Our leadership

Brian Thompson was named chief executive officer for UnitedHealthcare in April 2021. Prior to this role, Brian served as chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare's government programs including Medicare & Retirement, the largest business dedicated to the health and well-being needs of seniors and other Medicare beneficiaries; and Community & State, which proudly serves 6 million Medicaid members in 31 states, plus Washington D.C. 

Prior to leading government programs, Brian served as chief executive officer of the Medicare & Retirement organization. Brian joined UnitedHealth Group in 2004 and since then has held numerous leadership positions including chief financial officer for UnitedHealthcare’s Employer & Individual, Community & State and Medicare & Retirement businesses. In addition, he has served as the financial controller for UnitedHealthcare's Employer & Individual business as well as a director in Corporate Development. 

Prior to joining UnitedHealth Group, Brian was a practicing CPA at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, serving as a manager in the Transaction Advisory Services group of the Audit practice.

Dr. Anne Docimo is chief medical officer of UnitedHealthcare, responsible for the clinical, cost and experience outcomes of more than 50 million members in UnitedHealthcare’s Commercial, Medicare and Medicaid health plans. She works diligently with both internal and external stakeholders to develop and implement clinical strategies and programs to improve the overall health care system and help us deliver on our mission of making the health care system work better for everyone. 

Dr. Docimo has served as a physician leader in the evolving health care marketplace for more than 20 years. As a practicing clinician in primary care and emergency medicine, she worked in private practice, as a government contractor, in a staff-model HMO and in academic medical centers. Most recently, Dr. Docimo served as the executive vice president of Population Health and chief clinical transformation officer for Jefferson Health in Philadelphia. 

Prior to joining Jefferson Health, Dr. Docimo served both as chief medical officer for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), as well as senior medical director of UPMC Hospitals. While at UPMC, Dr. Docimo led the design and development of a proprietary system for care management and a claims-based member record. As a physician executive in both provider and payer organization, Dr. Docimo has experience in using clinical and claims data to design and implement population health programs to improve clinical and financial outcomes.

Kirsten Gorsuch is chief communications officer for UnitedHealthcare. In this role, she oversees a team that develops and implements communications strategies to enhance and protect UnitedHealthcare’s reputation, create a more favorable business environment and strengthen employee engagement.

Prior to joining UnitedHealthcare, Kirsten served as senior vice president of external affairs for Blue Shield of California where she was responsible for corporate communications, government affairs, alliance management, corporate social responsibility and community relations. She also served as the head of corporate communications at Medtronic, the world’s leading medical device company. Prior to her corporate roles, Kirsten was senior vice president at two global public relations firms, Ketchum and GCI Group, where she counseled a wide range of clients in the health care sector.

She is a former trustee and current member of the Arthur W. Page Society, an organization of individuals who have reached the highest level of practice in the field of corporate communications or public relations.

Thad Johnson is chief legal officer of UnitedHealthcare. In this role, he has overall responsibility for UnitedHealthcare’s legal and regulatory affairs functions. Prior to this, he was general counsel of UnitedHealthcare’s Employer & Individual business and had oversight of legal, compliance, regulatory affairs and health care reform implementation.

Thad joined UnitedHealth Group in 2000 as an associate general counsel and assistant secretary supporting corporate development, treasury and finance. He has held various legal leadership roles, including network, pharmacy, clinical services, transactions, vendor and strategic partnership contracting, and corporate governance and licensing.

Prior to joining UnitedHealth Group, Thad was with Dorsey & Whitney where he advised private and public companies on securities law, merger and acquisitions, debt and equity offerings, private equity placements, corporate governance concerns and other general business matters. 

He previously served on the board of directors for the Children’s Law Center of Minnesota.

Philip Kaufman is chief growth officer of UnitedHealthcare. In this role, he’s responsible for driving growth across the commercial, Medicare and Medicaid businesses by leading innovation, strategy and business planning and development in alignment with UnitedHealthcare’s priorities and enterprise goals. In addition, Philip serves as CEO of the Individual & Family Plan business, which is focused on creating access to affordable health care for consumers by expanding UnitedHealthcare’s presence in the individual exchange market. He also leads our social determinants of health platform and capabilities.

Philip has been with UnitedHealth Group for more than 20 years. Most recently, he was the chief operating officer of UnitedHealthcare Employer & Individual (E&I) where he was accountable for aligning and leading the strategy, operations, product, marketing, advocacy, digital and business advancement functions. Prior to that role, he served as CEO of UnitedHealthcare of Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, where he brought together the enterprise capabilities and functions needed for the successful launch in these new markets. Philip has also held several leadership positions within the Ancillary & Individual division of E&I, including president of UnitedHealthcare Specialty Benefits and CEO of UnitedHealthcare Vision.

