“Great leaders galvanize high performing teams with a shared vision and create environments that bring out the best in everyone. They are role models who move the business forward, while using the journey to personally develop every single member. And they inspire their teams to make an impact by out-innovating the competition,” explains Rosaline Koo who hails from the US.
Koo is Founder and CEO of CXA, a business she started in 2013 in Singapore. CXA is Asia’s first one-stop workplace platform that transforms a firm’s current healthcare spend into a benefits and wellness program that empowers employees to be healthier. Employees can be rewarded for healthy behaviour and can select the most relevant mix of insurance and wellness services from a wide range of providers to suit their individual needs. Companies buying their insurance through CXA brokers can improve their workforce health, cap premium increases and reduce their HR administrative workload burden – all without spending more.
What do they do differently that makes CXA believe that they can truly leapfrog the West and become leaders in their industry? Koo’s proven track record growing Mercer Marsh Benefits 800% has been key to the rapid traction that CXA has experienced since launching last March. CXA is a Singapore start-up that has acquired the largest homegrown broker and have already taken Fortune 100 clients away from the global industry leaders. We are redefining the role of the ‘broker’ as enabling companies with the tools, provider network and the data insights to engage a more healthy and productive workforce.
“I truly believe that my team and I can make a huge difference across Asia to channel the money that companies currently spend on insurance into improving workforce health. Single employees or those already covered by their working spouse have wasted or duplicated coverage which can be put to better use. Our goal is to not only disrupt the industry, but also to shift the paradigm from treatment to prevention.”
How did Koo rise to this position? “My parents were both illiterate immigrants from China to the US and I was the first in my family to get a formal education. Winning scholarships to attend UCLA Engineering and Columbia Business School, served to finally break my family’s cycle of poverty and changed my life’s trajectory,” she explained of her humble beginnings.
Asked about what worries her and what she’s optimistic about in the world today, Koo says, “I worry about my children entering the US after growing up in Singapore. Different from previous generations, it will be more difficult for them to do better than their parents. But I am optimistic as this new generation cares deeply about making the world a better place.”
What will she be doing 10 years from now? “I grew up extremely poor in South Central Los Angeles during the Watts Riots where I was bullied a great deal as the non-black girl in my neighbourhood and school. In 10 years time, I hope to become a philanthropist after selling CXA to help others escape the poverty trap and also to develop more female entrepreneurs.”
When she isn’t working, Koo spends time with her husband and 2 teenagers, plays tennis and snowboards. She also enjoys reading about – what else? – leadership and entrepreneurship.
