2024 BPRO Luminaries-Leadership

Design by Chris Nicholls

Illustration: xy/Adobe Stock

Rising Star

Leadership

Innovation & Technology

Industry Impact

Humanizing Benefits

Education & Communication

Click below to view other categories:

XXXX …

XXXX

Elevate

Brighton Health Plan Solutions

Leadership (Organizations)

XXXX …

XXXX XXXX XXXX

Meghan Shea has held a series of leadership roles within the distribution, marketing, and solutions and strategy divisions of New York Life’s Group …

Meghan Shea Head of Distribution New York Life Group Benefit Solutions

Glenn Fisher oversees all aspects of NavMD, a health care claims data analytics platform that enables companies to manage risk, build health care plan …

Glenn Fisher CEO and Managing Partner NavMD

In her role at Nava Benefits, Kristie Cook works with organizations to design, implement and administer employee benefit programs that support the …

Kristie Cook Senior Client Manager Nava Benefits

Dan Laszlo is responsible for financial management, operational control, and strategic leadership at Inspira Financial, where he defines, reinforces, and …

Dan K. Laszlo CEO Inspira Financial

Bree Bacon is responsible for mobilizing the product, sales, finance, and operations teams to drive the strategic vision and execution of eHealth’s E&I department …

Bree Bacon VP and General Manager for E&I Business Lines eHealth

Leadership (Individuals)

Bree Bacon is responsible for mobilizing the product, sales, finance, and operations teams to drive the strategic vision and execution of eHealth’s E&I department. She created and executed an innovative individual coverage health reimbursement arrangement (ICHRA) strategy that expanded market reach and increased customer engagement, setting the stage for sustained growth. Under Bacon’s guidance, the ICHRA initiative has positioned eHealth as a leader in the marketplace and a solution for brokers, employers and employees. She also devised a strategic roadmap focusing on enhancing customer service, fostering profitable growth and improving operational efficiency. Her leadership in this initiative has unified the organization around a cohesive strategy, ensuring sustained progress and alignment. Yet Bacon’s leadership transcends traditional management – she has also profoundly impacted organizational culture through her acknowledgment of employee contributions and her encouragement of collective celebration. For example, she begins each departmental meeting with a dedicated slide to celebrate individual and team accomplishments and highlight monthly wins. This practice has boosted morale and fostered a culture of recognition and positivity.

Bree Bacon VP and General Manager for E&I Business Lines eHealth

Dan Laszlo is responsible for financial management, operational control, and strategic leadership at Inspira Financial, where he defines, reinforces, and exemplifies Inspira’s mission. Laszlo has built a cohesive leadership team that supports one another — continuously challenging the status quo and fostering innovative thinking. He also is committed to prioritizing long-term benefits over short-term gains, making strategic investments to enhance product quality and user experience. Laszlo empowers and coaches his leaders and offers the necessary support for informed decision-making while holding them accountable for outcomes. Under his direction, Inspira brought on new executives, onboarded hundreds of new employees, completed and/or integrated seven acquisitions, and repositioned the company under a single unified brand — all while experiencing record results for growth, revenue, clients, accounts, and assets. While championing the creation of the new Inspira brand (bringing together legacy companies Millennium Trust Company and PayFlex), Laszlo also reestablished the company’s lines of business into “retirement and wealth” and “health and benefits.” His leadership is characterized by his relentless pursuit of excellence, real-world innovation and integrity.

Dan K. Laszlo CEO Inspira Financial

In her role at Nava Benefits, Kristie Cook works with organizations to design, implement and administer employee benefit programs that support the mission to improve the quality and accessibility of health care for everyone. She leverages her analytical skills, attention to detail, and knowledge of the latest trends and regulations in the benefits field to deliver exceptional service and value to clients, employees and partners. Cook is passionate about fostering a culture of innovation, engagement and wellness at Nava, and she collaborates with her team and other leaders to achieve this goal. For example, she recently orchestrated virtual open enrollment meetings, reaching an unprecedented 5,000-plus participants. In response to current legal challenges affecting access to health care, Cook spearheaded the implementation of enhanced travel benefits to ensure that employees have access to necessary care even when local options are limited, and she developed and implemented new guide templates that have significantly improved understanding and utilization of benefits such as employee assistance programs (EAPs), worksite wellness benefits, and additional value-added services provided by medical carriers.

