Distinguished Service to NEBGH Award

Jessica Paik is the CEO of National Accounts for UnitedHealthcare, the nation’s largest health care company serving more than 50 million people nationwide. In this role, Paik is responsible for the strategic direction and performance of high-quality, affordable, long-term health care solutions for UnitedHealthcare’s largest clients, including more than 500 employers and 9.5 million members across the United States.

Prior to this role, Paik served as president of UnitedHealthcare’s enterprise strategic accounts, where she was responsible for client growth, retention and service of the company’s most complex clients. She led a team of sales and account management professionals who managed a diverse client portfolio, helping employers implement tailored health plans and clinical programs.

Earlier in her career, Paik spent 18 years in various National Accounts roles at UnitedHealthcare. She started her career as a strategic client executive and was recognized eight times with the UnitedHealthcare Pinnacle Award, which honors the company’s most outstanding sales leaders. She advanced to regional leadership roles in New York and New Jersey health plans, and then to senior vice president of the East region.

Paik holds a Master of Science degree in epidemiology from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore and a Bachelor of Arts in Public Health from the Johns Hopkins University. She currently sits on the board of the Northeast Business Group on Health. She is based in New York City and resides in New Jersey with her husband and two sons.

Outstanding Leadership in Business Award

Carl Haney is Executive Vice President, Research, Product and Innovation Officer. Since joining The Estée Lauder Companies in 2012, Mr. Haney has led a world-class team of talent to drive the company’s robust consumer-inspired and creativity-driven pipeline of products. Under Mr. Haney’s leadership, the company has expanded its local relevance efforts through innovation centers in Korea and California, fueling innovation across the company’s brand portfolio and helping to bring emerging consumer and technology trends to market. Mr. Haney has helped to establish partnerships with best-in-class internal and external collaborators and significantly increase the company’s patent holdings and speed to market.

Mr. Haney also serves as Chair of ELC’s Global Crisis Leadership Team, where he is responsible for overseeing the company’s planning and response for all emerging issues, issues and crises globally. Throughout his tenure, he has played a vital role responding to a variety of global issues, ensuring ingredient and formulation safety, product and packaging safety, and compliance with regulations applicable to all ELC products globally.

Mr. Haney joined The Estée Lauder Companies following a more than 25-year career at The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G). During his tenure at P&G, Mr. Haney held numerous leadership positions around the world in the Home, Health, Grooming and Beauty categories, including Vice President, R&D, Male Grooming, Gillette, Braun and Devices, where he led teams across innovation, product, packaging, process development and engineering.

Raised in Venezuela, Mr. Haney moved to the United States and attended Vanderbilt University, where he graduated cum laude with a degree in Chemical Engineering. He has served and advised on multiple boards, including the New England Conservatory’s Board of Overseers & Visitors, Corium International, and a number of digital start-ups across education, technology, marketing, media and clean energy. 

Outstanding Leadership in Behavioral Health Award: Spring Health

Adam Chekroud is the President and Co-founder of Spring Health, and an Assistant Professor Adjunct in Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. Spring works with large employers like General Mills, Bain, DocuSign, and Instacart to provide their employees with free and immediate access to high-quality mental healthcare.

Adam's research seeks to improve treatment outcomes in mental health, particularly depression. Specifically, he uses large datasets to develop predictive models to help clinicians make more effective treatment decisions. For example, he has developed statistical models that can: anticipate which patients will not initiate treatment; predict which treatment is most likely to help an individual patient (specific medications, psychotherapies, and exercise regimens); and estimate the risk of relapse upon recovery. His research has been featured in JAMA Psychiatry, Lancet Psychiatry, Molecular Psychiatry, and PNAS.

Adam has a BA and MSc from Oxford University, and a PhD in psychology from Yale University. He was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 for 2018.