Benefitfocus Promotes Ray August to Chief Executive Officer
November 20 2017 - 4:30PM
Benefitfocus, Inc. (NASDAQ:BNFT), a leading provider of cloud-based
benefits management software, announced today that its Board of
Directors has appointed Ray August to the position of Chief
Executive Officer, effective January 1, 2018. August will also
retain the title of President. As part of the transition, the
Board also appointed Benefitfocus Founder and current CEO, Shawn
Jenkins, to the new position of Senior Advisor for Innovation,
beginning January 1, 2018.
August joined the Company in 2014 and since his arrival has led
a number of major operational and technical initiatives across
Benefitfocus that have strengthened the Company’s financial
performance. Over the last three years, Benefitfocus’
quarterly revenue run rate has increased by over 80%, while GAAP
gross margin improved by over 1,750 basis points. During his
tenure as President and Chief Operating Officer, the company’s
customer community has increased to 903 large employers and 54
insurance carriers. Prior to Benefitfocus, August served as
President and General Manager of the multi-billion dollar Financial
Services Division of CSC.
“As Ray and I have worked together during the last three
years, he has demonstrated an ability to lead Benefitfocus as
evidenced by our strong financial and operational performance,”
stated Shawn Jenkins. “Now, with our most successful open
enrollment underway, and a deep leadership bench in place, I have
decided to focus my time on shaping the long-term technology and
strategic vision for Benefitfocus.”
As part of the transition, Jenkins will assume a new role as
Senior Advisor for Innovation and continue as a member of the Board
of Directors. In this newly formed role supporting August and the
rest of the executive team, Jenkins will devote his time to
exploring the application of emerging technologies such as
artificial intelligence, voice recognition and bots as they apply
to the personalization of benefits. Jenkins will also continue to
advocate on behalf of Benefitfocus and what we believe has become
the largest benefits community.
“Under Shawn’s leadership and vision Benefitfocus has grown from
a start-up into a successful public company by building a scalable
platform capable of powering the entire benefits ecosystem, which
has helped reshape the benefits administration market,” August
said. “A big part of my job going forward will be to build on this
strong foundation, accelerate our ability to bring innovative
products to market, deliver an amazing customer experience and
foster our unique company culture.”
“Shawn and I founded Benefitfocus together and the company’s
success would not have been possible without his dedication and
passion over the past 17 years,” said Mason Holland, Co-Founder and
Executive Chairman of the Board for Benefitfocus. “Because of his
vision, millions of employees now rely on Benefitfocus to help them
make better health care decisions and lead better lives. Through
his new role, I am excited that Shawn will continue to work closely
with management and the Board to remain intimately involved in the
development of our long-term technology and product strategy here
at Benefitfocus.”
About Benefitfocus
Benefitfocus (NASDAQ:BNFT) provides a leading cloud-based
benefits management platform that simplifies how organizations and
individuals shop for, enroll in, manage and exchange benefits.
Every day leading employers, insurance companies and the consumers
they serve rely on our platform to manage, scale and exchange
benefits data seamlessly. In an increasingly complex benefits
landscape, we bring order to chaos so our clients and their
employees have access to better information, make better decisions
and lead better lives. Learn more
at www.benefitfocus.com, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Safe Harbor Statement
Except for historical information, all of the statements,
expectations, and assumptions contained in this press release are
forward-looking statements. Actual results might differ materially
from those explicit or implicit in the forward-looking statements.
Important factors that could cause actual results to differ
materially include: reliance on key personnel; our ability to
maintain our culture, recruit and retain qualified personnel and
effectively expand our sales force; our continuing losses and need
to achieve profitability; fluctuations in our financial results;
risks related to changing healthcare and other applicable
regulations; general economic risks; the immature and
volatile market for our products and services; the need to innovate
and provide useful products and services; our ability to compete
effectively; privacy, security and other risks associated with our
business; and the other risk factors set forth from time to time in
our SEC filings, copies of which are available free of charge
within the Investor Relations section of the Benefitfocus website
at http://investor.benefitfocus.com/sec.cfm or upon request from
our Investor Relations Department. Benefitfocus assumes no
obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking
statements, except as required by law.
Benefitfocus, Inc.843-284-1052 ext. 6710pr@benefitfocus.com
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