Paul Forte retires as CEO of FedPoint

Paul Forte, after 22 years, has retired as CEO of FedPoint, a Pease International Tradeport-based insurance and benefits administrator for the U.S. government. (Courtesy photo)

After 22 years at the helm of FedPoint, Paul Forte retired as its CEO as of March 1. His successor is Kevin Hill, formerly the company’s COO.

Headquartered at the Pease International Tradeport, FedPoint is the contracted administrator of federal large-scale insurance and benefits programs.

Forte guided the company through its growth spurt to become one of the government’s largest contractors. He and his team also navigated its 200-plus employees through the workplace challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and through a rebranding.

FedPoint is a trade name of the legal entity Long Term Care Partners, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of John Hancock Life & Health Insurance Company.

Forte’s journey as a company chief executive officer actually started in academia.

After getting a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, he did doctoral research at the City University of New York, getting his doctoral degree in English Renaissance Language and Literature from Buffalo State University.

Forte worked in the insurance industry before being brought on board to head what was known as LTC Partners.

LTC Partners was established in 2002 to administer the Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program (FLTCIP), following the enactment of the Long-Term Care Security Act in 2000.

Ultimately, FedPoint’s work extended beyond administering the government’s long-term insurance program. In 2018, it established BENEFEDS, a proprietary online platform and call center built under the auspices of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Through BENEFEDS the company handles enrollment, billing and customer support functions for enrollees in the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program (FEDVIP). The company also handles the federal employees’ payroll deductions for flexible spending medical accounts.

FedPoint, like companies everywhere, had gone into a work-from-home mode during the COVID pandemic, then sought to find a post-pandemic balance of its workforce being in the office and working remotely.

Located in an office building on the Newington side of the Pease International Tradeport, it negotiated its lease renewal late last year to downsize — from about 75,000 square feet to 44,000 square feet. It left where it was on the first floor almost entirely (save a couple of conference rooms and fitness center) at 100 Arboretum Drive, now occupying the second floor and a part of the third floor for about 280 seats.

FedPoint is in the process of rehabbing its office, creating an abundance of open space, lounge areas, privacy booths and conference rooms. The point is to make the space attractive and functional enough that workers want to come back to the office, finding the equilibrium between the needs of the employees and the needs of the employer.

The rebrand took place in 2020 with Forte saying at the time, “We are leaving behind an old and trusted name, but we are becoming a far more capable and innovative company than we were. The rebrand is a better fit, not only with the company we are today but also with the company we aspire to be.”

In fact, he harkened back to his academic background in the rebranding from LTC to FedPoint, noting the significance of the word “point.”

“It’s a very important word in the English language,” said Forte. “It has important geographical associations; it has logical or argumentative associations, many, many things. It seemed to me to have a lot of resonance.”

Through the years, Forte has written about and advocated on behalf of military veterans and health care workers, particularly nurses.

It has sponsored job fairs targeted specifically for veterans, and in 2022 it established a scholarship program for New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts residents accepted into accredited nursing programs to help address and raise public awareness of the national nursing shortage.

“We believe it’s critical to educate potential candidates on the benefits of nursing as a career path and support the next generation of RNs,” Forte said in establishing the scholarship. “These scholarships are intended to help attract qualified candidates to the profession, make a meaningful financial contribution to their training, and serve as a token of our gratitude to those who commit to this venerable field.”

In 2021, Forte was NH Business Review’s Business Excellence recipient in the health care category for a large organization.

In retirement he plans to remain involved in long-term care issues, policy and advocacy.

Forte and Hill politely declined a request for an interview as the transition proceeds.

According to FedPoint, Hill worked in a variety of leadership roles with Manulife and John Hancock across multiple business lines before joining FedPoint in 2010 as the company’s chief operating officer.

At FedPoint, the company said, he has led operations, customer service, business development and information services and technology, and spearheaded the company’s current plans to migrate systems and data to the cloud in compliance with federal government plans to do the same for all federal systems and data under FedRAMP.

FedRAMP is the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, a federal government-wide compliance program that standardizes  security assessment, authorization and continuous monitoring for cloud products and services.

“FedPoint will be in excellent hands under Kevin’s strong and able leadership,” said Forte in a prepared statement. “The company has a solid base on which to grow. Our performance is recognized nationally. Looking to the future, there’s little doubt in my mind that this company will continue to evolve in agency and sophistication and remain a serious player as a marketplace operator, known for consistently delivering excellent service to insurance carriers and large public sector benefits programs.”