Eliphalet Adams Bulkeley (June 20, 1803 – February 13, 1872[1]) was an American business executive, politician, and first president of the Aetna Insurance Company.

In 1850, when a subsidiary, Annuity Fund, was formed to sell life insurance, Bulkeley was named its administrative head.

[citation needed] When Annuity Fund was reorganized in 1853 as the Aetna Life Insurance Company, Bulkeley became its first president.

When the Panic of 1857 caused many Aetna stockholders to talk of dissolving the company, Bulkeley refused.

In 1861, the industry again suffered a downturn; rather than pull back, however, Bulkeley embarked on a more aggressive marketing campaign which proved prescient when interest in life insurance soared during the war, and Aetna became one of America's leading life insurance companies.