Michael E. Bernstein

MICHAEL E. BERNSTEIN is Executive Vice President of Cobalt Corporation.
He is also President of CompcareBlue, an HMO subsidiary of Cobalt
Corporation. As part of leadership changes announced at the annual
shareholders meeting in May 2002, Bernstein will be named President and
Chief Operating Officer of Cobalt Corporation following the retirement
of the current CEO and Chairman, Thomas R. Hefty. That retirement will
occur by the end of 2002.Bernstein has been with Cobalt and its
predecessor company since 1987, when he was first employed as a
corporate staff attorney for Blue Cross & Blue Shield United of
Wisconsin (BCBSUW). Early in his career, Bernstein supervised the
operations of the Compcare HMO and network management for both Compcare
and BCBSUW. He oversaw the acquisitions of the Valley Health Plan in Eau
Claire and Unity Health Plan in Madison. In 2001, he was assigned the
responsibility for turning around the company’s health insurance
operations in its largest market, metro Milwaukee. As President of
CompcareBlue, Bernstein has overseen an aggressive reorganization of the
HMO resulting in a smaller but healthier company. He recently assumed
responsibility for the Blue Cross business in metro Milwaukee, as well.
Bernstein left BCBSUW in the mid-1990s to become Senior Vice President
for University Health Care in Madison, Wisconsin. While associated with
UW Health, Bernstein helped negotiate and complete the merger of two of
the largest medical groups in the state. He was named Executive Vice
President of UW Medical Foundation in 1998, the largest Medical Group
Practice in Wisconsin and one of the top 10 clinics in the country. He
left UWMF in early 2000 to assist in the successful completion of the
conversion of BCBSUW to a for-profit entity and merger of that company
with United Wisconsin Services, Inc. Bernstein currently serves on the
Boards of Make-a-Wish Foundation and the University of Virginia Health
Services Foundation. Bernstein was educated at the University of
California, Davis and earned his law degree at McGeorge School of Law in
Sacramento, Calif.