100 Most Influential People in Healthcare - 2021

Deavens is the first African-American leader of Independence Blue Cross. He joined Independence as executive vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer, leading entities in actuarial, underwriting and enterprise risk management. Deavens was corporate controller at Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance, serving as CFO for its national insurance business. He also held senior financial roles at NY Life, Cigna and GE Capital after launching his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Deavens speaks: “I would say that my passion for making sure that people have access to care is really at the core of the work that I do. Certainly I’ve seen firsthand some of the challenges that people face in interacting with the healthcare system and I believe that we can continue to make it better and make it better for everyone.”