An Executive Rennaissance Legacy

Cleve L. Killingsworth

Mr. Cleve L. Killingsworth has been in the healthcare industry for more than 30 years. He is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA), one of the largest independent, not-for-profit Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in the country. From 2005 to 2010, he led the company's efforts to elevate the quality of services and care delivered to its three million members. He worked collaboratively with a variety of healthcare stakeholders to reform and improve the healthcare delivery system. He joined BCBSMA in 2004 as president and chief operating officer.

Prior to heading BCBSMA, Mr. Killingsworth was president and CEO of the Health Alliance Plan (HAP) in Detroit, one of Michigan's largest managed care companies. Under his leadership, HAP provided value to its more than 500,000 members by fostering patient-centered relationships among healthcare delivery systems, practitioners, and health plans. In addition to his HAP leadership, Mr. Killingsworth served as the senior vice president of Insurance and Managed Care for the Henry Ford Health System. Prior to joining HAP, he served as president of Kaiser Permanente's Central East Division, which includes the Mid-Atlantic states and Ohio. In each position, Mr. Killingsworth developed overarching performance strategies to achieve significant improvements and identified growth opportunities.

Mr. Killingsworth earlier served as senior vice president of healthcare operations for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rochester, N.Y., where he oversaw medical affairs, utilization analysis, network development, and provider contracting for the healthcare operations group. While with Blue Cross, he was also president of the Genesee Valley Group Health Association. Additionally, he has served as the executive director of health information and data services with the American Hospital Association and gained hands-on hospital administration experience as associate administrator of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

He is currently a faculty member of the Harvard School of Public Health and serves on the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows. Mr. Killingsworth served as a lecturer at the School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Rochester Medical Center and as an adjunct professor in health services administration at the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania.
He participates in a variety of industry conferences and has emerged as an articulate voice for healthcare reform, particularly concerning more efficient management practices, information technology in healthcare, and the need to improve the quality and safety of medical care. In 2002, Northwood University honored Mr. Killingsworth as one of America's "Outstanding Business Leaders." In 2003, he received an honorary doctorate (doctor of laws, honoris causa) from Northwood.

He is a founding member of the Executive Leadership Council—an independent, non partisan, non-profit corporation in Washington, D.C., that provides African-American executives with a leadership advisory forum on business, economic, and public policy issues. He serves on the boards of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, Carroll School of Management at Boston College, Jobs for Massachusetts, National Center for Healthcare Leadership, National Institute for Health Care Management, The United Way of Massachusetts Bay, and The Travelers Companies, Inc. Mr. Killingsworth is a trustee of Boston University and The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He is an overseer of TIAA-CREF. He is also a board member of MITRE. Mr. Killingsworth academic credentials includes a Bachelor's of Science degree from MIT (Management '75) and a Master of Public Health degree from Yale University ('76).

Biography resource: shared from MITRE
Image Credit: Cleve L. Killingsworth