Women Of The C-Suite: Wendy Barnes of RxBenefits On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior Executive
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Challenge the status quo: The innovation that makes organizations like ours successful comes from being able to challenge the status quo. We must be intentional about having diverse perspectives at the table, allowing our teammates to be their authentic selves, empowering our leaders to build capability within their teams, and offering consistent support for the outcomes and efforts of our teams.
As a part of our interview series called “Women Of The C-Suite”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Wendy Barnes.
Wendy Barnes is the CEO of RxBenefits, the industry’s first-of-its-kind Pharmacy Benefit Optimizer (PBO). She has over 25 years of experience in the PBM and broader pharmacy space. Both a strategic leader and visionary, Wendy is driven by a desire to bend the healthcare cost curve to serve patients better.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Healthcare has always been a passion of mine — specifically, helping people navigate through the pharmacy and medical benefit maze. I have spent my whole career in the industry, serving in leadership positions that include president of Express Scripts Pharmacy, group vice president of managed care at RITE AID, director of pharmacy contracting and new business development, at Premier Inc., professional sales representative at Pfizer, and 10 years as a Medical Service Corps Officer in the US Air Force. Despite all of my experience and efforts to improve the patient experience, healthcare remains incredibly complicated, and, at various points, I’ve found myself interacting with patients who aren’t familiar with those complexities and have been failed by the system. Those experiences led me to believe we have an obligation to do better for the people we serve, simplify the processes for them, cut costs, and conduct business fairly and with compassion. That is why I was incredibly pleased to join RxBenefits.
Today, I am proud to serve as CEO at RxBenefits, the employee benefits industry’s first technology-enabled pharmacy benefits optimizer (PBO). At our core, we’re focused on improving patient lives and bending the healthcare cost curve. This role allows me to use my knowledge of the pharmacy benefits industry to produce better outcomes for members. I’m dedicated to further empowering members of the RxBenefits family to continue disrupting the marketplace and keep pharmacy benefits fair and affordable for all.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company?
Regardless of the size or scale of an organization, I am continuously amazed by the caliber of talent in the healthcare industry and, especially, in the pharmacy benefits marketplace. You must care deeply and compassionately to work in this space, and the RxBenefits team’s ability to exceed expectations surpasses significantly larger operations. It is impressive how we approach the market and create new solutions — I’m astounded at the thoughtful way our staff positions itself, produces extraordinary results, and blazes trails. When competitors are all going in one direction, we are constantly asking, “But is that really the best thing for the client?” That mentality seems to be inherent in our culture, which I just love — the client and the patient are really at the center of everything we do. It’s really heartening.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Typically, days are very busy with obligations scheduled back-to-back. On more than one occasion I walked into a meeting thinking it was about a certain topic, only to realize it was about something entirely different after I’d come in and opened the meeting by bringing up what I thought everyone was there to discuss. It’s earned me some strange looks, either from meeting attendees in the room or from computer screens, but in the end, it’s a good reminder to slow down, collect your bearings occasionally, breathe deeply, and focus on what’s next. It’s also a nice reminder that I work with some very polite, understanding, and good-humored people!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I’ve been blessed to have several strong mentors along the way, and I’m particularly grateful for Tim Wentworth, former CEO of Express Scripts, who imparted astute advice over the years. Tim was one of the best people-leaders I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with, and it’s from him that I’ve really learned how to develop healthy, collaborative cultures and teams.
Another important thing some of my mentors taught me along the way is to not confuse people liking me with being a good leader. Though this can be challenging at times, it is important for all individuals in leadership positions to remember that making a decision might result in healthy tension. The key is to provide an environment where one’s team can provide input and healthy debate, but ultimately you own the decision, and you then need to manage it as best you can.
As a business leader, can you please share a few steps we must take to truly create an inclusive, representative, and equitable society? Kindly share a story or example for each.
Understanding the importance of having a diverse workforce, I’ve worked hard in my career to establish such teams. However, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. A few areas we’re focused on include:
- Hire diverse staff: We need people from different backgrounds and experiences to bring ideas and thoughts to the table so we can be sure we’re considering and including all possible customers. We work very hard to ensure we have a well-represented talent pool for all positions, especially leadership roles.
- Allow the space for DE&I discussions to take place among all staff members: To create truly diverse, equitable, and inclusive workspaces, employees must respect each other’s needs and feel comfortable sharing their unique perspectives to reach their full potential. This space allows everyone to be more authentic, bolder, and less judged. This only happens when our culture supports open, candid conversations whenever and wherever there is a need.
- Engage with underrepresented perspectives: Leaders need to make underrepresented groups in the workplace feel confident enough to clarify the path they’d like to follow by asking questions, equipping them with tools and helping them develop strategies to achieve those career goals, and clearly devising ways to eradicate or work around worldviews they may encounter outside of our company that could hinder their success.
