David Wichmann is stepping down as chief executive of UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest health insurer and Minnesota’s largest company. Andrew Witty, the head of the company’s Optum subsidiary, has been named his successor.
The change was announced Thursday morning.
Wichmann took the helm of Minnetonka-based company in September 2017, and the board lauded him for a tenure that included growth and the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
Wichmann previously led UnitedHealthcare, the company’s insurance unit, and served as chief financial officer for the entire company from 2011 until mid-2016 when he became president of the company.
Witty recently returned to UnitedHealth and Optum after taking a leave from April to December last year to serve as global envoy for the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 efforts.
“As we have come to know firsthand during his time at UnitedHealth Group, Andrew Witty combines an extraordinary breadth and depth of health care experience, sophisticated strategic thinking and outstanding leadership development skills, making him uniquely well-positioned to help the company take the next steps on its steady path to grow and deliver for its shareholders and the customers and people we are privileged to serve,” said Stephen Hemsley, chairman of the UnitedHealth Group’s board.
Witty said UnitedHealth is “one of the most consequential organizations in health care, where our responsibility is to execute flawlessly and deliver on our potential each day,” Witty said.
“Dave Wichmann is leaving a powerful legacy of service to others and commitment to innovation for us to build upon,” he said.
Hemsley too lauded Wichmann’s tenure.
“As CEO, Dave helped build an unmatched set of distinctive capabilities, market positions and capacities that will continue to contribute to a high-performing and more equitable health system for everyone,” he said. “Dave’s restless spirit, growth mind-set and determination for UnitedHealth Group to lead in the development of the next-generation health system in a socially conscious way will serve as a model of servant leadership for years to come.”
Witty was named CEO of Optum in March 2018 and added the role of president of UnitedHealth Group in November 2019.
Dirk McMahon, who has been CEO of UnitedHealthcare since June 2019, becomes the company’s new president and chief operating officer.