Cargill Executive Joins Blue Cross Board o...( EAGAN Minn. Nov. 3 /- Blue Cross ...),Health

EAGAN, Minn., Nov. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (Blue Cross) has named Rita Heise, corporate vice president and chief information officer for Cargill, to its board of trustees. She will serve on the board's human resources and finance and business development committees.

At Cargill, Heise is responsible for information technology worldwide. She is a member of Cargill's corporate center, the business conduct committee and the Tartan leadership team.

Prior to joining Cargill, Heise was the chief information officer for Honeywell's Aerospace business and for Honeywell's Europe, Middle East, and Africa operations. She has worked on business integrations, process improvement teams and mergers/acquisitions throughout her career.

"I am very pleased to welcome Rita as Blue Cross' newest trustee," said Patrick Geraghty, president and CEO of Blue Cross. "She is an outstanding leader whose considerable business expertise will be of tremendous value to the work of our board."

Heise received bachelor's degrees in computer science and mathematics and has an MBA from St. Thomas University. She participates on IT industry committees, serves on the board of Adventium Labs and represents Cargill on advisory boards with Dell Corporation and the College of St. Catherine. Blue Cross operates under the guidance of the board which oversees the organization's work as a nonprofit health service plan corporation.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, with headquarters in the St. Paul suburb of Eagan, was chartered in 1933 as Minnesota's first health plan and continues to carry out its charter mission today: to promote a wider, more economical and timely availability of health services for the people of Minnesota. A nonprofit, taxable organization, Blue Cross is the largest health plan based in Minnesota, covering 2.9 million members in Minnesota and nationally through its health plans or plans administered by its affil
'/>"/>