An account manager for a Denver-based customer service company has been hired as chief of an Arkansas agency that manages the health plans for public school and state employees.
Chris Howlett, 43, of Sherwood will start work May 23 as administrator of the Department of Finance and Administration’s Employee Benefits Division, department spokesman Jake Bleed said.
The State and P ublic School Life and Health Insurance Board voted Wednesday to hire Howlett after a closed session that lasted about 20 minutes during a special meeting.
The eight board members in attendance voted by voice, with no members audibly dissenting and one, John Kirtley, abstaining. Four members were absent.
Kirtley, director of the state Board of Pharmacy, said he had an “individual disagreement with a part of the process” that led to Howlett’s selection.
He declined to elaborate on the disagreement.
Howlett said in a phone interview that he is “excited to be able to serve the beneficiaries and the g roup” and looked forward to “seeing what I can do for the beneficiaries to be able to better improve their lives and do it from a cost-effective means.”
As administrator of the division, Howlett will manage plans covering about 45,000 school employees and 27,000 state employees, as well as employees’ spouses and dependents and retirees.
Howlett’s annual salary will be $100,077, Bleed said. His predecessor Bob Alexander earned an annual salary of $102,088 at the time of his retirement, which took effect Jan. 2.
Carla Haugen, chairman of the insurance board, referred questions about the board’s choice to Bleed.
According to his resume, Howlett is an account manager for Teletech Holdings, which handles customer service for other companies and has call centers in Sherwood and Jonesboro.
He was a self-employed business consultant from December 2013 to August 2015, when he went to work for Teletech, according to the resume.
From 2005 through 2013, Howlett worked for Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield and a subsidiary. He was an operations manager for Blue Cross from late 2010 through 2013 and customer service manager from late 2009 through 2010.
He was a project manager from 2004-05 for the state Independent Choices Medicaid program, which provides cash assistance for people with disabilities to hire relatives or others to provide home-based services, according to the resume.
Bleed said Howlett attended classes at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway but did not graduate. The job description calls for a bachelor’s degree but says “other job related education and/or experience may be substituted” for basic job requirements “upon approval of the qualifications review committee.”
Department Director Larry Walther selected Howlett from two finalists submitted by the board last month, Bleed said.
Janis Harrison, the division’s interim administrator, will return to her previous job as program manager for the department’s office of personnel management.