School of Business honors Malik Hasan with Lifetime Award
Release Date: August 12, 2015
Press Release
PUEBLO – Dr. Malik Hasan, namesake and benefactor of the Malik and Seeme Hasan School of Business at Colorado State University-Pueblo will receive the inaugural Lifetime Business Achievement Award from the school in honor of his professional career of more than four decades, according to Dr. Bruce C. Raymond, dean of the Malik and Seeme Hasan School of Business.
In 1975, Hasan moved to Pueblo and joined a small neurological practice. Ten years later in 1985, along with six other physicians, he formed QualMed, a small Health Maintenance Organization (HMO). Hasan and his partners used a doctor-focused approach both to patient care and cost containment asking the doctors to help manage costs, an approach which was unique to QualMed and set them apart from many of their competitors.
Over the next six years, QualMed grew rapidly both through internal growth and successful acquisitions, which resulted in a 1991 public stock offering that raised $43 million. Continued aggressive acquisitions led to rapid revenue and profit growth. By the end of 1992, QualMed served 327,000 members with revenues of more than $450 million and profits of nearly $30 million. QualMed expanded across the western United States seeking to purchase and turn around financially troubled HMOs through implementation of proprietary information systems and medical management practices. The biggest target of this acquisition strategy was Health Net, a large California HMO, which merged with QualMed in 1993 creating Health Systems International with 1.8 million members.
Health Systems International later acquired a number of companies from the eastern United States creating the fourth largest coast-to-coast HMO in the nation with about 5 million members in 17 states having a market value of $1.27 billion. Within two years of the merger, Hasan became CEO of Health Systems International, the position which he held until his retirement in August, 1998. Hasan remains an active investor in a number of innovative companies focused on efficiency and the application of information technology to improve health care.
Based on a desire to give back to the community, Malik Hasan, and his spouse, Seeme Hasan established a charitable foundation, the Hasan Family Foundation, to advance their community and family service endeavors. Their charitable work has focused on improving health care access and on the development of education and culture in Pueblo. More recent work of the foundation has supported multicultural programs to improve understanding of South Asian cultures.
“The path Malik Hasan forged to the pinnacle of business success purely based on his brilliant business intellect and his steely tenacity provides a great example for business students today,” said Raymond. “Malik Hasan is the Sam Walton of managed health care.”
Plans are underway with Hasan’s family, university administrators, and community leaders for an awards ceremony during the Fall 2015 semester.
Colorado State University - Pueblo is a regional, comprehensive university emphasizing professional, career-oriented, and applied programs. Displaying excellence in teaching, celebrating diversity, and engaging in service and outreach, CSU-Pueblo is distinguished by access, opportunity, and the overall quality of services provided to its students.
