In the late 1970s employers were facing high rates of inflation in their health benefit plan costs. Congress had failed to enact a national health insurance program and employers were looking for solutions outside of Washington. A group of major employers founded MBGH as a non-profit corporation based on the idea that employers could work together at the community level to get at the root causes of health care inflation and high benefit costs.
With the passage of a new national health reform law, health care purchasers’ commitment to offer health benefits is increasingly challenged. Now, more than ever, MBGH will assist health care purchasers in focusing their efforts on keeping their covered populations’ healthy to avoid the high costs that still exist in the system and to face the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.
About the Midwest Business Group on Health
Celebrating 30 years of advancing value in health benefits management, the non-profit Midwest Business Group on Health (MBGH) is one of the nation's leading business groups of private and public employers. MBGH's more than 100 members represent over 3 million lives, spending more than $3 billion on health care benefits annually. MBGH member benefits include health benefit education seminars, networking opportunities, research, demonstration projects and community initiatives. MBGH is a founding member of the National Business Coalition on Health.