Blue Shield of California is restructuring its corporate operations, including a change at the top that brings in its first-ever female CEO.
The insurer's board of directors named Lois Quam as its new CEO, the first woman to take the helm in its 86-year history. Quam joined the company in 2024 as president and was previously CEO of Pathfinder, a global nonprofit that supports health for women and girls.
Quam also served in the State Department as part of the Obama administration's global health initiative, according to the announcement.
“I am focused on the challenges facing our members in every corner of our state, who gather at their kitchen tables and wrestle with their healthcare decisions and whether they can afford them," Quam said in the press release. "As the only statewide nonprofit health plan, we can help make those conversations—and their lives—better."
In addition, Blue Shield named Susan Mullaney as the chief operating officer of the health plan. Mullaney joined the team in August as executive vice president and has held leadership roles at Kaiser Permanente and other nonprofit health systems.
Quam takes the CEO chair as part of a broader restructuring initiative at the insurer. It unveiled Ascendiun, a new, nonprofit organization that will serve as the parent company to Blue Shield and its Blue Shield of California Promise subsidiary as well as Altais, a clinical services firm, and Stellarus, a division Blue Shield said will be focused on scaling healthcare solutions.
Paul Markovich, the previous CEO of Blue Shield, will become president of Ascendiun and will also be president of Stellarus on an interim basis, according to the announcement.
The insurer said that Stellarus will initially work to enhance innovative programs that already exist at Blue Shield with the goal of sharing the insights with other payers in the future. For example, the announcement specifically names its Pharmacy Care Reimagined model, in which Blue Shield shifted from a traditional pharmacy benefit management relationship to one that leans on multiple companies to drive savings and greater transparency.
“Our goal in the restructuring is to better serve our members with less bureaucracy and faster results, while making health care more affordable,” said Kristina Leslie, chair of the Blue Shield of California board of directors, in the press release. “Paul will set up this new exciting venture to help solve problems on behalf of our members, advance healthcare effectiveness and respond to the issues that have plagued the patch-work quilt of health services.”