Phoenix-based Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona president and CEO Richard Boals will retire July 1.
Here are six things to know about Mr. Boals.
1. Mr. Boals joined the company in 1971 as a management trainee. He took over as vice president of finance in 1984 and was promoted to executive vice president and COO two years later. He became president and COO in 2001 and CEO in 2003.
2. Prior to joining BCBSAZ, he served four years in the U.S. Air Force as a data analyst.
3. Mr. Boals will advise the insurer's board following his departure.
4. He was board chair of Phoenix-based TriWest Healthcare Alliance and board chair of Trinnovate Ventures, a subsidiary of BCBSAZ.
5. Mr. Boals earned his associate's degree at Phoenix College and his bachelor's in accounting at Arizona State University in Tempe. Mr. Boals also received executive training at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business in Durham, N.C.; the Haas School of Business at University of California Berkeley; Cambridge, Mass.-based Harvard University; and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
6. BCBSAZ's Executive Vice President and COO Sandy Gibson will serve as interim president. The insurer's board will conduct a local and national search for BCBSAZ's next president and CEO.
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