Leslie Margolin

How She Empowers Others

In January 2008, Leslie Margolin was named President and General Manager of Anthem Blue Cross in California and Chief Executive Officer of the company’s BC Life & Health affiliate. Combined, the companies serve more than 8 million Californians enrolled in commercial, Medicare and Medi-Cal managed care health plans.

Prior to joining Anthem Blue Cross, Margolin served as national chief operations leader for Kaiser Permanente, the nation’s largest nonprofit health care delivery system. In that role, Margolin led a team comprised of eight Regional Presidents, as well as the national leaders of patient care services, workplace safety, hospital strategy, real estate, facility and construction services.

Formerly Kaiser’s chief human resources officer, Margolin served as management’s lead negotiator in KP’s historic national bargaining efforts in both 2000 and 2005. The negotiations, undertaken with 29 local and 9 international unions, achieved two consecutive 5-year national agreements covering more than 86,000 of Kaiser Permanente’s represented employees. The Partnership and these negotiations have been the focus of case studies by Cornell, MIT, Harvard, Rutgers, and UC-Berkeley and were the subject of commendation by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor.

Prior to Kaiser Permanente, Margolin was with CIGNA Corporation for 13 years - three as President and General Manager of CIGNA HealthCare of California, and ten in the legal department, including her roles as Chief Counsel of CIGNA HealthCare of California and Assistant General Counsel of CIGNA Corporation. Margolin began her career practicing law with a management labor firm in Hartford, CT.

Margolin earned her Bachelor of Arts in Government from Connecticut College, her Juris Doctorate from Hofstra University, and her Masters of Laws (LL.M) in Labor Relations from New York University. She serves on the Board of Directors for the California Association of Health Plans and has served on the Health Care Service Plan Advisory Committee for the California Department of Corporations and the Legal Advisory Council for the Washington Business Group on Health.

Recently elected to the Los Angeles Urban League Board of Directors, and named Event Chair for the April 2009 March of Dimes - “March for Babies”, Margolin serves on the Ambassador Council of AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA), where she was formerly Chair of the Board of Directors, as well as Chair of APLA’s Strategic Planning Committee. She served as: Chair of the Board of Directors for Connecticut College’s Alumni Association, local Co-chair of the March of Dimes – Walk America; and as a Board Member of the Red Cross and YMCA.

Margolin was the subject of a case study profile by Dennis N. T. Perkins published in Leading at the Edge, Leadership Lessons From the Extraordinary Saga of Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition. The study covers her earliest years running health care operations and is identified in the book, for publication purposes, as “Rice Health Systems”.

In 1999, Margolin was invited by Governor Pete Wilson to address the California Governor’s Conference for Women in a segment entitled “Wildly Successful Women Leaders.” Also, in 2006, she was named one of four Bay Area “Women of the Year” by the American Diabetes Association.

An avid athlete, Margolin has run 8 marathons, including Boston, New York and LA. She is a cyclist and a cross country skier, plays tennis and racquetball, and enjoys gardening, cooking and international travel. She recently concluded a 4,000 mile bike trek across North America.