By Sheryl Simmons, Chief Human Resources Officer
By now you may have heard the news – Maestro Health™ has been acquired by AXA, the French-based global insurance leader. This is a huge step for Maestro Health in furthering our company’s mission of making employee health and benefits people-friendly again. One of the major factors that ignited this decision was our people and culture.
Having our culture be a driving factor for this acquisition is an incredible compliment to the entire Maestro family.
One of our in-person meetings with the AXA team took place in our Charlotte office, where it became evident how deep our culture runs. At the end of the second day of meetings, several AXA representatives approached me and asked, “Is it always like this?” They were referring to the way the people at Maestro Health, including the leadership team, interact with each other. We operate with transparency and foster a supportive environment where ideas can be shared and healthy conversations naturally happen, even when we don’t agree. I think they were surprised by how much we genuinely enjoy working together. Not only could they see our core values painted on our walls, but they witnessed Maestronites regularly embodying those values.
AXA has been very open in sharing that after discovering how closely our culture and vision aligned with theirs, they knew they wanted to join forces with us.
They saw us as so much more than an employee health and benefits company – they wanted the opportunity to invest in our human capital.
At Maestro Health, we like to refer to ourselves as “the most experienced startup.” When our company was founded in 2013, our Founder Rob Butler, set out to hire and acquire the most talented and smartest people he could find. This was apparent to AXA as our teams demonstrated their breadth of experience and industry knowledge.
AXA appreciated the fact that our culture doesn’t pigeonhole people into a particular corporate style. Maestronites come from many walks of life and reside all over the U.S., but our baseline is our core values – from there we build on that sameness while we embrace our miles in geography and diversity in our employee base. The AXA team was able to see this for themselves, rather than just hear me and others speak about it. That made a huge impression on them.
Let the fun begin.
I’m thrilled to begin this next chapter with Maestro Health and AXA. I’m extremely proud of the culture and talent our company possesses, and that it led to such a unique acquisition that will transform the U.S. healthcare market. It’s also exciting to imagine the difference Maestro Health can make in the international market to solve the challenges HR teams are experiencing overseas. From where I’m sitting, we’re already ahead of the game.
Click here to learn more about how AXA and Maestro Health are taking a step towards transforming healthcare.
