Lois Quam

Lois Quam is an internationally recognized visionary and leader on the emerging New Green Economy (NGE) and universal health care reform, and the founder and Chair of Tysvar, LLC, a newly created, privately held, Minnesota-based NGE and health care reform incubator. Named in 2006 by Fortune magazine as one of America’s “50 Most Powerful Women,” Ms. Quam also appears as an expert on Clean Technology and NGE in Thomas L. Friedman’s recent best-seller, Hot, Flat and Crowded.

Prior to founding Tysvar in March 2009, Ms. Quam was Head of Strategic Investments, Green Economy & Health at Piper Jaffray, a leading international Minneapolis-based investment bank.  Ms. Quam furthered Piper Jaffray’s role in the NGE, creating opportunities in four distinct categories: Energy Efficiency; Renewable Energy; Redesign of Existing Industries (such as water supply, transportation and construction); and Carbon Return/Capture, along with expanding the firm’s NGE franchise in Science, Public Policy, and Commerce.

Before joining Piper Jaffray in 2007, Ms. Quam served as the president and CEO of the Public and Senior Markets segment at UnitedHealth Group, a $30 billion division she helped create and run, overseeing Medicare and Medicaid-based businesses with nearly ten million members and serving approximately one-out-of-five Medicare beneficiaries.

Joining UnitedHealth Group in 1989, Ms. Quam was responsible for forming the successful relationship with AARP, providing health insurance to AARP members and overseeing the formation of Ovations, a business segment devoted to providing health and well-being products and service to American’s over 50.

Additionally, in 1989, the morning after Ms. Quam gave birth to her first son, she was approached by the Governor of Minnesota to chair the Minnesota Health Care Access Commission, resulting in new legislation that brought health insurance to tens of thousands of Minnesotans, creating the lowest uninsured rate in the country.  Twenty three months later, soon after the historical legislation passed the Minnesota House, Ms. Quam gave birth again, this time to her twin boys.  She also served as a senior advisor to Hillary Clinton’s task force on health care reform, with a particular focus on rural areas.

The second of four children, Ms. Quam, a native of rural, Marshall, MN, is the daughter of a Lutheran minister and homemaker, and from 1977 to 1984, held numerous leadership positions within the American Lutheran Church, including helping to craft the merger of three national Lutheran churches into today’s Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.

Attending Macalester College in St. Paul, MN, Ms. Quam graduated magna cum laude, was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and the recipient of Macalester’s Distinguished Alumni Award.  As a Rhodes Scholar, Ms. Quam went on to earn a master’s degree in philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford in England.

In 2005, Ms. Quam was named Norwegian American of the Year, and actively continues as an emissary for diplomatic and trade relations between Norway and the U.S., serving on the Boards of The Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights – U.S. Foundation; the Norwegian American Foundation.  Ms. Quam’s recent article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, “Minnesota, Norway and a Clean Energy Future,” was recently commended by the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jonas Gahr Støre, as “another illustration of common opportunities” between Norway and America.

Ms. Quam serves on the Board of Trustees for Macalester College and the University of Minnesota Foundation, the Board of Directors for General Mills, and the National Wildlife Foundation, and the Advisory Boards for the polar explorer, Will Steger’s Foundation.  She is a trustee Emeritus of the George C. Marshall Foundation.

Married to Matt Entenza, the former Minority leader in the Minnesota House of Representatives, and the founder of Minnesota 2020, a public policy think tank, the 25-year married couple are the proud parents of three sons, Benjamin, William and Steven.  The family lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.