Podcast
From Purpose-Driven Benefits to Better Business Outcomes with Wendy Sherry
- Discover how Wendy Sherry of Cigna Healthcare connects purpose-driven employee benefits to business success on the Doing Good by Doing Better podcast from Pariveda.
About the episode
From Purpose-Driven Benefits to Better Business Outcomes with Wendy Sherry
What if doing right by your people and doing right by your bottom line weren’t actually in tension? On this episode of Doing Good by Doing Better, host Margaret Rogers talks with Wendy Sherry, CEO, Global Health Benefits, International Health, Cigna Healthcare, about building an inclusive employee benefits strategy — and why purpose driven employee benefits are good business, not just good intentions.
Drawing from her decades in Cigna Healthcare leadership, Wendy views health coverage not as a cost center, but as a crucial lever for employee retention through benefits.
In this episode, Margaret and Wendy dig into:
- Winning C-suite buy in for vital health investments
- Embedding human centric leadership in HR at a global scale
- Balancing purpose and profit in HR to sustain a healthy, engaged workforce
It’s a candid look at what purpose-driven growth actually requires from leaders day to day.
Episode links
About the guest
Wendy Sherry is Chief Executive Officer for the Global Health Benefits business within International Health, Cigna Healthcare, with full profit and loss responsibility for the globally mobile employer marketplace in Europe and the Americas. In her CEO role, Wendy leads the delivery of globally relevant, affordable, high quality health care serving more than 4,200 clients and with customers in more than 200 countries and jurisdictions. She previously served as Senior Vice President of Cigna’s U.S. Commercial Markets where she spearheaded work to improve the Medical Cost Ratio for Cigna’s U.S. Commercial Markets. Prior to that, as President of Cigna Payer Solutions and Cigna Connecticut, Wendy successfully drove strategies that significantly grew market share and earnings, strengthened and diversified the solutions portfolio and expanded the addressable market.
Rising through the ranks of Cigna, Wendy transitioned from finance to product and then to profit and loss management. Her broad and diverse experiences include distribution, network contracting, strategy, product development, operations, and financial analysis and planning. This experience enables Wendy to instinctively identify and create cross- organizational opportunities that optimize business strategies and drive results.
At Cigna, Wendy actively promotes the inclusion of diverse perspectives and experiences, with a particular focus on supporting the development and advancement of women. Before joining Cigna, Wendy began her career in public accounting at Ernst & Young. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Emory University. Wendy is a former Certified Public Accountant and Cigna Financial Development Program graduate.
About the host
Margaret Rogers, the Host of the Doing Good by Doing Better Podcast, serves as the CEO of Pariveda Solutions, a strategy and technology services firm with a mission to help people develop, catalyze, and discover their potential. She found her way into consulting right out of school, back when dial-up, blinking text, and wallpaper backgrounds defined the web. As User Experience began to emerge, she transitioned from technologist to roles where she was able to explore human-centered design. Margaret is fascinated by the uniqueness of human dynamics in business and is deeply invested in advising leaders on how to design organizations that nurture a strong culture and operational excellence. Her love of learning also extends well beyond the workplace, most recently into the curious behaviors of sourdough starters and backyard hens, who, much like people, have a surprising amount to teach about rhythms, relationships, and the environments they need to thrive.
About the Doing Good by Doing Better podcast
Hosted by Margaret Rogers, CEO of Pariveda, the Doing Good by Doing Better podcast highlights founders, executives, and innovators who share hard lessons, bold ideas, and real strategies for purpose-driven growth.
Every conversation offers practical insights you can use to solve forward. In each episode you’ll meet leaders who prove that being impact-driven and achieving meaningful success are not mutually exclusive.
Follow Doing Good by Doing Better on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and join us every other week as we keep learning how to do good by doing better.
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