Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota in Fargo has named Pat Gulbranson vice president of corporate administration, Dr. David Hanekom has been named vice president of medical management and chief medical officer and Judd Wagner was promoted to vice president of marketing and chief marketing officer.
Gulbranson joined BCBSND in 2002 as an intern in provider relations and reimbursement and was promoted to analyst/project coordinator in development and business strategies before his promotion to quality assurance team leader. He was promoted to manager of membership and underwriting in 2008. Gulbranson earned a bachelor's degree in health care administration and long-term care administration from Concordia College, and a master's degree in public, human service and health administration from Minnesota State University Moorhead.
Dr. Hanekom joined BCBSND in 2007 as a medical director in medical management. He was previously an internal medicine physician at Sanford Southpointe Clinic in Fargo and also practiced palliative care at Sanford South University and served as director of chronic disease with a focus on ambulatory diabetes care throughout the health system. Dr. Hanekom earned his medical degree at the University of Witwatersrand Medical School, Johannesburg, South Africa, and received training in family medicine at the Medical University of Southern Africa and in internal medicine at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Grand Forks, where he is currently a clinical associate professor of medicine.
Before joining BCBSND, Wagner was director of key accounts at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana. Other positions he held at BCBSMT included underwriter and regional director of sales. He has also worked as assistant vice president at Rutherford Benefit Services in Virginia. He studied business management at Montana State University, Bozeman.
