2018 Board of Directors Election

Transcription

1 Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative 2018 Board of Directors Election Dear CGHC Members, Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative (CGHC) is different than other insurance companies. We are governed by our members and in business only to serve them. While financial success is critically important, we don t operate to make money. We reinvest anything we make back into the cooperative to better serve our members. In other words, you have an ownership stake in CGHC. Your voice matters and it s vital that we have people on our Board of Directors that will represent you and the cooperative s interests. Over the next several weeks, you have the opportunity to elect members of our Board. We have selected seven candidates from our membership we believe would make excellent board directors. Your job is to cast your vote for up to five candidates you believe can best serve the cooperative as a whole. Enclosed is your ballot and information about our seven candidates. Two of them are incumbents currently serving on our board. The others were newly selected by the Board out of the many excellent nominees we received. All are members insured by CGHC, just like you. Please review the candidate information within carefully prior to casting your vote. We also have videos available on our website that may help you decide. Visit our election page at Please vote for up to five candidates. There are two ways to vote: You can return the enclosed ballot in the envelope provided. Please be sure to add postage. You can submit your ballot after meeting the candidates at the CGHC Annual Meeting that will be held in Green Bay on Tuesday, May 22. The meeting will start at 5:00 p.m. at the Radisson Hotel & Conference Center Airport Drive. All ballots must be received no later than May 22. All CGHC members age 18 and older are eligible to vote. Members may vote only once. Please do not include anything other than the ballot in the envelope. Thank you for being the most important part of Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative! Keisha Krumm Interim Board Chair Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative CGHC.EO

2 ABOUT THE CANDIDATES Mike Braun Oshkosh, WI Occupation: Retired Relevant Experience: HR, employee benefits (PHP certification), board experience, community service Candidate Statement: I am a retired professional with over fifteen years of experience in the human resources (HR) management field. During my years in HR I was called upon to negotiate health insurance premiums for coverage of our employees. This required an ability to understand the benefits offered and potential pitfalls of each plan. I would meet with employees and explain the plans, answer questions and see them through to enrollment. As a business manager, I ve had to make the tough call to lower benefits and maintain the difficult balance of being employee friendly with bottom-line sensitivity. Incumbent Board Member As a current board member, I m excited about all the things Common Ground Healthcare is doing, not only to keep premium costs down but to also provide quality services. The board has a great cohesive spirit and I hope to continue working with them. Serving on the Member Advisory and Broker Advisory Committees has kept me in touch with the needs of the members as well as insurance brokers. Being proactive and responsive to our members is one of the unique aspects of CGHC that has drawn me to serve on the Board and I would be honored to serve another term. I m seeking re-election so I can use all the knowledge and experience I ve gained during my time on the board, to keep moving us forward. We are at a challenging and rewarding crossroad and I hope to continue serving. Brett Remington Mukwonago, WI Occupation: President of Blue Rock WI Relevant Experience: Executive management, performance and process improvement, strategic planning, sales and customer service Candidate Statement: I have made it my life s work to help people and organizations narrow the gap between today s performance and tomorrow s potential. I joined the Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative Board because I felt I could be a strong advocate for member interests and organizational sustainability as we deal with an unpredictable and ever-changing health care marketplace. Incumbent Board Member I have worked for health insurance companies, major healthcare systems, government health and human service agencies, long-term care facilities, and community hospitals as a leadership and operational effectiveness consultant. Serving these clients has helped me develop a deep appreciation for all the factors that contribute to their results. My strength as a Board member comes from the diversity of clients and sectors that I serve and because of these experiences I bring simple, innovative ideas and try to eliminate complexity that has no added value. It has been a great honor and responsibility to serve the members of CGHC, and I would deeply appreciate the opportunity to continue doing so.

3 Dan Clarahan Greenleaf, WI Occupation: President United Converting U.S.A. LLC & Principal of CNZ Solutions LLC Relevant Experience: Executive leadership, board leadership, business operations and strategic planning. Candidate Statement: Over the course of my career I have held senior leadership positions in private enterprises and board positions in many private and non-profit organizations. These experiences have helped me develop skills and insight into how Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative should operate for the benefit of the members and our community at large. I feel compelled to be part of the solution in healthcare and I believe serving on the board will give me an opportunity to do so. I ve been in the individual health care market since 2006 and prior to that had many years of employer provided health insurance. As a small business owner now, I fully understand the challenges both as an employer providing insurance, as well as a consumer of health insurance. Over the years I have experienced many challenges in getting appropriate healthcare for my family. These include obscenely high hospital bills, surgery overseas, exclusions for pre-existing conditions in the pre-aca-era and having my appendix removed in Sweden. I have a personal feel for how our system works (or doesn t work) and personal experience with other systems that may work better and are more equitable. Like most Americans, I believe that we have serious problems with our healthcare system and I feel compelled to do my part in making improvements. I am very supportive of the CGHC mission to provide access to quality healthcare and I hope that my participation on the Board may in some way make a difference. Peter Kappelman Two Rivers, WI Occupation: Self-employed dairy farmer, board chairman of Land O Lakes, Inc. (a farmer-owned cooperative). Relevant Experience: 20+ years of board experience with national and international cooperative and non-profit organizations. Candidate statement: I have been a small business farm owner for my entire career. While working in the small business environment certainly has its advantages, it has been an ongoing challenge for us and our employees to access quality health care with the assurance and benefits of an affordable health coverage plan. We are living in a volatile, complex and uncertain world, and those of us seeking small business or individual health insurance coverage have been particularly impacted. Now with Common Ground Health Cooperative, we can and should engage in the decision-making process as voters. We are not only customers, but we are the owners. This organization is about us and for us. Non-profit cooperatives are about people, but I also understand that we must be financially successful to deliver quality, comprehensive health insurance solutions that optimize member health and well-being. I am more than willing to address these challenges as your board member. My passion in life has been uniting people with a common purpose to achieve what they couldn t accomplish on their own. Our three children have recently chosen our family dairy farming business as their career. It can be a very rewarding lifestyle, but now as I hear the squeals of delight and laughter from my grandson in the barn, I m reminded of the urgency of providing for the needs of a healthy family.