- Challenge the status quo: The innovation that makes organizations like ours successful comes from being able to challenge the status quo. We must be intentional about having diverse perspectives at the table, allowing our teammates to be their authentic selves, empowering our leaders to build capability within their teams, and offering consistent support for the outcomes and efforts of our teams.
- Train staff and put that training into practice: Different team members are going to feel comfortable engaging in different forums and methodologies. That means making a multitude of options available but stressing that the end goal is to have everyone on the same page, no matter which program they choose. DE&I training should be mandatory, whether it’s at the personal level, team level, company-wide level, or all of the above. All programs should be formatted to accomplish the same goal so that company-wide implementation and practices are standardized, which also appreciating all of us are at different point in our journey.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. Most of our readers — in fact, most people — think they have a pretty good idea of what a CEO or executive does. But in just a few words can you explain what an executive does that is different from the responsibilities of the other leaders?
Executives have true, complete ownership of the strategic plan and, ultimately, the performance of the company — in the short-, mid-, and long-term. And with that comes the difficult decision-making requirements around what you will or won’t do.
What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a CEO or executive? Can you explain what you mean?
The biggest myth is that CEOs know everything. A well-run company is operated by a collection of leaders who are aligned toward a singular mission, vision, and values. Having said that, the CEO is ultimately accountable, but he or she can be far more successful by gathering input from his/her team.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women executives that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
Whether it be gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation, I think there are always certain assumptions or biases that we, as humans, make about people. Personally, I encountered these a lot when I was a young professional with children. The assumption was that I couldn’t perform at the same level as a counterpart who didn’t have those obligations. I constantly had to advocate for myself more because colleagues assumed they were doing me a favor by not asking me to take the lead on certain initiatives.
But the truth is, all of us — gender aside — have other obligations. In my opinion, it’s all about having the conversation about whatever the assumption may be and addressing them head-on.
What is the most striking difference between your actual job and how you thought the job would be?
I’ve been fortunate in that the path I took to get to this point gave me the gift of leading in so many roles, so I didn’t come into this one with any misconceptions about how difficult or easy it is to lead people and strategic business initiatives. Honestly, the surprise — in a good way — has been just how kind our culture is and how patient everyone is with my frequent questions as I continue to engage in different areas where I’m still learning.
Is everyone cut out to be an executive? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful executive and what type of person should avoid aspiring to be an executive? Can you explain what you mean?
There are different kinds of executives, and it often depends on the company, the mission, and the vision. But overall, I am not a big fan of “laundry lists” citing very specific things one must do to be a good leader or a good CEO. Depending on what we’re talking about, there is a leadership role for everybody in something that makes sense for their unique skill set. I also think corporate America sometimes does a disservice to colleagues within certain cultures that somehow dictate that you must be a senior leader to be successful. That notion is absurd, as the value that subject matter experts bring to a company is certainly on par with senior leaders. I would go so far as to say many of the SMEs I’ve worked with over the years have added far more value than I have as a leader.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)
I once had a mentor warn me that life, in general, gets messy — more often than you’d expect. So, it’s good to pay a little more attention to what it means to be a leader in messy times as opposed to how to lead when everything’s in a great space. Beyond that, I’m not a big one for revisiting the “woulda, coulda, shoulda.” I’m more interested in learning from mistakes — because you can’t go back and change them — making the best of them and finding some humor in them. There’s been a multitude of mistakes over the years, and they’ve all made me a better leader, so wishing them away is pointless. Mistakes have led me to be a more mindful leader!
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
Working in the pharmacy benefits industry, the biggest things I am passionate about are trying to do better by the people we serve, simplifying the healthcare processes for patients, cutting costs, and treating everyone fairly. I’m extremely lucky that I was able to join RxBenefits and use my position to put my passions into action.
So, I suppose the movement I would inspire would be to continue the work RxBenefits is doing to ensure our clients have the best pharmacy benefits possible.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I’d like to sit down with Marie Curie and have breakfast on the day she was awarded the Nobel Prize. She was not allowed to receive it; her husband had to accept it in her behalf because women were not acknowledged as being part of the scientific community. Talk about a pioneer! I’m a research biochemist at heart and the whole thing is just intriguing to me — I’d love to know how she and her husband decided upon his acceptance of the award. Was she bitter? Was she accepting? Did she understand that her research spoke for itself, despite not being recognized for it? Did she have male allies in the scientific community who saw the unfairness of the situation?
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
Women Of The C-Suite: Wendy Barnes of RxBenefits On The Five Things You Need To Succeed As A Senior… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.