Growing up, Monica Schmude wanted to drive the tractor on her grandparents’ cucumber farm in Wisconsin. It didn’t sit well with her that her male cousins were the only kids allowed to do that chore.
“That’s where I learned men do certain jobs and women do certain jobs. I did not like that,” she says. “Sometimes, when I talk about my career, I weave in the, ‘Ladies, you have to drive the tractor. If you want to drive the tractor, you have to drive the tractor.’”
Eventually, she was able to talk her way into the driver’s seat.
Nowadays, Schmude’s challenge is driving health care giant Cigna’s strategy for the Mid-Atlantic states, a key region for the insurer as it services a wide variety of customers from local governments to small businesses and national accounts. The company, headquartered in Connecticut, employs 1,200 in Greater Washington with 2020 revenue of more than $160 billion.
After 30 years working in insurance and 11 years at Cigna, her proudest…
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