Profile: Gery Barry, actuary

Gery J. Barry doesn't use sharp elbows. Soft-spoken, brainy and a ringer for late actor Jimmy Stewart, the Indiana native sometimes misspells his first name on name tags so people know how to say it. (It's "Gary;" not "Jerry".)

It's a carryover from his school days. He spelled his name "Gary"

"People feel bad if they mispronounce it, but when they see how it's written they can get confused," says Barry. "It's unfair to people. You hate to leave them on the ropes."

Barry speaks quietly, but carries a big stick in Louisiana's health care sector. He has been CEO and president of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, the state's biggest health care company, since November. He replaced Kathryn Sullivan, who resigned abruptly a year ago amidst questions about consulting expenditures.

Barry speaks with the careful articulation of a mathematics professor. He's a numbers wizard with degrees in math from Notre Dame and Rutgers and once considered putting his math skills to work as a decoder for the National Security Agency. Yet the math-nerd stereotype doesn't apply. Barry is a fiercely competitive bridge player and snow skier who says he loves Shakespeare and "really all types of learning."

Those who know him well say his nice-guy ways are genuine but add that he doesn't shy away from making tough decisions. They also say he is approachable to a degree rarely seen among corporate chiefs. One local employee says she's been surprised to see Barry eating in the lunchroom of Blue Cross' headquarters off Interstate 10.

On his first day of work last November, Barry assembled most of the firm's more than 1,400 employees in two shifts in the cavernous atrium of its main administrative headquarters. Twice he explained his mission and purpose and hopes for the company. And twice lie shook as many hands as possible.

"You learn an organization one layer at a time," he says. "To know the lay of the land, you have to know people in every layer. You can't just talk with your managers; you've got to meet people in the call center and the mailroom, too."

Pam MacIntyre, who worked with Barry at Toronto-based Liberty Health, says his close interaction with his staff is a core element of what makes him effective.

"He's a nice go),, but that's riot the essence of the man," she says. "He happens to be nice. He's respectful of people. But the reason he spends time with employees is because lie wants to understand the Pulse of the organization."

Ashim Khemani, who also worked with Barry at Liberty Health, says Barry mixes effective strategy and execution

"He is able to appeal to both the technicians and the artists in an organization," says Khemani, now president of a Canadian consulting firm. He says Barry "takes the time to understand his team and ensure that there is a strong link between the company's vision and its strategic efforts."

Barry comes to Baton Rouge via a circuitous route. The pull of actuarial science cut short a fellowship in applied mathematics at Rutgers University in New Jersey. He got started in the technical side of the business at Aetna's Hartford, Conn., headquarters in 1975. He staved for 21 years, moving through the organization in a string of roles.

He then spent eight years at the helm oil Liberty Health, the former Ontario Blue Cross owned by Liberty Mutual and a national care and disability company. He left when Liberty Mutual sold off most of its Canadian companies in 2003. Early last year he retreated to a family summer home in northeastern Indiana and did a bit of consulting. He figured he'd find a position in the industry's main cluster in the Hartford -Boston-New York corridor.

Then he heard about the job in Baton Rouge. "I hadn't been really interested in leaving the region until I saw this job," Barry says.

He saw a good fit philosophically. At Liberty Health, he viewed his mission as providing services in ea health care and disability-not so much running an insurance company. Then and now, he says he sees his work as helping people and companies with questions related to health care and retirement, a service-focused task that supports the broad social good of improving people's lives.

"Helping people have healthy lives and healthy retirements is important to me," he says. "That's really been my focus in this business."

The board of Blue Cross and Blue Shield liked that focus, too, tapping Barry after a national search for a replacement to Sullivan.

Barry's general focus may be the same as in his Canada years, but many details are different. Roughly 20% of Louisiana residents have no health insurance. By comparison, all Canadian citizens receive health care through a national network of private providers.

Another big difference is cultural. Obesity is a huge health problem in Louisiana, where fried foods and ignorance of proper nutrition are bigger factors than in much of the rest of North America.

To that end, Barry says the firm will launch a new initiative to help educate youngsters about good nutrition and other basic health information.

"It's so important to get that message to young people," he says. "That is a big challenge."