Headlines Around the Low Country
S.C. BlueCross CEO Sellers to Retire; Pankau Promoted to CEO
COLUMBIA, SC - May 12, 2010 - BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina announces that Chairman and CEO M. Edward Sellers plans to retire as CEO, effective August 1, 2010, and that current President and COO David S. Pankau has been named president and CEO, also effective on August 1, 2010. Sellers will continue as chairman of the board.
Sellers, age 65, has been with Blue Cross and Blue Shield for 32 years,
including 23 years in South Carolina. He has been CEO since 1992 and
chairman since 2001. Since 1987, BlueCross revenues have grown from $220
million to $3.8 billion today. Its employee base also has grown from
3,000 in 1987 to 11,000 in 2010. All of the company's business sectors
have contributed to that growth — including BlueCross 
insurance,
government divisions that hold contracts with Medicare and TRICARE,
Companion Life Insurance Company, Companion Property & Casualty
Insurance Company, and 23 other subsidiaries.
Prior to joining BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina in 1987,
Sellers held positions with Westinghouse Electric Corporation, the
Boston Consulting Group, and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association
in Chicago. He has a bachelor's degree in physics from Vanderbilt
University and an MBA from Harvard. He said his wife of 32 years, Dr.
Suzan D. Boyd, and their 28-year-old son, Adam, are looking forward to
this transition and share his enthusiasm for the future success of
BlueCross.
Sellers currently serves as chairman of New Carolina and as vice-chair
of the Palmetto Institute. He previously served as chairman of the South
Carolina Chamber of Commerce, the Palmetto Business Forum, the Columbia
College Board of Trustees, the ETV Endowment, and the Palmetto
Conservation Foundation. Recognitions include being elected Business
Leader of the Year in 2002 by the State Chamber of Commerce, receiving
(along with his wife, Dr. Suzan D. Boyd) the United Way of the Midlands
Humanitarians of the Year Award in 2008, and he will be inducted into
the South Carolina Business Hall of Fame later this month.
Pankau, age 46, has been with BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina
for 17 years. He was appointed president and COO on August 1, 2009. His
previous assignments include being president of the BlueCross BlueShield
insurance division and president of BlueChoice® HealthPlan of South
Carolina, the company's HMO subsidiary. "David Pankau has proven himself
to be an extraordinarily effective leader in our company," said
Sellers. "His success in leading our commercial BlueCross BlueShield
business and his grasp of the complexities of the coming evolution in
health care, and of our many diversified businesses, predict great
success for him as the next CEO of our company."
Prior to becoming president of BlueChoice HealthPlan, Pankau served in
various operations management positions and in the government programs
division, and before coming to BlueCross, he worked in the state of
South Carolina's Health and Human Services Finance Commission. Pankau
has a bachelor's degree in health administration from Eastern Illinois
University and a master's degree in public health from the University of
South Carolina School of Public Health. He is active in the community
and is either serving or has served on the boards of directors of
Healthy Learners, Junior Achievement, the South Carolina Youth Advocate
Program, and Saint Lawrence Place. He also is a member of the executive
committee of the Columbia Heart Association. Pankau is married to
Jennifer DuMont, who also has a master's degree from the University of
South Carolina's School of Public Health, and they have two sons, ages
10 and 8.
BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina
