Rick O'Connor (MBA '87) Reflects on His Marketing Journey

For Rick O’Connor (MBA ‘87), marketing is all about adding value to the end consumer. Once he discovered marketing could be used to improve the lives of others and affect a positive change in the world, he never looked back.  Currently, he is the Chief Marketing Officer at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and part of the team brought in to transform the company and evolve the New England health care market. He has traveled an interesting path to get to where he is today.

Rick was a psychology major at Tufts University, but he had no idea he’d end up in marketing. Before leaving his job as a counselor in the mental health field, he spoke with some family friends and connections about what they were doing as he tried to determine his career interests. He spoke with small business owners, marketers/advertisers, accountants, and more. Through many conversations Rick saw many parallels between his education and work in psychology and the world of marketing. Thus, he decided to forego his PHD in psychology and obtain an MBA at Babson. Then he spent a decade in CPG.
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Recently, after several years at Aetna and then CVS Health, he was lured to Harvard Pilgrim in 2016. His main goal is to bridge the gap between healthcare and today’s technology.  “The healthcare sector wasn’t built on technology. We’re not as flexible and adaptable as companies that were, but that does not change our customers’ expectations” he said. “Our challenge is to create a technology-based customer experience on par with industries like banking. …especially today when everybody does everything from their phones.”
Today, he’s part of the team driving the digital strategy to take advantage of emerging technologies like blockchain and CRM systems, while making the experience for end users more simple and effective. ​