Helen Darling, President, National Business Group on Health

Helen Darling is President of the National Business Group on Health (formerly Washington Business Group on Health), a non-profit, membership organization devoted to providing practical solutions to its employer-members' most important health-care problems and representing large employers' perspective on national health policy issues. Its over 300 members, including 60 of the Fortune 100 in 2008, purchase health and disability benefits for over 50 million employers, retirees and dependents.

Darling heads the Business Group's Institute on Health Care Costs and Solutions ,devoted to finding practical solutions from a business perspective to the nation's growing crisis of rapidly rising costs and affordability of care. As president of the Business Group, she was named in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 as one of "100 Most Powerful People in Health Care" in the United States by Modern Healthcare.

Darling serves on many boards and committees including the Committee on Performance Measurement of the National Committee for Quality Assurance (Co-chair for 10 years), the Medical Advisory Panel, and a number of other advisory and editorial boards. She is widely quoted in print and television news and in many journals.

Previously, Darling served as Practice Leader, Watson Wyatt Worldwide, and directed the purchasing of health benefits and disability at Xerox Corporation. Before joining Xerox, Darling was a Principal at William W. Mercer. Earlier in her career, Darling was an advisor to Senator David Durenberger, the ranking Republican on the Health Subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee. She directed three studies at the Institute of Medicine for the National Academy of Sciences. Darling received a master's degree in Demography/Sociology and a bachelor's of science degree in History/English, cum laude, from the University of Memphis.