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Changemaker

ValueOptions' decisive new CEO says she's up to challenges

There's a sign on Vivianne Chaumont's office wall that says, "Three things are needed for success: A backbone, a wishbone and a funny bone."

Chaumont, a Latina of Cuban ancestry, took on the job of chief executive officer of ValueOptions of Arizona in June 2005. She oversees the planning and distribution of state and federal funds for mental health and substance abuse services in Maricopa County. Like any new CEO brought in from outside the organization, Chaumont says she accepted because she was intrigued with the proposition -- and challenge -- of changing ValueOptions from the top down.

An overhaul in management and corporate culture within the major behavioral health authority in Maricopa County will require all the good humor she can muster, she admits.

"We touch a lot of lives," Chaumont says in her office overlooking the Chinese Cultural Center on 44th Street in Phoenix. "We affect 60,000 clients with mental illnesses, their families, their employers, our providers, the whole community. And a strong recovery from mental illness requires a strong community connection."

NEW TOP TEAM

ValueOptions is based in Norfolk, Va. It has been serving Maricopa County since 1999 under a $500 million annual contract with the Arizona Department of Health Services. The agency also provides care for 500,000 Medicaid and Title XXI (KidsCare) clients.

The organization's tie to the community was one of the things she felt needed fixing at ValueOptions, she says. "We feel like we need to get out into the community more, particularly the Latino and Native American communities."

ValueOption data shows that about 25 percent of its clients are Latino.

Another fix under way, she says, is changing the company's management style from "management by crisis" to management by planning and listening to community needs.

Along with Chaumont, other breaths of fresh air breezing through ValueOptions'  top office includes new COO Sue Dess, Argie Gomez, executive director/chief for the child and adolescent services, and Gustavo McGrew, director of public relations for ValueOptions.

"If you look at the new team that is going to take us forward, you see a lot of diversity in backgrounds, skill sets and personal styles," Chaumont says. The new attitude at the top will result in more efficient, better and faster services for clients, she believes.

Asked about her own personal style of management, Chaumont playfully picks up an eight-ball "executive decision maker" from her desk. the kind you ask a question, shake it up and the answer appears in the round view hole.

 "I shook up one of my executives one time when we had a major decision to make and I said, 'Okay, we'll go with whatever this ball says. So I did it and it said, yes." She laughs softly. "It was one of those executive decisions that was 50 percent yes, 50 percent no. But it really impressed him."

IMPRESSIVE PAST

Chaumont's balance of humor and hard-nosed leadership has served her well.

Previously, Chaumont practiced law for 23 years. She was the Medicaid director for the state of Colorado. Prior to that, she worked for the Colorado Office of the attorney general where she was the chief counsel for the Medicaid, public assistance and public health programs for 16 years.

At ValueOptions, Chaumont leads 2,000 employees at more than 20 clinic sites and works with more than 100 provider agencies, including Valle de Sol, Inc. and Chicanos Por La Causa, Inc. In addition, the organization has a community reinvestment program that recently
distributed $440,000 in grants to 17 local organizations.

"We are a big player in this county, and we need to become part of this county," Chaumont says.

Not that any of the ValueOptions changes will be easy, she acknowledges, and they will take time. There are still many hard decisions to make.

That playful smile lights up her face again.

"I was in Staples the other day, and got one of those Easy Buttons you see in their commercials," she quips. 

INSIDE VIVIANNE CHAUMONT

Chaumont was born in Havana, Cuba, and came to the United States after the Bay of Pigs and before the Missile Crisis. She grew up in Sacramento, Calif., and earned her Bachelors in psychology and law degree from the University of California at Davis. She is single, and has three children: Jon, 24, Colin, 21, and Katherine, 18. She loves sports, shopping, gardening and traveling. Chaumont  has eclectic musical tastes, from classical to country, and the last book she read was, The Four Agreements, by Don Miguel Ruiz. She resides in Tempe. ValueOptions CEO Vivianne Chaumont: "If you look at the new team that is going to take us forward, you see a lot of diversity in backgrounds, skill sets and personal
styles."