Larry C. Glasscock
1948–

Chairman, chief executive officer, and president, Anthem

Nationality: American.

Born: April 4, 1948, in Cullman, Alabama.

Education: Cleveland State University, BA, 1970; attended Columbia University.

Family: Son of Oscar Claborn and Betty Lou Norman; married Lee Ann Roden; children: two.

Career: AmeriTrust Company, 1974–1975, vice president of personnel and organization; 1976–1978, vice president of the national division; 1978–1979, manager of the credit card center; 1980–1981, senior vice president of consumer finance; 1981–1983, senior vice president of the national division; 1983–1987, executive vice president of corporate banking administration; 1987–1992, group executive vice president; Essex Holdings, president and chief executive officer; First American Bankshares, N.A., president and chief operating officer; Group Hospitalization & Medical Services (Blue Cross and Blue Shield of the National Capital Area), 1993–1998, president and chief executive officer; CareFirst, 1998, chief operating officer; Anthem, 1998–1999, senior executive vice president of Anthem Insurance; 1998–1999, chief operating officer of Anthem Insurance; 1999–2001, president and chief executive officer of Anthem Insurance; 2001–, corporate president and chief executive officer; 2003–, chairman of the board.

Awards: Indiana Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Ernst & Young, 2003.

Address: Anthem, 120 Monument Circle, Indianapolis, Indiana 46204; http://www.anthem-inc.com.

■ Larry C. Glasscock directed the Anthem insurance company to record growth. Known for streamlining operations at numerous institutions, Glasscock went to work for Anthem in 1998. There he held the successively responsible positions of chief operating officer, president, chief executive officer, and chairman. He more than doubled the company's annual premiums

and oversaw its highly successful initial public offering in 2001, up to that time the largest for a health-care company. He was one of the architects of a merger with WellPoint Health, a deal that was expected to close in mid-2004, which would make the resulting company the largest managed care provider in the United States.

HONES HIS OPERATING EFFICIENCY

Larry Glasscock was born in Cullman, Alabama, in 1948; in 1969 he married Lee Ann Roden. He served with the U.S. Marine Corps from 1970 to 1976 and then went to work for AmeriTrust Corporation in Cleveland, Ohio, where he had an 18-year career. In 1974 he began work as vice president of personnel and organization. In 1976 he became the vice president of the company's national division and, then, in 1978 was appointed the vice president and manager of the credit card center. In 1980 he moved on to become AmeriTrust's senior vice president of consumer finance. Another move, in 1981, saw him assume the duties of the senior vice president of the national division. In 1983 Glasscock was promoted to executive vice president of corporate banking administration and, in 1987, to group executive vice president. He held this last position until 1992.

Following his stint at AmeriTrust, Glasscock held the position of president and chief executive officer at Essex Holdings, another Cleveland-based company. He was also hired by the federal government as the president and chief operating officer of First American Bankshares, N.A., of Washington, DC. The bank had been owned by Bank of Credit and Commerce International, now defunct, and was reputed to have laundered drug money. International authorities closed down the operation, resulting in a loss to depositors of $2 billion. Glasscock was brought aboard to clean it up in preparation for sale. Upon completing that assignment, he went on to hold the position (1993–1998) of president and chief executive officer of Group Hospitalization & Medical Services, which operated as Blue Cross and Blue Shield of the National Capital Area. The company was losing money, and he oversaw a turnaround and guided it to an affiliation with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland. From January through April 1998, he was chief operating officer of CareFirst, the resulting company.

SHEPHERDS ANTHEM THROUGH RECORD GROWTH

In April 1998 Glasscock joined Anthem, an Indiana-based insurance company that, through subsidiary operations, supplied healthcare benefits to more than 11.5 million people. Anthem, the publicly traded parent company of Anthem Insurance Companies, was an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Glasscock joined the corporation as senior executive vice president and chief operating officer. Chief executive officer L. Ben Lytle had brought Glasscock into the company to help analyze and integrate the operations of several new companies that had been obtained through a series of mergers and buyouts directed by Lytle. In his first four months at Anthem, Glasscock, through a combination of early retirement and attrition, had lightened the corporation of hundreds of its middle managers, bringing the manager-to-employee ratio to roughly 1 to 15, from 1 to 8. He was promoted to president and chief operating officer in April 1999 and to president and chief executive officer in October 1999. In July 2001 Glasscock became president and chief executive officer of Anthem Inc. In July 2002 he was appointed chairman of the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare. With Glasscock at the helm, Anthem experienced record growth, and in the first part of 2003 Lytle picked Glasscock to be chairman of the board, in addition to his other responsibilities, when Lytle vacated that spot and became Anthem's presiding director.

In June 2003 Glasscock and Lytle were honored with the 2003 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for financial services. From the time Glasscock joined Anthem in 1998, the corporation's annual premiums had more than doubled, and its 2001 initial public offering was the largest up to then for an Indiana company, Wall Street's 23rd largest ever, and by far the largest public offering of a health-care company at the time. Anthem was ranked on Barron's 500 list, the Standard & Poors 500 index, and the Fortune 500 list.

ARCHITECT OF MERGER

In October 2003 Anthem announced that it would purchase California-based WellPoint Health networks for about $16.4 billion. Approved by the Federal Trade Commission in February 2004 but still subject to shareholder and regulatory approval, the merger was expected to result in the creation of the country's largest managed care provider, with a membership of 26 million people from California to Maine. According to Glasscock, it was expected that under the merger the two companies would save $50 million in 2005 and $250 million by the year after that. The deal was projected to close by mid-2004, with the combined company to be called WellPoint.

News of the deal was met with mixed reactions. Benefit consultants speculated that savings from the consolidation of back-office functions and the elimination of some jobs might slow premium increases, which at the time were rising at their fastest pace in a decade. It was thought that big insurers who were eager to attract large, multistate employers as clients might become more competitive in the wake of the merger. Other analysts believed that competition might be hampered should smaller insurers be driven from the market, which could fuel price increases. Doctors were also concerned that the merger marked a nationwide trend toward a health-care system governed by a handful of publicly traded corporations operating primarily for the welfare of shareholders.

In April 2004 it was announced that for his role in the pending merger, Glasscock would receive a merit-based performance bonus of $42.5 million, in addition to his regular salary and bonus, paid out over the ensuing three years. In 2003 Glasscock earned $3.6 million in salary, and his outstanding stock options, said to be worth no less than $22.9 million, were to fully vest at the sale's close.

sources for further information

"Anthem CEO to Get $42.5M Merit Award," April 7, 2004, http://www.wane.com/global/story.asp?s=1768950&ClientType=Print.

Appleby, Julie, "Health Insurers' Deals Get Mixed Reactions," USA Today, October 28, 2003, http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/2003-10-27-health-care_x.htm.

"BCBS OKs WellPoint, Anthem Merger," Los Angeles Business, March 22, 2004.

"L. Ben Lytle and Larry C. Glasscock, Anthem, Inc., Honored with 2003 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Financial Services," company press release, June 17, 2003, http://www.anthem.com/jsp/antiphona/corp/int_primary.jsp?content_id=PW_038085&site=CORP&state=&role=CORPOR.

"Panel Presentation by Larry Glasscock," Indiana Leadership Summit, 2003, http://www.ihc4u.org/glasscock.htm.

—Amanda de la Garza