WellPoint Foundation Names Caroline 'Caz' Matthews as New President

INDIANAPOLIS, Aug. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- WellPoint, Inc. the nation's largest health benefits company, today announced that Caroline "Caz" Matthews, currently president of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia, has been named president of the WellPoint Foundation. She will lead the company's philanthropic and social responsibility programs.

"We have a unique responsibility to focus our charitable giving and social responsibility efforts and join others in helping to shape sustainable health care solutions to enhance access to affordable, quality care," said Larry C. Glasscock, chairman, president and chief executive officer of WellPoint, Inc. "Caz Matthews' deep knowledge of the health benefits industry and her long- standing commitment to community involvement, corporate social responsibility and charitable giving make her uniquely qualified to lead this important work."

Matthews has volunteered her time, services and financial support to a variety of community-based organizations throughout her career, including serving on the Atlanta Make-A-Wish Foundation Board and on the Mile High United Way Board of Trustees in Denver where she chaired the Women's Initiative. She joined WellPoint in 1988, most recently serving as president of its Georgia market. Matthews will be succeeded by Monye Connolly, who currently leads the individual and small group business in Georgia.

In 2005, the WellPoint Foundation awarded grants totaling nearly $25 million to support a variety of initiatives and programs across the country to help improve the quality, accessibility and affordability of health care. The WellPoint Foundation has assets of more than $180,000,000, making it one of the fifteen largest corporate foundations in the United States.

Over the past decade, WellPoint companies have helped to create and fund independent charitable foundations with assets of more than $6.2 billion. These foundations award more than $300 million in grants annually to address critical health care issues.

About WellPoint, Inc.

WellPoint's mission is to improve the lives of the people it serves and the health of its communities. WellPoint, Inc. is the largest health benefits company in terms of commercial membership in the United States. Through its nationwide networks, the company delivers a number of leading health benefit solutions through a broad portfolio of integrated health care plans and related services, along with a wide range of specialty products such as life and disability insurance benefits, pharmacy benefit management, dental, vision, behavioral health benefit services, as well as long term care insurance and flexible spending accounts. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, WellPoint is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and serves its members as the Blue Cross licensee for California; the Blue Cross and Blue Shield licensee for Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri (excluding 30 counties in the Kansas City area), Nevada, New Hampshire, New York (as Blue Cross Blue Shield in 10 New York City metropolitan and surrounding counties and as Blue Cross or Blue Cross Blue Shield in selected upstate counties only), Ohio, Virginia (excluding the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.), Wisconsin; and through UniCare. Additional information about WellPoint is available at http://www.wellpoint.com/ .