UnitedHealthcare President Gail Boudreaux is among the world’s most powerful women, according to a list published Thursday by Forbes.
Boudreaux ranks 54 on the magazine’s 100 Most Powerful Women list, which includes women who run countries, big companies, or influential nonprofits.
The rankings are a combination of two scores: visibility—calculated by press mentions—and the size of the organization or country the women lead.
Boudreaux joined UnitedHealth Group, Inc., in the spring of 2008 as an executive vice president and as president of UnitedHealthcare. She consolidated six national regions into four and made plans to grow profits by focusing more intently on local markets. Boudreaux now oversees 42,000 employees worldwide.
Boudreaux formerly served as executive vice president of Chicago-based Health Care Services Corporation (HCSC) and as president of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, a division of HCSC. Before joining HCSC she held several positions at Hartford, Connecticut-based Aetna, Inc., including senior vice president of Aetna Group Insurance and vice president of customer service.
UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, is Minnesota’s largest public company based on revenue. Its 2008 fiscal-year revenue totaled $81.2 billion, an increase of more than $5 billion from its 2007 fiscal year.
