Bio

Veteran business, leadership and turnaround expert Ronald A. Williams devotes his time and energy to public-private partnership, the continued transformation of the American health care system, and coaching future leaders. He is deeply involved in private equity; public-sector and non-profit boards; philanthropy; and helping CEOs, senior c-suite members and future leaders with strategy and values-based leadership. Mr. Williams is the best-selling author of Learning to Lead: The Journey to Leading Yourself, Leading Others and Leading an Organization. Williams is the founder, chairman and CEO of RW2 Enterprises, and is the former Chairman, President and CEO of Aetna Inc. He is currently lead director of American Express, and a director for Boeing (chair, finance committee) and Johnson & Johnson (chair, compensation committee). He is an operating advisor of the private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, where he has successfully guided three portfolio company exits: naviHealth, PharMEDium and Envision Healthcare. He is chairman of The Conference Board, Chair of the MIT Sloan Health Systems Initiative, and a member of the board of trustees of the Cleveland Clinic. At Aetna, Mr. Williams transformed the company’s strategy, culture, operating performance and financial results. When he joined Aetna in 2001, its loss from continuing operations was $292 million, with earnings per share loss of $0.46. In 2011, the year he stepped down as chairman, Aetna’s full-year operating earnings were $2 billion, with operating earnings per share of $5.17, and the company was ranked 77th on the FORTUNE 100 list. Market capitalization grew from $4.7 billion in 2001 to $15.3 billion in 2011. During his tenure the company was named FORTUNE’s most admired company in health care for three consecutive years. Aetna is now part of CVS Health. In 2011, President Barack Obama appointed Mr. Williams to the President’s Management Advisory Board. He is a member of the President’s Circle of National Academies, is on the board of the NAF and the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He also is a member of Deutsche Bank’s Americas Advisory Board, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a trustee of the Committee for Economic Development.