Brian D. Pieninck

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CEO and president
CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield

As president and CEO of CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, Brian D. Pieninck leads a team of more than 8,000 employees dedicated to transforming the health care system to be more equitable, affordable and accessible for the 3.5 million people they serve in Maryland, the District of Columbia and northern Virginia.

Pieninck first joined CareFirst in 2015 as its executive vice president of the Large Group Strategic Business Unit. Two years later, he was named the company’s chief operating officer. In 2018, he was unanimously chosen to his current leadership position. Before his time at CareFirst, he previously worked for nearly 20 years at Aetna in various leadership positions.

He served as part of the health committee of Gov. Wes Moore’s transition team following Moore’s election in 2022. He was also named the chair of the 2023 and 2024 CIAA Tournaments, the nation’s oldest historically Black collegiate athletic conference that has held it’s postseason basketball tournaments in Baltimore the past few years.

What’s been your biggest success?

Over these years serving as president and CEO of CareFirst, we experienced remarkable success from an increased emphasis on agility and partnership. Being amendable to change and comfortable with not always having all the answers are traits we embraced. One example is the recent partnerships formed to help us learn and better address evolving community needs, complementing our mission of affordable, equitable and accessible health care.

This profile is part of The Daily Record's Power 100 List for 2023-2024. Information used in this profile was sourced from the honoree. See the full list at origintdrdev.wpengine.com.