She Advised The U.S. Secretary Of Health. Then Became CPO Of A Multi Billion Dollar Health Plan.

About this episode

Simmi Singh shares her unconventional career journey from the Himalayas to becoming a Chief People Officer at a major health plan.

Raised in the high Himalayas, educated across 22 homes in multiple countries, and fluent in five languages , Simmi Singh was never going to follow a conventional path. She started out wanting to be a UN translator. A mentor stopped her and said: you have a voice of your own. That single conversation redirected her toward management consulting at Booz Allen and Ernst and Young, then entrepreneurship, then scaling the health vertical at Cognizant from a $10M fledgling unit into one of the company's most significant growth stories, then 15 years as a partner and global practice leader at Egon Zehnder placing boards and entire management teams for some of the most transformational companies in the world, then a secondment as Senior Advisor on Health Innovation to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, and most recently joining Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts as Chief People Officer and Executive Vice President. In this episode of Inspiring Women, host Laurie McGraw sits down with Simmi Singh to trace the through line of a brilliantly discontinuous career and pull out the lessons that only come from decades of doing it at the highest levels. They discuss: Growing up…

People in this episode

Host: Laurie McGraw

Guest: Simmi Singh

Topics covered

• career development
• healthcare leadership
• women in business
• personal growth
• mentorship
• entrepreneurship

Keywords

• health innovation
• leadership
• women empowerment
• management consulting
• entrepreneurship
• career path
• mentorship

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Booz Allen, Ernst and Young, Cognizant, Egon Zehnder, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts

Places: U.S., Himalayas

More episodes of Inspiring Women with Laurie McGraw

• Women get Less Than 2% Of Funding, but This is the HACK! - Dr. Amber Hill · June 9, 2026 · 33 min
• The Hidden Disease 40% Of Americans Are Living - Alexandra Drane · June 2, 2026 · 28 min
• The Microsoft Health & Life Sciences COO: The AI Quietly Rewiring Healthcare · May 26, 2026 · 28 min
• The Lie That Held A Generation Of Women Back - Dr. Veronica Mallett · May 20, 2026 · 27 min
• Why Only 2% of VC Goes to Women! · May 12, 2026 · 35 min
• Stop Waiting To Be Invited Into The Boardroom - Meme Stokes Callnin · May 6, 2026 · 22 min