Artemis Leadership Spotlight: Vance Checketts, Chief Operating Officer

Artemis has grown and evolved over the years since our founding in 2013, and this year has seen the addition of several new executive team members. In the summer of 2021, Vance Checketts joined Artemis as our Chief Operating Officer. He recently claimed the title Chief Cookie Officer at a recent event (Conference Board in San Diego). Vance was caught distributing gourmet cookies for participants during our workshop. It was totally off-script, but everyone seemed to love it and he earned this new title in the process. 

He was drawn to Artemis as a way to impact the more than 50% of Americans who access the healthcare system through their employers. Here’s what Vance shared with us. 

What inspired you to join Artemis? 

I heard about Artemis before I joined, and I knew its reputation as a growing health tech company not far from my home. I had a connection with an Artemis board member, and he encouraged me to look into Artemis as I was transitioning out of my previous role in ecommerce software for the retail industry. I knew I wanted to do something meaningful where I felt a sense of purpose. 

My spouse is in the healthcare industry and has a Master’s degree in public health, and with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, I knew health tech would be a good fit for me. I was eager to find a way to help Americans access better, more affordable care. Artemis was the place that offered meaningful work, the ability to leverage my operational and tech growth skills, and the chance to make an impact on people. 

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing the employee benefits industry? 

I think transparency is a huge hurdle in the benefits industry. Pricing is one aspect of this, and there have been many efforts to increase visibility for patients and payers into what their healthcare actually costs. You’ve seen news about the hospital price transparency rule, which is a good effort, but we often just see huge, unstructured data files with obscure codes that aren’t intelligible for patients. Access to information and data has to be done in a way that’s meaningful. 

Transparency extends beyond pricing, too. Employers need to see detailed information that’s open and accessible to help them make decisions about employee benefits and health. It’s a big challenge that Artemis is trying to help solve. 

What do you love about your role at Artemis? 

I loved having a broad role that lets me interact with customers and get a sense for how they’re using our tools, then talk to prospective customers and find out how we could meet their needs. I like that I get a sense for both perspectives, and I get to interact across both groups. I enjoy working behind the scenes to support customers, prospects and our own teams. 

One thing I’ve always done in my career is try to find ways to improve efficiency and tighten processes. For example, I’m currently working on our external Net Promoter Score (NPS), which measures how customers feel about Artemis and if they would recommend us to others in the industry. I’ve also taken the concept of the NPS and used it to find our “internal NPS,” which measures the satisfaction of our team members. It’s so crucial to know not only how our customers are feeling, but also how our teams are feeling about Artemis. 

How do you think you’re making an impact on healthcare in the U.S.? 

Artemis’ mission is really key here. Our purpose is to turn the world’s health data into healthcare everyone can afford, and I hope my impact is that we’ll get better and better at what we do. It all comes back to this mission for me; I think we can deliver great health outcomes to the employers and advisors who are administering the health plans for patients. 

I’ve been very excited to see that we’re getting more and more trust from our customers, and we’re increasing the number of lives we impact. As of now, we have around 10 million lives on the Artemis Platform! 

How would you describe the culture at Artemis? 

Idealistic. Everyone who works at Artemis has a personal connection to our vision and our purpose as a company. I love seeing how our teams want to make the world a better place. 

I would also say that our culture places a high value on diversity. We have employees and leaders from all backgrounds, ethnicities, and genders, and the pandemic has helped us expand and grow our geographic diversity. We’re tapping into talent all over the country, and it’s nice to be able to add team members without telling them they need to move to Salt Lake City. 

Furthermore, we really value different perspectives, approaches, and opinions here. Artemis encourages the sharing of ideas, and we need that diversity of thought to fuel innovation. 

I would also say Artemis’ culture places a high value on healthcare industry experience. I don’t come from a healthcare or benefits background, and I’m still learning how this industry works and what’s important to our customers. But I love that we have so many people with deep knowledge in employee benefits and healthcare, and I’ve enjoyed learning from those people. 

What do you think sets Artemis apart from other data analytics solutions? 

We are big enough to be a trusted partner. We can scale to meet the needs of the largest employers and benefits advisors on the planet, and we love working with Fortune 500 companies. However, we’re also small enough to be agile and innovative. We can shift what we’re offering, create new products, and meet the changing needs of our customers. I think Artemis strikes a balance between trustworthy and innovative. We’re just the right size and we’re growing thoughtfully. 

What makes you tick outside of work? What hobbies and activities make you happy? 

I love the outdoors and experiencing nature. It’s what drew me to Utah, where you can get out and experience all four seasons in the outdoors. My favorite activity is hiking, and I can do it all year round. In the winter I simply change my shoes from hiking boots to snowshoes. I also enjoy overnight hikes and nighttime biking. For me, just being outdoors is therapeutic. I love going off the beaten path, finding new trails, and reaching spots you don’t normally see.

We’re very happy that Vance has joined Artemis, and he adds deep experience in tech company growth to our leadership team. We’re already seeing his efforts pay off (and we’re discovering new hiking trails, too). 

To learn more about Artemis’ benefits analytics platform, watch our 2-minute demo video.