Caz Matthews led Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Colorado as President from 1999 to 2005. In that time, she turned around the company from having unorganized customer service and a sinking financial outlook. After the merger of Anthem Inc. and WellPoint, Caz left Colorado to lead Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia; which was a Wellpoint company.
In July 2006, the charitable foundations of Anthem and WellPoint combined, making it the 10’th largest corporate foundation in the nation with $180 million in assets. Now, Matthews will return to Denver to lead the WellPoint Foundation. Last year, the WellPoint Foundation awarded $25 million in grants to support initiatives and programs to make healthcare more affordable to the uninsured.
The foundation will be based in Denver and may hire staff here, said Matthews, who plans to examine how the foundation can align its philanthropy and social responsibility programs with WellPoint’s mission, which is “to improve the lives” of the people it serves and improve the health of its communities.
“It’s the type of work I’ve always wanted to do because it completely dovetails with the type of thing I’m passionate about on a personal level,” she said. “I’m really excited about the idea of developing a strategy or a program that allows us to maximize the dollars that we have available to us and really promote significant health initiatives.”