Kristie Cook Senior Client Manager Nava Benefits

Glenn Fisher oversees all aspects of NavMD, a health care claims data analytics platform that enables companies to manage risk, build health care plan strategies, stay compliant with ERISA standards, improve earnings, and increase enterprise value. He launched the brand and is instrumental in its ongoing success, including doubling the size of NavMD’s team over the past 12 months. Recently, Fisher worked with NavMD’s business intelligence, data engineering and client success teams to build a new process that streamlines how the company onboards, secures, and enriches data for some of the largest companies in America. He also actively prospects new clients, hosts product demos, and works with employee benefits decision makers. Fisher is asked to speak at conferences around the country and is a contributing author to the recent book “Benefits Revolution: The Next Generation of Employer-Sponsored Healthcare,” where he tells the personal story of how he persevered to solve his son’s health care crisis, and how that passion led him to build a company dedicated to helping solve the overall health care crisis.

Glenn Fisher CEO and Managing Partner NavMD

Meghan Shea has held a series of leadership roles within the distribution, marketing, and solutions and strategy divisions of New York Life’s Group Benefit Solutions (GBS) — a division of New York Life Insurance Company. In her current position, she is responsible for optimizing GBS’s distribution strategy, fostering strategic partnerships, and driving top-tier industry growth across regional and national client segments. Under Shea’s leadership, GBS launched a new suite of voluntary benefits in early 2024 designed to help provide additional financial protection against unforeseen medical expenses and streamlined ADA accommodations through New York Life Absence Assist℠ to help reduce the time and complexity of implementing ADA accommodations. Most recently, GBS launched myLeaveGuide℠ an educational tool that takes the guesswork out of leave benefits and makes leave-planning easy. Whether helping develop innovative product and service offerings, building strategic partnerships, or supporting employees to ensure they can deliver on GBS’s mission, Shea distinguishes herself by her focus on people, her advocacy for diversity and her promotion of work-life balance and family.

Cultivating leadership at Brighton Health Plan Solutions (Brighton HPS) includes an onboarding process that identifies employees’ strengths and goals with a talent assessment tool used to develop and manage organizational talent and optimized to reduce bias by using clear criteria, robust assessment levels and calibration of assessments. The tool helps managers better understand their team’s strengths and weaknesses, and allows room for improvement, feedback and recognition. Employees also have access to more than 2,000 courses, including learning modules that fit their professional goals, and Brighton HPS offers team members individualized performance programs focused on quarterly one-on-one conversations with managers. These strategies are effective, as the company reported just 5% turnover in 2023 and received nearly 100 employee referrals. Organizational leaders also recognize the importance of including diverse voices and have worked to increase gender and racial parity. At the senior leadership level, 45% of executives are women, up from just 11% in 2017, and 80% of the company’s workforce is female. In addition, approximately 63% of vice presidents are women and 62% are minorities.

Brighton Health Plan Solutions

Under the leadership of Brian Cosgray and Chief Technical Officer Brian Strom, Elevate celebrates a workplace culture devoted to positive change and modern innovation. After forming the company in 2020, Cosgray and Strom sought the best minds in the industry to join them and create an all-in-one tech company that’s truly the first of its kind by powering HSAs, FSAs, HRAS, and more. Today, Elevate is using AI to assist with everything from simplified claim submission to instant feedback mechanisms. To build and expand the comprehensive platform, the company actively seeks employees who are open to change, push for innovation, and thrive on bringing a better experience to others. Employees are trusted to own their domain; encouraged to challenge the status quote; and required to build strategies, milestones and performance measurements. Supported fully by leadership, they are given the autonomy to lead their respective areas of work, with regular guidance from leadership. What’s more, Elevate employees (and not just senior management) are encouraged to sit on industry committees and boards.

Elevate

Meghan Shea Head of Distribution New York Life Group Benefit Solutions