2008 Outstanding Directors

That was especially true because Banks, 58, was board chair during the expansion, but also served as head of the board’s human resource committee. Dickman says, “Ensuring a talent pipeline has been a primary driver of success for the company.”

Banks’s people focus comes in part from his earlier career as a practicing physician in the Twin Cities from 1979 to 1995 and an instructor at his alma mater, the University of Minnesota School of Medicine, as well as Regions Hospital in St. Paul.

As a physician, Banks says he works to help Prime Therapeutic’s leadership team stay focused not only on reducing medical costs, but also on ways the firm could improve the quality of care it delivers to customers. For example, Blue Cross of Minnesota has worked with pharmacists to identify patients who have prescriptions for nicotine patches or other smoking-cessation medications in order to target those individuals with offers of smoking-cessation programs.

Banks “has consistently provided a constituent voice for shareholders and consumer members,” Dickman says. “Ultimately, this has built shareholder value.”