Prior to joining UnitedHealth Group, Philip worked in mergers and acquisitions for the Rothschild Group and Deutsche Bank AG.

Dan Kueter is the chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare Employer & Individual Domestic, a $65 billion division of UnitedHealthcare and the nation’s largest business serving the health coverage and well-being needs of employers and consumers.

Prior to being named CEO in 2022, Dan served as chief financial officer of UnitedHealthcare Employer & Individual. In this role, he had financial and strategic oversight of the business’s diverse portfolio of health plans, ranging from traditional fully insured and self-funded plans to the full scope of ancillary and voluntary benefits.

Dan joined UnitedHealth Group in 2001 and served in roles at Optum and UnitedHealthcare Networks before transitioning to Employer & Individual in 2008 to become a health plan market CEO. After nearly six years developing and leading large-scale, provider-led population health organizations outside the enterprise, Dan returned to UnitedHealthcare in 2018 to lead Employer & Individual’s network strategy as part of UnitedHealthcare Networks.

Krista Nelson is chief operating officer for UnitedHealthcare, where she leads global operational performance and experience. In this role, Krista oversees more than 30,000 operations employees and leaders across multiple business areas at UnitedHealthcare. Krista’s priority is improving the experience for clients, consumers, providers and employees. 

Previously, Krista was chief growth and experience officer for UnitedHealthcare, where she led strategy and growth across all four lines of business – commercial, Medicare, Medicaid and global – and accelerated the company’s focus on key stakeholders.

Krista was also chief executive officer for the Individual and Family Plan (IFP) business, where she successfully led re-entry into the individual exchange market across 18 states. And, she’s been instrumental in advancing social determinants of health and health equity strategies.

Krista joined UnitedHealth Group in 2009 and has held a variety of leadership roles within the company in strategy, experience, innovation, product development and growth. She is known for driving organic innovation by standing up early-stage businesses and capabilities, from bundle payments, post-acute care and digital health, to new product development.

Prior to joining UnitedHealth Group, Krista worked at Deloitte as a consultant in Strategy & Operations. She spent the majority of her time with the Merger & Acquisition and Customer Market Strategy practices where she worked with multiple Fortune 100 companies to set and accomplish strategic priorities, including improved customer experience, five-year strategic planning, enhanced operational processes, increased customer retention and evaluation and execution of acquisition targets.

Krista earned her MBA from the University of St. Thomas and received a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management.

Jeff Putnam is the chief financial officer for UnitedHealthcare. Jeff is responsible for the overall financial management of the combined commercial, Medicare and Medicaid benefits businesses.

Before moving to UnitedHealthcare, Jeff was senior vice president and controller for UnitedHealth Group. He served in this role from 2011 through 2016 and was responsible for the corporate accounting, financial planning and analysis, capital planning, corporate actuarial and accounts payable functions. 

From 2007 through 2010, Jeff was the senior vice president of financial planning and analysis, leading enterprise budgeting and forecasting, management reporting and analysis, accounts payable, and corporate procurement activities. In 2005 and 2006, he served as chief financial officer for the Medicare Advantage business, where he had oversight of financial planning, underwriting and operations. Before joining UnitedHealth Group in 2005, Jeff spent 13 years in the airline industry in various finance and operations senior management roles.  

Jeff currently serves on the board of Second Harvest Heartland, and previously served as a director and board chair of Free Arts Minnesota.

Tim Spilker is the chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare Community & State. UnitedHealthcare Community & State proudly serves nearly six million Medicaid members, including more than 2.7 million children, in 31 states, plus Washington D.C. UnitedHealthcare is a division of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), which is a diversified health and well-being company with a mission to help people live healthier lives and help make the health system work better for everyone. UnitedHealthcare Community & State leverages the national capabilities of UnitedHealth Group and delivers them at the local market level to support effective care management, strong regulatory partnerships, greater administrative efficiency, improved clinical outcomes, and the ability to adapt to a changing market environment.

Before being named CEO of Community & State, Tim served as CEO of the East Region, where he was responsible for the organization’s Medicaid business strategy and operations in 12 eastern markets. Tim took on the role of CEO for the East Region at Community & State in August 2016. Before becoming East Region CEO, he served as CEO of the UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Kansas. Tim has worked in a variety of industries, including consumer products, community development banking and nonprofit organizations.

Tim earned an undergraduate degree from Northwestern University, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a Masters in Healthcare Delivery Science from Dartmouth College.