New Aetna CEO sees growth opportunity in individual sales.

Last month, Ronald A. Williams, president of Aetna, was named to the additional post of CEO, effective Feb. 14. He succeeds Dr. John W. Rowe, who led the financial turnaround of the company in a five-year stint as CEO. Rowe, 61, is to retire by year's end.

Williams, 56, told Best's Review the company's strategy comprises "product innovation and innovation in serving new markets, information and the integration of data, products and services"

Williams sees a large opportunity in selling health insurance to the nation's uninsured population, which was last pegged at about 46 million. The uninsured market includes nearly 4 million college and university students and 24 million part-time and hourly workers, the majority of whom don't have any type of employer-sponsored health insurance, according to Aetna.

"One of the ways we envision helping to reduce the uninsured is to introduce products that are affordable to individual consumers who choose to buy their own health care," Williams said. "They may be a consultant, a freelancer, an independent businessperson."

Aetna competes in an industry marked by multibillion-dollar mega-mergers. Recently, UnitedHealth Group Inc. acquired PacifiCare Health Systems Inc., while WellPoint Inc. acquired WellChoice Inc. "Our view is that we will not necessarily be the biggest company, but ... will be the company that works with consumers to help them optimize their health and well-being as it relates to financing health care," he said. Aetna currently has about 14.8 million medical members.