Humana CEO, Former Student, Advocates For Personal Touch In Health Care

Keeping the focus on the patients is the best strategy for succeeding in the healthcare industry, and person-to-person interaction is a powerful tool in any industry, Humana President and CEO Bruce Broussard ’84 said recently at Mays Business School. Broussard shared life stories and advice with more than 400 students and community members on Sept. 29.

“At the end of the day, people are motivated by people, not by technology,” he said. “Someone who has walked that path before is more influential than either or a nurse or a doctor.” Also, those working in health care are more motivated when they are working with patients than when they are removed from interacting with them, he said.

Broussard, a Texas A&M University graduate in finance and accounting, has a wide range of executive leadership experience in publicly traded and private organizations. He started his career as a consultant at Arthur Anderson, then was treasurer and CFO of various public companies and CEO of U.S. Oncology before joining Humana.

He is leading Humana to an integrated care delivery model that is expected to drive lower costs, enhanced quality, improved outcomes and a better member experience. With its holistic approach, Humana is dedicated to improving the health of the communities it serves by making it easy for people to achieve their best health.

Be Nimble

While visiting Texas A&M, Broussard had meetings and meals with students, faculty members and administrators before delivering a presentation in the Ray Auditorium. He told the audience he considers adjusting to life’s unexpected turns a skill and a gift, and he urged the students to spend their time in college refining what they want out of life. “Take risks. Life is not certain, so you have to be open to what comes along,” he said. “And be flexible. I’ve learned more from the times when things didn’t go as I planned than when they did.”

Broussard was invited by Eli Jones, dean of Mays Business School, as this semester’s Dean’s Leadership Speaker. Last year, Mays hosted David Cordani ’88, president and CEO of Cigna Corporation and a counterpart of Broussard’s. They are also friends who found out as adults that they had attended the same high school.

Broussard and Cordani are in an elite group of Aggies – Texas A&M is third among universities with the most CEOs in the Fortune 500, as mentioned by Jones when he introduced Broussard. Jones pointed out that two of three top CEOs are graduates of the business school. Texas A&M President Michael K. Young also mentioned the ranking in his state-of-the-university address on the university’s Oct. 4 anniversary: “Making the joke ring true: What do you call an Aggie five years after graduation …. BOSS!”

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