Kalli Ortega is a forward-thinking businesswoman, nationally recognized Health Rosetta Charter Advisor and the founder of MelEos Group, where she builds community health care programs and strategic employer solutions.

How did you get your start in the benefits industry?

I was working at my family's manufacturing company doing HR and a lot of other things on the operational and oversight side. One of my key responsibilities was buying our health insurance and building out that program for our employees, along with workers' comp and general liability. So I saw the client perspective on both the employee benefits and the P&C side.

The broker I worked with owned an agency, so when I decided not to stay with the family business and to explore some other options, I went over to the broker side. I started at Corkill Insurance, where there were about 20 employees at the time, most of whom worked on P&C and personal lines. There were only two people in the benefits department. They were looking to start hiring some benefits producers and I ended up learning the whole agency.

How has your journey since then shaped you?

When I started, they were manually entering everyone's names into Excel spreadsheets for each carrier that they were going to get quotes from. Not even copy and paste. It was such a laborious process and to do a 40-life group quote would take someone an entire day. I put my spreadsheet geek hat on and built a macro of sorts. We went to getting these quotes done in an hour, tops. I've always had a strong intolerance for inefficiencies. Working to see how to get from A to B in a more efficient way has always drawn me in.