Meet Our Executive Team
James G. Carlson, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
Stanley F. Baldwin, EVP, General Counsel and Secretary
Nancy L. Grden, EVP and Chief Marketing Officer
John E. Littel, EVP, External Relations
Mary McCluskey, EVP and Chief Medical Officer
Leon A. Root, Jr., EVP and Chief Information Officer
James W. Truess, EVP and Chief Financial Officer
Linda Whitley-Taylor, EVP, Associate Services
Richard C. Zoretic, EVP and Chief Operating Officer
John Markus, Interim Chief Compliance Officer
Lori-Don M. Gregory, SVP, Office of Business Ethics and Deputy Chief Compliance Officer and Counsel
Margaret M. Roomsburg, SVP and Chief Accounting Officer
James G. Carlson
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer
James G. Carlson has enjoyed a distinguished career with nearly 30 years of experience in health insurance. In September 2007, he became the second Chief Executive Officer in AMERIGROUP’s 14-year history, having previously served as the Company’s President and Chief Operating Officer, a position he held since 2003. Since 2003, he has been responsible for all of the operational units at AMERIGROUP. Under his leadership, the Company has more than doubled the number of state Medicaid programs it serves, from five to 11, and has built a Senior and Special Services Organization focused on people who are eligible for both Medicaid and Medicare. Mr. Carlson has strengthened the Company’s operational and medical management processes and has recruited experienced executives to help expand the business while securing AMERIGROUP’s position as one of the leading voices on behalf of healthcare for the financially vulnerable, seniors and people with disabilities.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Carlson was an Executive Vice President of UnitedHealth Group and President of its UnitedHealthcare business unit, which served more than 10 million members in HMO and PPO plans nationwide. Mr. Carlson is also the founder of Healthspring, a physician group practice management company and co-founder of Workscape, a software company. He began his career with The Prudential Insurance Company of America, serving as President of Western Group Operations. At Prudential, he was responsible for all employee benefit products for that region, as well as the company’s launch of managed care and the formation of health plans in California, Florida and New Jersey.
Mr. Carlson attended Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, and received his degree from Rider University in New Jersey. He serves on the Boards of the National Kidney Foundation, the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center and the Virginia Beach Neptune Festival, as well as Morningside College and the Health Sector Advisory Council for the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University.
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Stanley F. Baldwin, Esq.
Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary
Stanley F. Baldwin is Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary for AMERIGROUP Corporation. He has in excess of three decades of experience providing legal services to corporations in the areas of business law, securities regulation, insurance, managed care and corporate finance. In addition to managing the Company’s legal affairs, Mr. Baldwin is responsible for the regulatory compliance, internal audit and corporate investigations functions. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Baldwin served as a senior officer and general counsel of Epic Holdings, Inc., EQUICOR - Equitable HCA Corporation and CIGNA Healthplans, Inc.
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Nancy L. Grden, MBA, MRP
Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
Nancy L. Grden is Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for AMERIGROUP Corporation. She is responsible for growth and new business development, including new markets, product development, implementation of new business, marketing/branding, and eHealth/web strategy and services. Ms. Grden has extensive leadership experience in building and launching new ventures, new product and service development, marketing and public-private partnerships. Prior to joining AMERIGROUP, she was Founder and President of Avenir, LLC, providing consulting and interim executive services to new ventures, as well as Chief Executive Officer for Lifescape, LLC, a web-based behavioral health services company for employers and providers. She also served as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for FHC Health Systems, parent company of ValueOptions. Previously, Ms. Grden was Executive Vice President, Marketing Services for NationsBank, before the firm became part of Bank of America. Ms. Grden has a master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of South Carolina, a master’s of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina, a bachelor’s degree in economics from Bucknell University, and is a graduate of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking at the University of Delaware.
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John E. Littel, Esq.
Executive Vice President, External Relations
John E. Littel is Executive Vice President, External Relations. He is responsible for AMERIGROUP’s communications, corporate compliance, and government and community affairs initiatives. He also chairs the Company’s charitable foundation. Mr. Littel joined AMERIGROUP from the Bush Administration and previously was deputy director and counsel for the citizenship project at the Heritage Foundation. He served as the Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia. On the federal level, he served as the director of intergovernmental affairs for The White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy. Mr. Littel also held the position of Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Law and Government at Regent University. He began his career in Pennsylvania as a Regional Office Manager for the late U.S. Senator H. John Heinz III and is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar. Mr. Littel served as past chair and current member of the Family and Children’s Trust Fund Board, Virginia’s family violence prevention agency, and on the Board of For Kids, a program for homeless families in Norfolk.
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Mary McCluskey, MD
Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer
Mary McCluskey, MD is Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for AMERIGROUP, overseeing healthcare services for the Company’s 1.7 million members. Prior to AMERIGROUP, Dr. McCluskey served in a variety of senior medical positions with Aetna Inc., most recently as Chief Medical Officer, Northeast Region. In this role, she was the senior clinical and medical quality leader for a division that provided health insurance for 2.4 million people through employer-sponsored and Medicare programs. Under her guidance, the company’s Northeast region earned an excellent accreditation rating from the National Committee for Quality Assurance. Her previous positions at Aetna included National Medical Director/Head of Clinical Cost Management and Senior Regional Medical Director, Southeast Region. Prior to Aetna, Dr. McCluskey was Vice President of Medical Affairs for Medpartners Medical Management in Tampa. She previously served as Internist/Medical Director of Bridgeton Health Center in St. Louis. Dr. McCluskey began her career as an Urgent Care Physician in St. Louis. A graduate of St. Louis University and the St. Louis University School of Medicine, she completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Jewish Hospital/Washington University in St. Louis.
