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Patricia Hemingway Hall

Age: 61

Occupation: CEO, Health Care Service Corp.

When the earth shifts beneath an entire industry—as it did last year for the health care system—you might appreciate the fact that your insurer’s CEO started her career as an intensive care nurse. As the head of the operating company for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois—the second-largest privately held business in Chicago, with 2012 revenues of $52 billion—Hall is responsible for roughly 9,000 local employees. Also huge: More than half of all insured Illinoisans get their coverage from BCBS.