Benefitfocus Announces Expansion of Senior Executive Team
August 27, 2014
CHARLESTON, SC – Benefitfocus, Inc. (NASDAQ: BNFT), a leading provider of cloud-based benefits software solutions, has announced that Ray August has joined the company as Chief Operating Officer (COO). In the role of COO, August will oversee all operational functions and customer support efforts to drive seamless scaling as the organization grows. Over the course of a sixteen-year tenure, August held multiple roles at CSC, a multi-billion dollar company with over 10,000 employees around the world. Most recently, he held the position of General Manager for CSC’s Financial Services Group. Prior to CSC, Mr. August was Chief Technology Officer at Great Plains Software, a solution provider of middle market accounting software that was acquired by Microsoft.
Andy Howell has been named Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) at Benefitfocus. In this new role, Howell will oversee all sales and marketing functions as well as ecosystem partner relationships to help continue significant and sustainable long-term growth. Howell has been with Benefitfocus since 2007, serving in various roles during his tenure including Senior Vice President (SVP) and General Counsel; SVP and General Manager of the insurance carrier business unit; and, most recently, COO.
“Ray is joining us for the next chapter in the Benefitfocus story,” remarked Benefitfocus President and CEO Shawn Jenkins. “He will build on Andy’s success in the role and position our company for continued sustainable growth and expansion of our operations. Our dedication to providing anticipatory service will be further strengthened by having an expanded leadership team. Andy will leverage his great experience with customers and partners to generate success in this exciting new role.”
With more than 1,000 associates, Benefitfocus is currently expanding its headquarter’s campus footprint from 13 to 40 acres with space for 1,200 additional associates. A new 145,000 square-foot Customer Success Center is scheduled to open in January. Jenkins recently discussed the growth of Benefitfocus and his vision for the benefits industry in a cover story for the August issue of the magazine Benefits Selling. In the interview, he describes the growth of the company from a small start-up in 2000 to a leading cloud-based benefits software provider.
“As Benefitfocus continues to scale to meet the needs of our customers, these two senior management changes will help us to grow more quickly,” Jenkins continued. “Their presence will allow me to focus more of my time working on our future product roadmap. We want to take full advantage of the momentum we’re experiencing to bring product innovation and expansion of our partner ecosystem. We are developing great products and a great team at Benefitfocus – I like to say that we’re just getting started.”
About Benefitfocus
Benefitfocus, Inc. (NASDAQ: BNFT) is a leading provider of cloud-based benefits software solutions for consumers, employers, insurance carriers and brokers. Benefitfocus has served more than 23 million consumers on its platform that consists of an integrated portfolio of products and services enabling clients to more efficiently shop, enroll, manage and exchange benefits information. With a user-friendly interface and consumer-centric design, the Benefitfocus Platform provides one place for consumers to access all their benefits. Benefitfocus solutions support the administration of all types of benefits including core medical, dental and other voluntary benefits plans as well as wellness programs. For more information, visit www.benefitfocus.com.
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: our ability to maintain our culture and recruit and retain qualified personnel; reliance on key personnel; the need to innovate and provide useful products and services; changes in government regulations; the immature and volatile nature of the market for our products and services and other factors that could impact our anticipated growth; management of growth; fluctuations in our financial results; general economic risks; 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.
