Paul Sanford
Paul Sanford develops compelling visions, strategies, and multiyear operating plans for large organizations and
teams. Over his extensive career, Sanford has driven organizational transformations organically as well as
through vertical integration and M&A activity. He has led large platform conversions, leveraging deep industry
knowledge in both payor and provider organizations.
As a key member of the Executive Leadership Team at The Cigna Group (NYSE: CI), Sanford led major
transformations, optimizing organizational structure, technology, and service delivery as Cigna grew to $195B in
revenue with more than 180 million customers in 30 countries. As a trusted governance partner, Sanford
routinely advised and guided Cigna’s Board of Directors through complex operational challenges, including a
$60B acquisition as well as cyber and data privacy resilience and capital investments in technology.
Sanford led the integration of a $60B transformative acquisition that quadrupled revenue, doubled the
employee count, and re-platformed the Company into two new business units positioned as part of The Cigna
Group within two years of the acquisition. He also created a new product development life cycle, at scale,
employing Agile development principles that improved how work is done from ideation to technology and
implementation, and reduced product development cycle time by 25% and costs by 10%.
Earlier in his career, Sanford held leadership roles at Prudential Healthcare, Aetna, and Scripps Health.
Sanford has an MBA from the University of Connecticut School of Business and a BA in Economics from the State
University of New York at Stony Brook. He previously served on the board of the Cigna Foundation, where he
approved go-forward strategies and investments. As a member of the executive committee at The Council for
Affordable Quality Healthcare (CAQH), he led the search for a new CEO. He currently serves on the board of
directors’ finance and executive committees for the Centers for Independent Living. Sanford currently resides
in Vermont and enjoys yoga, transcendental meditation and riding his Harley Davidson.
