Click here to return to the Mentors List. Tom Hefty, Former CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield United 14165 St. George Ct. Elm Grove, WI 53122 262-786-5235 tomhefty@centurytel.net Thomas R. Hefty is the retired chief executive officer of Blue Cross & Blue Shield United of Wisconsin. From 2003 to 2005 he served as co-chair of Gov. Doyle’s Economic Growth Council and served on a similar advisory committee for Gov. Thompson. He also served on the SAVE Commission and as chair of the Council on Long Term Care for Gov. Thompson. In addition, Hefty served as interim county executive of Waukesha County in 2005, and in 2008, he served on the research awards committee of the National Institute of Health Care Management and on the committee of the National Academy of Sciences, studying expansion of government health care programs. Hefty has served as counsel to the Reinhart law firm, president of the Kern Family Foundation and adjunct professor of business at Ripon College. He is a past chair of Competitive Wisconsin, the Public Policy Forum in Milwaukee and the Wisconsin Foundation for Independent Colleges. His career on government committees spans 30-plus years and four different decades — twice being appointed by Govs. Schreiber and Doyle and three times by Gov. Thompson, and he served inside state government in the Dreyfus administration. Hefty holds a bachelor of arts degree in economics and a law degree from UW–Madison and a master’s degree in political economy from The Johns Hopkins University. He has received honorary doctorates from Ripon College and from the Medical College of Wisconsin.