The Anatomy of a Turnaround: Blue Cross ---> WellPoint

HEALTH MANAGEMENT & POLICY PROGRAMS: The Anatomy of a Turnaround: Blue Cross --> WellPointThis is a unique opportunity to hear four healthcare industry veterans discuss the turnaround of an ailing Blue Cross of California and its transformation into WellPoint, Inc.--one of the nation's leading managed care companies. Thursday, March 8, 2007 — Ralph & Goldy Lewis Hall (RGL) Auditorium, 1:00-4:20 p.m.FEATURING: LEONARD D. SCHAEFFER, Founding Chairman and CEO, WellPoint GUEST FACULTY:TOM GEISER, JD --Senior Advisor, Texas Pacific Group and former WellPoint EVP and General CounselSUSAN MAERKI, Director, Healthcare Practice, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and former Manager of Corporate Strategy and Planning, Blue Cross of CADENNY WEINBERG: CEO, ARCUS Enterprises, Inc. and a founding director of WellPoint, Inc.Due to space limitations, please RSVP to Lois Green at greenl@usc.edu if you wish to attend. Guest Speaker Bios:Thomas C. Geiser is a Senior Advisor to Texas Pacific Group He has been an advisor and legal counsel to numerous healthcare organizations with a focus on healthcare financing. Mr. Geiser served as the Executive Vice President and General Counsel of WellPoint Health Networks Inc. and was involved with WellPoint from its inception. He was involved extensively in company mergers and acquisitions and in numerous public securities offerings. He was also responsible for WellPoint's legal, legislative and regulatory affairs in 50 states and served as its principal contact with state and federal regulators. Before to joining WellPoint, Mr. Geiser spent 15 years as an attorney in private law practice, coming to WellPoint from Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison in San Francisco. Prior to that, he was a partner in Epstein, Becker, Stromberg & Green and in Hanson, Bridgett, Marcus, Vlahos & Stromberg in San Francisco. Susan Maerki is a director in the healthcare practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Her areas of expertise include health insurance, managed care and health care financing, health policy, and government public programs, particularly Medicaid. She has nearly 25 years of experience working in academic health services research, a major health plan, public programs and consulting. Ms. Maerki led the health market assessment component for the PwC teams that advised the Kansas and the Washington State Departments of Insurance on the proposed conversion of local Blue Cross/Blue Shield plans from non-profit to for-profit status. More recently, she has been involved in engagements with health plans to develop competitive bid proposals for Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D Prescription Drug plans. Prior to joining PwC, Ms. Maerki was an independent consultant working on the development and implementation of Medicaid managed care in California and on international health care projects in Africa in and Southeast Asia. Previously she was at Blue Cross of California, where served as Manager of Provider Network Evaluation. As Manager of Corporate Strategy and Planning, she worked with the plan's president during a period of corporate restructuring. Ms. Maerki began her career doing research at the Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California San Francisco. Denny Weinberg is CEO of ARCUS Enterprises, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of WellPoint, Inc. He was one of the founding directors of WellPoint in the early 1990's, and is an 18-year veteran of WellPoint or its predecessor companies. During his tenure, he helped structure one of the most publicized financial turnarounds in the managed care industry, which resulted in WellPoint's creation. Most recently as CEO of ARCUS, he has been responsible for creating and launching a long-term business diversification venture for WellPoint. Previously, Mr. Weinberg served as group president and/or founder for a number of WellPoint's key operating companies and divisions. Prior to this Mr. Weinberg was a principal with the consulting division of accounting firm Deloitte & Touche in Chicago, and he served also as general manager for the CTX Products Division of Pet, Inc., a subsidiary of I.C. Industries in St. Louis, MO. Weinberg is a general partner in FRW-I, LLC, a medical device developer and Skyview Development, LLC, a residential land development company, and is a limited partner in a half dozen other early-stage development projects.

Location: Ralph And Goldy Lewis Hall (RGL) - Auditorium

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Georgia Lum