Meet the top 100 business visionaries creating value for the world

57. Mark Bertolini

CEO, Aetna

Mark Bertolini’s strategy as CEO of Aetna, the health insurance giant that employs more than 49,500 people and earned over $60 billion in revenue last year, stems largely from his own experience, namely a near-fatal skiing accident in 2004. The brush with death taught him to take his health seriously — a belief he aims to instill in his staff and clients, too.

Since taking over as CEO in 2010, Bertolini overhauled the company culture in an effort to improve morale, deplete stress, and increase productivity and well-being among employees. He raised the wages of Aetna’s lowest-paid employees by 33%, started offering free yoga sessions to both employees and customers, and implemented a program that pays employees up to $500 a year for sleeping well and tracking it on FitBit.

Though Bertolini’s free-spirited management style is unusual for a Fortune 50 CEO, it seems to be effective: Aetna stock has risen over 250% since 2010. Internally, he’s seen a decrease in both employee stress levels and healthcare costs.