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Leon A. Root, Jr., MSBA
Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer
Leon A. Root is Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer of AMERIGROUP Corporation. In this role, he is responsible for the information systems and strategies to meet organizational business goals. Mr. Root joined the Company in 2002 as Chief Technology Officer. Previously, he served as Chief Information Officer at Medunite, Inc., a private e-commerce company founded by Aetna, Cigna, PacifiCare Health Systems and five other national managed care companies. Medunite focuses on secure web-enabled administrative transactions and services for healthcare constituents. At Medunite, he was responsible for the information technology and operations division. Also, he was the Senior Vice President/General Manager at McKesson HBOC’s business systems division. Mr. Root began his career as systems architect at Eastman Kodak. He earned his master’s of science in Business Administration from Pennsylvania State University.
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James W. Truess, CFA
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
James W. Truess is Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of AMERIGROUP, overseeing all aspects of the Company’s financial operations. Mr. Truess has enjoyed a two-decade career in financial roles, including the past 18 years in the managed care industry, and the last 11 years as a Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining AMERIGROUP, he served as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of Group Health Cooperative, one of the largest vertically integrated health maintenance organizations in the country. Mr. Truess holds a master’s degree in Finance from Seattle University and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Washington. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.
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Linda Whitley-Taylor
Executive Vice President, Associate Services
Linda Whitley-Taylor is Executive Vice President, Associate Services for AMERIGROUP Corporation. In this position, Ms. Whitley-Taylor is responsible for Associate Services functions and programs including human resources, Associate policy development, compensation and benefits administration, travel and events planning, and training and leadership development. She has two decades of experience in the field of human resources and talent development. Ms. Whitley-Taylor came to AMERIGROUP from Genworth Financial, where she served as Senior Vice President, Human Resources Operations at the company’s Richmond, Va., headquarters. At Genworth, her roles in human resources, training and quality steadily increased in responsibilities and scope, ultimately resulting in oversight of human resources operations for 6,500 employees in 24 countries. In addition to her international experience, Ms. Whitley-Taylor has significant expertise in talent development and people strategy initiatives and is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt.
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Richard C. Zoretic
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
Richard C. Zoretic is Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of AMERIGROUP Corporation. In this role, he is responsible for AMERIGROUP’s health plan operations in 11 states, with the Company’s four regional Chief Executive Officers -- Northeastern, Mid-Atlantic, Southeastern, Southwestern -- reporting directly to him. In addition, Mr. Zoretic oversees the Company’s Healthcare Management Services, Healthcare Delivery Systems, Medical Finance and Customer Service operations.
With over 28 years of management experience in healthcare finance and insurance, Mr. Zoretic joined AMERIGROUP from CIGNA Dental Health, a national dental benefits provider, where he served as Senior Vice President, Network Operations and Distribution. From 1994 to 2000, he held a variety of leadership positions at UnitedHealth Group, including Regional President of United Healthcare’s Mid-Atlantic operations, Senior Vice President of Corporate Sales and Marketing and President of the company’s Middle Market Business, where he had overall responsibility for United Healthcare’s largest commercial market segment. Mr. Zoretic began his career in 1980 with MetLife’s Group Life & Health operations where he held a series of positions of increasing responsibility over a 13-year period. He has also served as a management consultant in Deloitte Consulting’s healthcare practice, with clients including Aetna, Kaiser, Anthem and several Blue Cross and Blue Shield organizations. He joined AMERIGROUP in 2003 as Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. Mr. Zoretic earned a degree in finance at Pennsylvania State University.
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John Markus, Esq.
Interim Chief Compliance Officer
John Markus is Interim Chief Compliance Officer for AMERIGROUP. Mr. Markus is Of Counsel to the law firm Balch & Bingham LLP in Birmingham, Alabama. Previously, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Compliance Officer for HealthSouth Corporation in Birmingham, where he directed the development of internal and external regulatory affairs programs as part of a comprehensive restructuring initiative. Prior to working at HealthSouth, Mr. Markus served as Senior Vice President for Corporate Compliance at Fresenius Medical Care North America in Boston, where he designed similar regulatory affairs programs for the nation’s largest provider of dialysis products. He has also designed and implemented regulatory compliance programs at Oxford Health Plans in Norwalk, Connecticut, and at National Health Laboratories in San Diego. Mr. Markus began his career in 1980, practicing law in Washington, D.C., with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, and with Greenberg Traurig. He holds a law degree from American University, a master’s degree from the University of Chicago, and a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University.
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Senior Vice President, Office of Business Ethics and Deputy Chief Compliance Officer and Counsel
Lori-Don Gregory is Senior Vice President, Office of Business Ethics and Deputy Chief Compliance Officer and Counsel of AMERIGROUP Corporation. Ms. Gregory joined AMERIGROUP in 1997 and has served in various capacities of increasing responsibility within the Company’s legal department. In November 2006, she was named to the role of Senior Vice President, Office of Business Ethics to oversee the Company’s Compliance Program. Prior to joining AMERIGROUP, she was an associate with the law firm of Shapiro and Burson.
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Margaret M. Roomsburg, CPA
Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer
Margaret M. Roomsburg is Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer of AMERIGROUP Corporation. Ms. Roomsburg joined AMERIGROUP in 1996 and has served as Controller since 1999. Effective February 1, 2007, Ms. Roomsburg was named Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer. Ms. Roomsburg is a Certified Public Accountant. Prior to joining AMERIGROUP, she was the Director of Finance for ValueOptions, Inc. (formerly Options Mental Health).
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