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Ron Williams
Born1949 (age 74–75)[citation needed]
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
EducationRoosevelt University (BA)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MBA)

Ronald Allen Williams (born 1949)[citation needed] is an American businessman and board director on corporate, public sector and non-profit boards. Williams is the author of Learning to Lead: The Journey to Leading Yourself, Leading Others, and Leading an Organization, which appeared on The Wall Street Journal's best seller list. He is founder, chairman and CEO of RW2 Enterprises, LLC. He is the former chairman, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Aetna Inc., a diversified benefits company. Aetna is now part of CVS Health.

Following his retirement from Aetna, Williams formed RW2 Enterprises, LLC. He coaches and consults with senior corporate executives of Fortune 100 companies on leadership and business strategy and board preparedness. He continues to work on issues such as value creation in health care in the US.

Business leadership

Williams serves on the board of directors of Boeing[1] and Warby Parker. He previously served on the boards of Johnson & Johnson and American Express. He is an operating advisor to the private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R),[2] where he has guided three CD&R portfolio company exits: naviHealth, PharMEDium and Envision Healthcare. He is chairman of the board of agilon health.[3] agilon health was launched in 2016. He also is chairman of the board of apree health, formed by the combination of VERA Whole Health and Castlight.

Williams is chairman of The Conference Board.[4] Williams led TCB's efforts to create the millennial leader report "Divergent Views/Common Ground, the leadership perspective of C-Suite Executives and Millennial Leaders.[5]" Williams participates with the Committee for Economic Development (CED), and co-chaired two of CED's studies: Adjusting the Prescription and Modernizing Medicare.

In January 2010, he co-chaired the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.[6] He also previously served as vice chairman of The Business Council from 2008 to 2010[7] and chairman of the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare (CAQH).[8] He also was an advisor to The Wall Street Journal CEO Council[9] and a former member of the GE Healthymagination Advisory Committee.[10] In 2023, he began as a member of the McKinsey & Company External Advisory Group.[11]

Aetna leadership

Williams served as both chairman and CEO of Aetna until November 2010 and as chairman through April 2011.[12] He also served as chairman of the Aetna Foundation from 2006 to April 2011.[13] During his tenure, Aetna was named Fortune magazine's most admired Company in the Health Care: Insurance and Managed Care category for three consecutive years.[14] In 2011, Aetna's revenues were $34 billion, and the firm ranked 77th on the Fortune 100 list.

Mr. Williams joined Aetna in 2001 and in 2002 was named president and joined Aetna's board. He was named CEO in February 2006 and chairman of the board in October 2006. In 2001, Aetna reported a net loss from continuing operations of $292 million[15] and earnings per share loss from continuing operations of $0.46. In 2011, full-year operating earnings were $2.0 billion with operating earnings per share of $5.17 producing a 12.3 percent operating EPS CAGR over the last five years.[16]

Under his leadership, Aetna worked to increase access and affordability of health care and make American health care more efficient.[17] He has advocated for specific reforms in broadcast media interviews and has authored or co-authored op-ed articles in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, the Financial Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.[16][18]

Public service

Williams chairs[19] the Health Systems Initiative at MIT Sloan. He also serves on MIT's North America Executive Board.[20]

In March 2011, Williams was appointed to the President's Management Advisory Board, which was assembled by U.S. President Barack Obama.[21] He served in that capacity until 2017. He serves on the board of the Peterson Center on Healthcare board of advisors,[22] the Peterson Institute for International Economics[23] and the RAND Health board of advisors.[24]

In 2013 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,[25] an independent, multidisciplinary policy research center, and became a trustee of the Committee for Economic Development, a non-profit, non-partisan, business-led public policy organization.

Early business career

Prior to joining Aetna, Williams served as group president, and president of WellPoint (now Anthem), having joined WellPoint's predecessor firm, Blue Cross of California, in 1987. Previously, he was co-founder of Visa Health Corp. and group marketing executive of Control Data Corporation.[16]

Education

Williams holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Roosevelt University and a Master of Business Administration from the MIT Sloan School of Management.[26]

External activities, awards and recognition

During his career, Williams has received media recognition and other awards including:

References

  1. ^ "Boeing". boeing.com.
  2. ^ "Clayton Dubilier & Rice, LLC – Building Businesses, Building Value". cdr-inc.com.
  3. ^ "Our Team". Agilon Health. Retrieved July 28, 2017.
  4. ^ "Board of Trustees of The Conference Board". www.conference-board.org. Retrieved July 28, 2017.
  5. ^ "Press Release". Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  6. ^ "World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2010". World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2010 - World Economic Forum. Archived from the original on May 8, 2013.
  7. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on February 4, 2012. Retrieved February 25, 2012.((cite web)): CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. ^ "AETNA CHAIRMAN AND CEO WILLIAMS ELECTED CAQH BOARD CHAIRMAN". CAQH. March 27, 2015.
  9. ^ "CEO Council – Wall Street Journal CEO Council Page". wsj.com.
  10. ^ "Healthymagination". healthymagination.com.
  11. ^ "External Advisory Group | McKinsey & Company". www.mckinsey.com. Retrieved February 13, 2023.
  12. ^ "Aetna 2010 Annual Report – Thank you, Ron Williams". aetna.com.
  13. ^ "History & Timeline – Aetna Foundation". aetna-foundation.org.
  14. ^ "Aetna 2009 Annual Report". aetna.com.
  15. ^ "Aetna 2002 Annual Financial Report" (PDF). library.corporate-ir.net.
  16. ^ a b c "Official Bio". ronwilliams.net. Archived from the original on February 13, 2012.
  17. ^ "Testimony of Ronald A. Williams Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Aetna Inc. before the United States Senate Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee "Addressing Insurance Reform"" (PDF). Retrieved August 4, 2017.
  18. ^ "Aetna Leadership". aetna.com.
  19. ^ "MIT Sloan". Archived from the original on November 27, 2020. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
  20. ^ "Executive Boards". mit.edu.
  21. ^ "Sam Gilliland". whitehouse.gov. Archived from the original on January 21, 2017 – via National Archives.
  22. ^ "Accelerating the Transformation of Healthcare".
  23. ^ "IIE Board of Directors". piie.com. March 9, 2016.
  24. ^ "health advisory board directory". Rand Health Advisory Board.
  25. ^ "member, National Academy of Arts and Sciences" (PDF).
  26. ^ "Ronald A. Williams - MBA Program". Archived from the original on March 3, 2012. Retrieved February 25, 2012.
  27. ^ "26. Ronald Williams – 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare – 2009 – Modern Healthcare". Modern Healthcare.
  28. ^ "The 100 Most Powerful Executives In Corporate America". Black Enterprise. Archived from the original on February 9, 2012.
  29. ^ "Aetna's CEO Williams Tops Industry List for "America's Best CEOs"". Archived from the original on June 28, 2009. Retrieved February 25, 2012.

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