UnitedHealth Group Names Andrew Witty CEO
MINNETONKA (dpa-AFX) - UnitedHealth Group (UNH) has named Sir Andrew Witty as chief executive officer, succeeding David Wichmann. He will rejoin the UnitedHealth Group Board and becomes CEO immediately, with Wichmann continuing in a transition period through March 2021.
Witty was named CEO of Optum in March 2018 and added the role of president, UnitedHealth Group, in November 2019. From 2008 to 2017, Witty was CEO and a director of GlaxoSmithKline plc.
Dirk McMahon is the company s new president and chief operating officer. McMahon has served as CEO of UnitedHealthcare since June 2019. Prior to this, he was president and chief operating officer, Optum.
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David Wichmann is stepping down as chief executive of UnitedHealth Group after less than four years running Minnesota s largest company, an abrupt move that surprised investors Thursday and apparently drove a one-day decline in the Minnetonka-based company s stock price.
Analysts said they don t anticipate a strategy shift as the CEO job passes to Andrew Witty, a onetime chief executive at the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. He currently runs UnitedHealth Group s fast-growing Optum division for health care services.
The timing of Thursday s announcement puzzled some analysts, and investors sent UnitedHealth shares down 2.5%.
Witty only recently returned to the company after a seven-month leave to help the World Health Organization s program to develop and distribute coronavirus vaccines. When Wichmann became CEO in September 2017, the company said the leadership transition had been in the works for almost four years a period of time
UnitedHealth Group names new CEO, COO
Andrew Witty
UnitedHealth Group announced a surprise executive shakeup on Thursday, with Andrew Witty immediately serving as the new head of the health giant and former insurance subsidiary CEO Dirk McMahon now serving as Chief Operating Officer.
In the new role, Witty succeeds CEO David Wichmann, who will retire from the Minnetonka, Minn.-based company after 22 years. Wichmann worked as chief financial officer, president and was appointed as the company s head in September 2017. He will continue in a transition period through March.
Stephen Hemsley, chairman of company s board of director s, said Witty s previous work with the company informed the board s decision to make him its head.
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Now, decades later, Humana is getting back to its roots of providing medical care.
This time, the company is hyper-focused on transforming primary care for older people.
The national health insurer is investing heavily in building clinics in underserved areas across the country. It s also partnering with primary-care startups like Oak Street Health, ChenMed, and Iora Health to reach more seniors. And last year, Humana pumped $100 million into telehealth startup Heal to bring primary care into patients homes.
Humana s quest, CEO Bruce Broussard told Insider, is to weave together health insurance with the delivery of healthcare. Integrating the two could lead to lower costs and better health outcomes, he said.