Coming into 2025, health insurance industry leadership encountered overwhelming uncertainty. Despite this, 2025 proved to be a year of executive mobility. Here are 19 payer CEO moves from this past year: 1. Krista Nelson will lead Optum Health as CEO. …
Executive Moves
Amy Schulman will join Elevance Health’s board as an independent director Jan. 12, 2026, according to a Dec. 10 news release. She will serve on the audit and finance committees. Ms. Schulman is currently a managing partner at the venture…
Kate Walsh has been elected to the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts board of directors. Most recently, Ms. Walsh served as the secretary of Health and Human Services for the Healey administration to the Blue Cross board. Prior to…
Premera Blue Cross named Rajat Puri as COO, according to a Dec. 4 news release. Mr. Puri will focus on managing the insurer’s technology and operations teams to improve member experience across customer service, billing, claims processing, information technology and…
Gold Coast Health Plan appointed Suma Simcoe as COO, effective Oct. 15, according to an Oct. 30 news release. Ms. Simcoe joined GCHP from L.A. Care Health Plan and was previously at Molina Healthcare. She has a record of launching…
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Blue Shield of California has named Gary Culp as senior vice president of government markets and Greg Siebert as senior vice president for provider partnerships and network management. Mr. Culp will lead Blue Shield’s government health programs, including Medicare, Medi-Cal,…
Former U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, has been named to UnitedHealth Group’s board of directors. Dr. Gottlieb served as FDA commissioner from 2017 to 2019, “where he became known for promoting transparency, strengthening patient safety and…
Optum Health, the care delivery arm of UnitedHealth Group, has named Krista Nelson as its new CEO. “I’m deeply grateful to be part of an organization with such an important mission and an incredible team,” Ms. Nelson wrote on Linkedin…
Priority Health has named Nick Gates as the company’s new president. Mr. Gates had been serving as interim president since May and has been with the health plan for more than 20 years, serving in a variety of finance and…
Chris DeRosa, Cigna’s Executive Vice President of Business Improvement and Innovation, retired after more than two decades in leadership positions with the company. Mr. DeRosa had served in his most recent role since March and previously served as president of…