Barbara Cosgriff brings more than twenty years of experience providing distinctively informed and effective perspectives to the public policy and the business arena. Her multi-industry accomplishments as a strategist, advocate and vibrant expert of capital markets, healthcare, and financial services span Capitol Hill, Wall Street and Main Street. Barbara has been a strategic counselor to corporations, associations, coalitions, and not-for-profit organizations helping them to navigate matters arising from dynamic public policy environments. She has worked to develop, manage, and execute effective business-informed public policy programs to reach policymakers and opinion leaders at all levels of government and the private sector, both within and outside the U.S.
Barbara possesses technical expertise in many aspects of healthcare, financial and commercial regulation and the global capital markets, and has guided leaders in financial services on issues such as regulatory reform, compliance, and enforcement; litigation communication; anti-trust; congressional and other legislative inquiry; corporate governance, and market practices.
As the Senior Vice President for Public Policy and External Affairs, Barbara was responsible for global public policy and external relations at Medco Health Solutions, the world’s most advanced pharmacy benefit manager. Her leadership successfully differentiated Medco by enhancing the company’s reputation – in state capitals, in Washington, internationally and across the clinical community – as the “go to” resource for objective policy leadership and innovative healthcare solutions. She was responsible for identifying and addressing policies that supported an expanding portfolio of international businesses through the execution of state, federal and international lobbying efforts. Her leadership with domestic and international industry organizations, think tanks, cause-related organizations and academia was integral to Medco’s clinical initiatives’ successes.
Prior to joining Medco, Barbara was admitted to the partnership of Grant Thornton as National Managing Principal for Public Policy and External Affairs, where she created and led their external and public affairs programs. By sharpening Grant Thornton policy positions and then directing its efforts with key public opinion stakeholders, her efforts affected positively the policymaking process. Recognizing that laws, regulations, and perceptions define business opportunities – as well as the firm’s competitive landscape and the larger capital markets – Barbara’s Public Policy and External Affairs group drove the firm’s views on important issues thereby portraying Grant Thornton as a uniquely thoughtful and credible voice in public policy and the capital markets circles. Her work transformed the firm’s reach and influence. Barbara was a member of the firm’s National Leadership Team.
Previously, Barbara held several high-level positions at the NASDAQ Stock Market. As Vice President of the Corporate Client Group, she was the senior executive responsible for business development and client relationships for 1,450 NASDAQ companies in the Eastern United States. As Chief of Staff to the President of NASDAQ, she established the business strategy that successfully attracted the majority of IPOs to list with NASDAQ. She built data-based partnerships that drove loyalty by listed companies by developing analytically-derived documentation to demonstrate the value of a NASDAQ listing. Further, she established internal performance measures, accountability standards, and training to assure the highest level of support to listed companies.
Earlier in her career, Barbara spent years in increasingly responsible government affairs roles on behalf of the insurance industry, where she formulated legislative strategy and policy on a broad range of issues in the Washington political and policy environment. She served on the audit staffs for the accounting firms Arthur Andersen & Co., and Coopers & Lybrand.
Barbara holds a B.A. in Business Administration/Accounting from the University of Washington. She continued her studies at The George Washington University and earned an M.B.A. in International Business as the competitively-awarded sole Scottish Rite Foundation Fellow for the State of Washington.
