Hawkins Tatum
Partner – Employee Benefits
“You’ll never know God is all you need until God is all you’ve got.” – Rick Warren
Hawkins joined Valent Group’s Employee Benefits team at the height of the healthcare reform (ACA) movement in 2011. It was at that point he began rethinking and recreating what an employee benefits consulting experience should look like in the ACA era. For Hawkins, that has culminated today in a method that weighs a constantly changing benefits environment with a client’s unique needs, and then reverse engineering into a customized benefits strategy.
He approaches benefits consulting from a wide lens of experience, having previously managed employer health plans for a major insurance carrier and before that, led a corporate HR department. His combined employer and carrier perspective is highly regarded among our clients, as he delivers strategies and results that require navigating both worlds effectively.
Prior to joining Valent Group, Hawkins invested eight years managing and developing healthcare plans for corporate clients with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama. During this tenure he focused on employee health populations between two and 1,000 lives and was promoted from service representative to marketing representative (today known as district sales support representative and district sales manager). Through these roles he discovered a passion for strategic plan design while supporting the everyday needs of customers.
Before working with Alabama’s largest health insurance provider, Hawkins served as Human Resources Director with Mrs. Stratton’s Salads, where he grew the company’s HR department. Caring for a workforce of 150, he gained a people-first focus that continues to guide the way he consults with HR leaders today.
Hawkins’ combined strengths in HR and the carrier side of our business is invaluable. He maximizes resources and relationships with carriers in terms of services, contracts, rate guarantees and benefits structures. At the same time, he understands the joy (and weight) every HR department carries, which is why he’s committed to partnering with HR on benefits strategies that reduce administrative burden.
Hawkins earned his MBA at Samford University while working at Mrs. Stratton’s, and his undergraduate degree from The University of Alabama. He has three children, has served as a youth recreational sports coach and has been married for nearly 10 years.