Longtime UnitedHealth Group executive Heather Cianfrocco is leaving the company.
Ms. Cianfrocco has served as executive vice president of governance, compliance and information security at UnitedHealth since April 2025. She briefly served as CEO of Optum from 2024 to 2025 before being succeeded by Patrick Conway, MD, who previously led Optum Rx.
“After 24 years, I am saying goodbye to the team at UnitedHealth Group,” she wrote on LinkedIn Feb. 27. “I am leaving with so much pride in what we have accomplished together. I’ve had the privilege of working alongside some of the most talented, mission-driven people who show up every day determined to make health care easier to navigate, more affordable and more human.”
Ms. Cianfrocco was named president of Optum in 2023 and previously held senior leadership positions across several UnitedHealthcare divisions, including Medicaid, Medicare and clinical strategy. She led Optum Health starting in 2020 and became CEO of Optum Rx in 2021. An attorney by trade, she has consistently been named one of the most powerful women in business globally.
In her social media post, Ms. Cianfrocco reflected on accomplishments during her tenure, highlighting the expansion of home-based care for patients with complex needs, innovations in benefits navigation and cost transparency, and efforts to lower costs through simplified prior authorizations and chronic condition management.
“While I’m stepping away from my role, I am not stepping away from the commitment,” she wrote. “Thank you to my colleagues and friends for 24 extraordinary years. It has been the honor of a lifetime to work alongside you.”
