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Wendy Sherry has taken on a new mission in the past year: intensifying her efforts to promote diversity and inclusion in corporate leadership.
As market president of health insurer Cigna Connecticut, Sherry has created discussion groups to help employees learn more about colleagues from different backgrounds.
“I am starting to learn how I can help our response in addressing systemic racism,” Sherry said. “One of the best ways to help us achieve our goals around diversity and inclusion is to be able to understand the perspectives of people who are not like you.”
Taking action to help diversify leadership is nothing new to Sherry, who has spent her 25 years at Cigna mentoring and coaching women in the executive ranks. She attributes her passion for helping others achieve success to the support she received on her way up the ranks at the Bloomfield-based insurance giant.
In addition to her post as Connecticut market president, Sherry also heads Cigna’s national payer solutions business unit, which sells the company’s services on a wholesale basis.
“I feel incredibly fortunate that I’ve been able to achieve my career aspirations,” Sherry said. “It took a village to help me achieve these goals.”
Sherry has a business degree from Emory University and worked early in her career as a CPA at Ernst & Young, before joining Cigna as part of the company’s leadership program. Early stints in the company’s clinical operations helped her build her skills for more senior roles as vice president of product development and posts in financial analysis and planning and medical management.
“Cigna is at its best when we are clinically focused and delivering value for people who need us in trying times,” Sherry said. Additional posts in the products and solutions divisions helped her refine her approach to making major decisions on how to market the company’s services.
Prior to being named market president, Sherry served as Cigna’s COO for New England, allowing her to apply the management lessons she had learned “in the real world.”
“That was really instrumental experience in preparing me for the role I’m in now,” she said.
In her current roles, Sherry’s main focus is keeping costs down for Cigna’s clients.
“It’s really around driving affordability. I think we would all agree that healthcare costs are outpacing the price index and are becoming not only a challenge for employers, … but also a very significant challenge for individuals,” she said.
Along with affordability, healthcare costs need to be more predictable and easy to understand for both employers and employees, she added.
That’s why one of the first actions Cigna took after the COVID-19 pandemic hit was to reduce its administrative requirements for clients. In addition to securing safe workplaces for its own employees, the company moved quickly to expand coverage for telemedicine and ease rules on coverage in case of layoff or furloughs.
“I couldn’t be more proud of our response,” Sherry said. “Cigna really leaned into this COVID crisis to be there for folks.”
Name of Organization: Cigna
Title: President, Cigna Connecticut and Payer Solutions
Size of organization: Cigna as a whole — 74,000+ employees and Fortune 13 company with revenues over $150B. My span of control — 250 employees and revenues of $1.2B
Education: Emory University, BBA in Accounting. Also earned my CPA.
Guiding business principle: Focus on the customer and creating value.
Best way to keep your competitive edge: Never stop listening and innovating.
Best business decision: Hire and develop great people.
Worst business decision: Fighting to retain a customer that does not share our values.
Biggest missed opportunity: Not taking enough time to celebrate success.
Goal yet to be achieved: Achieving #1 market share in CT and to sit on a board or advisory committee for a healthcare startup such that my unique and diverse portfolio of experiences can be used to fuel innovation that drives affordability, predictability and simplicity.
Personal touch in your office: A space that welcomes visitors — open door, full of family photos and motivational quotes.
City of residence: Simsbury
Favorite way to relax: Boating and a good glass of wine!
Hobbies: Boating, spin, travel
Last vacation: Cancun (just before COVID)
Favorite movie: “Officer and a Gentleman”
Currently reading: “Then She Was Gone,” by Lisa Jewell
Favorite cause: Girls on the Run and Governor’s Prevention Partnership
Second choice career: Mentor/Coach
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The Hartford Business Journal 2025 Charity Event Guide is the annual resource publication highlighting the top charity events in 2025.
Hartford Business Journal provides the top coverage of news, trends, data, politics and personalities of the area’s business community. Get the news and information you need from the award-winning writers at HBJ. Don’t miss out - subscribe today.
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