Blues CEO Daniel J. Loepp receives honorary degree from alma mater Wayne State University

Daniel J. Loepp

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Daniel J. Loepp is President and Chief Executive Officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. Mr. Loepp has directed sweeping initiatives and innovations that have led to a historic transformation of BCBSM and health care in Michigan. He played a major role in modernizing the state’s health care delivery system in a process that led to enactment of new laws that transformed BCBSM to become a nonprofit mutual insurance company in January 2014. Mr. Loepp has led BCBSM initiatives to improve health care quality and slow cost increases, saving nearly $1.5 billion through several programs that have garnered national attention and served as models implemented across the country. Under his leadership, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is helping to revitalize and strengthen Detroit, Grand Rapids and Lansing. In 2011 and 2012, Blue Cross moved 3,000 BCBSM employees into downtown Detroit and the company is one of the largest employers in the city’s Central Business District. In Lansing, BCBSM subsidiary AF Group transformed a long abandoned power plant into a national headquarters. Mr. Loepp has stood by a commitment that BCBSM should be a driving force for good in Michigan’s core cities. It is reflected in BCBSM’s workforce diversity and inclusion efforts, supplier partnerships and community initiatives. In his tenure, BCBSM has been named Corporation of the Year in Finance and Insurance Services nine times by the Michigan Minority Supplier Development Council. The company has also been named one of America’s Top Organizations for Multi-Cultural Business Opportunities by DiversityBusiness.com and ranked five consecutive years as one of the top 10 Regional Companies for diversity by DiversityInc magazine, including being ranked No. 1 for consecutive years in 2015 and 2016. Mr. Loepp was honored as a 2016 recipient of the Edward N. McNamara Goodfellow of the Year Award. He was selected as Michiganian of the Year by The Detroit News in 2013. Mr. Loepp joined Blue Cross in 2000. In 2011, 2012 and 2013, he served as board chair of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), an organization that includes all 36 Blue Cross plans and provides health coverage to more than 106 million Americans.

Receiving an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from my alma mater, Wayne State University, as I did today, is one of the proudest moments of my life. But instead of inspiring nostalgia for my long-gone youthful college days, the distinction makes me think foremost of other young people who are in college or nearing college age. I received both my undergraduate and graduate degrees from Wayne State. As I told graduates during the commencement ceremony at Ford Field, I attended classes at night while working a full-time job. It took me six years to finish my bachelor's degree. Back then this was considered untraditional. Nowadays I suspect it is a fairly common storyline among students. Without question, Wayne State is a different place than it was way back when I attended, when I parked my car each day on unpaved, muddy lots. But seeing the sea of caps and gowns, I couldn't help but think back to four years ago, when my son walked across the stage at the Matthei Building to receive his bachelor’s diploma from Wayne State. Afterward he gave me a big hug and said “Thanks, dad, for helping make this happen.” Commencement ceremonies in many ways represent a passing of the torch — from university faculty and administrators to the new graduates, and from those graduates to the incoming and current crop of students. I told graduates that I encouraged them to join the ranks of the nearly 60,000 WSU alumni in the Detroit area and use their talents and energy for good. “You can provide the intellectual and creative capital needed to revitalize this city and state,” I said. “You can make a difference right here.” There's a lot of debate nowadays about the high costs of higher education, but that's a debate for another time. From where I sit, the value of a college education has never been greater. Daniel J. Loepp is president and chief executive of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

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MI Blues Perspectives is sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, a nonprofit, independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association