4 William Kort Whitefish Bay, WI Occupation: Watershed Planning Consultant Relevant Experience: Finance, accounting, business operations with 9 years of board experience with consumer cooperatives. Candidate Statement: I am a long-time member of several consumer cooperatives, and I believe strongly in the cooperative enterprise model. It is truly wonderful that we have a cooperative option for health insurance. As a self-employed consultant, I am keenly aware of the value (and rarity) of marketplace insurance options that are member-driven. I fully support Common Ground Healthcare s mission of providing mutual benefit through fairly-priced and understandable health plans informed by shared cooperative goals. I have graduate degrees in planning and administration, as well as a PhD in Freshwater Science with a policy focus. I am now a watershed planning consultant that works closely with a range of stakeholders to ensure successful planning and resource allocation. I have also served on the board for Outpost Natural Foods, a large Wisconsin-based consumer cooperative, with 22,000 + members, hundreds of employees, and over $48 million in annual sales for nine years. There I received education and experience in a wide range of cooperative governance matters including mission and vision, cooperative finances, strategic planning, member involvement, monitoring organizational performance, and policy governance. As board president for three years, I represented the public face of the cooperative to our members, and effectively facilitated consensus decision processes. I would be honored to have the opportunity to apply my education, experience, and dedication to serve Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative and its members. Patrick Lowney Neenah, WI Occupation: Retired CEO of Lakeview Credit Union Relevant Experience: Finance and Accounting background, business administration and management. Has cooperative and Board of Director expertise. Candidate Statement: I am retired from my career of 32 years in credit unions. In my career I was the Vice President of Operations for Lakeview Credit Union in Neenah, WI for 10 years. I was the President/CEO for the same credit union for another 21 years. During my time with Lakeview Credit Union I was on the team responsible for making our annual decisions of purchasing health insurance plans for the employees for 30 years. Credit unions are financial cooperatives so I am very familiar with the structure and value of cooperatives. I also grew up in a farming community, where my family were members of cooperatives. I have served on several Boards, including those of Lakeview Credit Union and the Wisconsin Credit Union League. At Lakeview I was the Board Treasurer and at the Wisconsin Credit Union League I served in several capacities, including the Vice Chair of the Board. I have stayed active in my community since retiring and act as a mentor to small businesses through a subset of the Small Business Administration called SCORE in addition to my consulting business. I am interested in joining Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative due to my long-term involvement as an employer purchaser and user of healthcare. I feel my experience in the cooperative and business worlds are valuable assets to the current board. I hope that I can continue to learn and help make good decisions for the cooperative.

5 Chris Martin Brookfield, WI Occupation: CEO, small business owner. Relevant Experience: Operations management, governmental regulatory compliance. Candidate Statement: I have many years of experience navigating government regulatory requirements and business development. My professional experience has given me a firm grasp on compliance and business development. Throughout my career I have been a member of standards writing bodies in the US and Canada. I have also served on technical committees advising the US government on the adoption of industry standards into US law. My experiences have provided me with a knowledge of collaborative decision-making which I feel is critical for good governance. As a small business owner, I understand the challenges surrounding the provision of healthcare benefits to employees and how it impacts them. Having lost health care benefits twice since the Affordable Care Act became law I also understand how it impacts the family and would like nothing more than to be a part of the solution. As a veteran I ve always had the inclination to serve and if chosen as a member of the board I would commit myself to ensure the adoption of sound policy so that CGHC can continue to serve its membership in the most efficient and responsive way possible. I feel that healthcare coverage should not only be readily available and affordable, but also much less complicated. PEOPLE. NOT PROFIT. Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative believes its members deserve honesty, compassion and exemplary service from their health insurer. We are committed to changing the health insurance experience through open dialogue, powerful advocacy and the delivery of trusted and understandable information.