Anthony E. Santiago
Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer
WellPoint, Inc.
Headquartered: Indianapolis, Indiana
Web Site: www.wellpoint.com
Primary Business: Health benefits
Employees: 39,000
What is your most rewarding career accomplishment? My most rewarding career accomplishment was successfully leading the SAP implementations at Bristol-Myers Squibb. We re-engineered many of the finance processes, configured the software and then trained our employees to use the new systems. It was an incredibly complex, enterprise-wide initiative and most companies failed at this. We completed the implementations on time, on budget, to the great surprise of many. This was possible because I had a great team that was as committed as I was to success.
What advice can you provide for young leaders? Take control of your own development. Set the bar high. Think about where you want to be 5, 10 and 15 years from now and make sure you get the right job experiences and education to fulfill your professional goals. Put yourself in situations that stretch your abilities and expose you to new areas of the business. And spend time mentoring and developing your people, something that all of us need to spend more time doing.
Education: BS in Accounting, SUNY at Buffalo; MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
What I’m Reading: The Big Short, by Michael Lewis
My Philosophy: Highest integrity in everything you do and have the courage to do something different and impactful.
Interests: Golf; it is my escape and takes my mind off everything else.
