Speakers
Richie Hunter is a well-recognized leader in strategic marketing, brand development, integrated communications, and business strategy. She serves as vice president for marketing, communication and media relations for the University of Houston and the UH System.
Hunter brings a wealth of corporate and higher education experience to the position. Prior to joining the University in 2013, she served as vice president of government programs for Coventry Health Care. In that role she was responsible for the full articulation, development and implementation of all consumer experience, engagement, satisfaction and retention strategies.
Hunter is also the former chief marketing officer for Health Net, Inc., one of the nation’s largest publicly traded companies, providing health benefits to over five million people. She used her nearly 20 years of marketing, branding, communications, and sales support experience to develop and implement an enterprise-wide strategic marketing and brand vision for the Commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid lines of business. She spearheaded the development and execution of integrated marketing and communication strategies, advertising campaigns, sales collateral, and segmentation initiatives, which reflected competitive positioning, local market needs, market research, and customer feedback. Hunter also had primary responsibility for the articulation, development, and implementation of Health Net’s customer consumer engagement strategy.
Prior to joining Health Net, Hunter was the staff vice president of marketing management for WellPoint, the nation’s largest health benefits company, providing healthcare benefits to over 36 million people. She led enterprise-wide Marketing Deployment, Local Group Marketing, Sponsorships, and Events. WellPoint tapped into Hunter’s entrepreneurial spirit and charged her to build this high-impact, high-value organization from scratch. Hunter established and executed multi-state marketing and product strategies. She ensured appropriate resources were deployed at the market level to maximize integration and grow profitable business. She was hand selected to lead the Marketing, Branding, Communications, and Sales Training functions for WellPoint’s $50 million enterprise-wide consumer-driven health plan launch.
Prior to joining WellPoint, Hunter was affiliated with Teacher’s Insurance Annuity Association - College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF). In her last position with TIAA-CREF, she served as the head of marketing strategy for TIAA-CREF Direct where she developed and executed the fund’s branding and marketing strategies to over 11,000 institutions with assets up to $10 million. Prior to this, she was the second vice president of site support and administrative services where she had oversight of seven key business operation areas.
Before joining TIAA-CREF, Hunter held similar financial management positions in corporate marketing for AT&T Broadband and Jones Intercable. Her higher education experience includes positions early in her career as an assistant director of admissions at the University of Houston, a field representative for student recruitment at Lamar University and a career-planning specialist with American College Testing.
She received a master of business administration from Lamar University and a bachelor of science in business administration from the University of Southern California. Throughout her life, Hunter has been active in the community and served on the Boards of Trustee for the Denver South Metro Chamber of Commerce, Colorado Black Chamber of Commerce, Mile High United Way and Safehouse Denver.