[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Page 16673]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   TRIBUTE TO MICHAEL B. McCALLISTER

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to a good 
friend of mine and a distinguished citizen of the Commonwealth of 
Kentucky. Mr. Michael B. McCallister, the highly respected chief 
executive officer of Humana, will retire from that position at the end 
of this month. He has served as Humana's CEO for the past 12 years.
  Mike has spent his entire career with Humana, Kentucky's largest 
publicly traded company. After receiving his bachelor's degree from 
Louisiana Tech University in 1974, he went to work at Humana as a 
finance specialist. He has steadily risen up the ranks ever since. In 
2000, he was named president and CEO of the Louisville-based company.
  Humana employs more than 11,000 in Kentucky; thousands of those jobs 
have been created under Mike's tenure. Mike led the company in 
innovations such as going all digital to eliminate the use of paper for 
transactions in 2001, well ahead of the rest of the industry; and in 
creating consumer-driven products that allowed customers to make more 
of their own decisions about their health care plans. Under Mike's 
leadership, in 2004 it was ranked by Business Week magazine as one of 
the top-performing companies in the United States.
  Mike has also been very active in civic and philanthropic endeavors, 
to the benefit of Kentucky and Louisville, the city we both call home. 
He headed the most successful communitywide fund drive in the history 
of the Louisville Metro United Way, raising $30 million in 2006. He was 
the communitywide chair of the Greater Louisville Fund for the Arts in 
2003. He has also served on the board of the Committee Encouraging 
Corporate Philanthropy. He is the current chairman of the Workplace 
Wellness Alliance.
  Mike's generous spirit of service has also influenced his company as 
a whole. Under his leadership, the Humana Foundation has donated more 
than $50 million to education, health, and arts initiatives in Kentucky 
and across America.
  I know my colleagues will join me in extending congratulations and 
best wishes to Mike as well as his family: he and his wife Charlene 
have a daughter Megan, and a son Ryan. I am sure they are very proud of 
him and look forward to seeing more of him. It is my understanding that 
Mike has promised he will not golf more than twice a week. Also, Mike 
will not step away from Humana entirely: He will retain a position as 
its nonexecutive chairman.
  Mr. Michael B. McCallister has set a remarkable example of dedication 
and service to the people of Kentucky. I wish him every success in his 
next endeavors in life.

                          ____________________