3/27 CMO Breakfast with:

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts

Join Kathy Varney, Senior Vice President of Brand Management and Marketing Communications at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts for our next CMO Breakfast.

You can trust BCBS of Massachusetts to provide you with a healthy breakfast to start the day! Health and wellness are just a part of making quality healthcare affordable, and that is the mission of BCBS of Massachusetts.

Come hear Kathy Varney tell you how BCBS of Massachusetts has stayed relevant in an ever-changing market and successfully maintained brand strength for over 75 years.

About Kathy Varney

As Senior Vice President of Brand Management and Marketing Communications at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Inc., Kathy is accountable for brand performance, brand management and strategic alignment of all messages across business-to-business and business-to-consumer segments. Delivering communications for over three million members and 40,000 employee groups, Kathy is responsible for ensuring brand synergy and results across all branding, advertising and marketing communications channels. She leads an internal agency of 90 associates, delivering strategic solutions for over 350 internal clients throughout the company.

During her over thirteen-year tenure at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Kathy has helped the companygrow its membership by 30 percent to its current market share of 35 percent, with member satisfaction at world-class levels. The company’s brand is the most widely recognized in its category, consistently maintaining a double-digit lead over key market competitors in critical business-to-business and consumer measures. Kathy and her team have been recognized with several industry honors, including two Arnold Z. Rosoff Diversity Awards; 14 interactive marketing awards; six Best of Blue Awards; a Brand Excellence Award from the national Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association; three ClearMark Awards from the Center for Plain Language; and most recently, two In-House Agency Forum Awards.

In keeping with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts’ commitment to community leadership, Kathy has provided strategic consulting and marketing communications services to key non-profit organizations and events, such as Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger, the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk, the South Shore Habitat for Humanity, Crittenton Hastings House and the Anti-Defamation League’s No Place for Hate campaign. Kathy currently serves on the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Women’s Network Advisory Board, has served previously on the Board of The Ad Club of Boston, and participates in local charitable organizations.

Kathy’s career spans almost 25 years in both not-for-profit and for-profit arenas, including health insurance, retail and politics. Previously, she acted as Manager of Catalog Development at Talbot’s, a leading $2 billion national specialty retailer, cataloger and e-retailer of apparel. In this position, she developed the strategic, creative and tactical objectives for all catalogs and store support-related vehicles. Prior to that, she led the development of broadcast advertising for Hechinger Stores Company, a $2.5 billion retail corporation specializing in home improvement. Kathy started her career at National Media, Inc., an advertising and communications firm specializing in political and public affairs campaigns.

Kathy holds an MBA from Northeastern University and a bachelor’s degree in public relations from the University of Alabama.