Dr. Tunde Sotunde Elected As Blue Cross NC President, CEO
Durham, NC – Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina’s (Blue Cross NC) Board of Trustees has elected Tunde Sotunde MD, MBA, FAAP as its new President and CEO. Dr. Sotunde will lead the company in its efforts to transform health care in North Carolina beginning June 1.
“Dr. Sotunde has a remarkable record of leadership and accomplishment as a physician, an educator, and a business leader,” said Blue Cross NC Board of Trustees Chair Frank Holding, Jr. “He has worked tirelessly and collaboratively across the health system to set new standards and reshape health care for the benefit of patients, customers, and communities.”
“I’m honored to join Blue Cross NC. This is one of the premier health plans in the country and plays a leading role in addressing critical health issues,” said Dr. Sotunde. “I’ll bring the perspective of a physician, a patient, and health plan leader to our work alongside our employees every day to help make health care better, simpler and more affordable. Our work is even more critical at this time as we, together, face the challenges presented by COVID-19. My family and I look forward to calling North Carolina home and serving its vibrant communities.”
Dr. Sotunde currently serves as President, Medicaid Business Unit, of Anthem Inc.’s Government Business Division. He oversees Anthem’s Medicaid and related state government business across 23 states and the District of Columbia with 7.3 million members and $33 billion in revenue, driving a 13% membership increase in his business unit over a 2-year period. During his time at Anthem, Dr. Sotunde collaborated with health care providers to move more than 50% of provider reimbursements into value-based care and generated significant improvements in member satisfaction scores as measured by the federal government’s Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) survey.
Prior to joining Anthem, Dr. Sotunde worked as President and CEO of Anthem subsidiary Amerigroup Georgia, where he led strong membership and revenue growth and helped the plan become one of the first Medicaid plans in the organization to achieve Excellent accreditation status from the National Commission for Quality Assurance (NCQA).
As a pediatrician, Dr. Sotunde served as Chief of Pediatrics at Syracuse Community Health Center in Syracuse, NY and practiced medicine at Port of Spain General Hospital in Trinidad. He has trained medical students and residents as a Clinical Instructor in Pediatrics at SUNY Health Science Center at Syracuse and at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Dr. Sotunde also served in Chief Medical Officer and other leadership roles in payer and provider organizations at key divisions of Solera Capital, UnitedHealthcare and Cigna.
Dr. Sotunde is a graduate of the University of Ibadan College of Medicine in Nigeria (1988) and Howard University’s Hospital Residency Program in Pediatrics (1995). He completed his Executive MBA at the University of Memphis (2001) and studied health care management at the Wharton School of Business (2003). He is married with four children.
For more information, visit www.bluecrossnc.com.
Photo courtesy of Blue Cross NC.