This time it was in the competitive Unitedhealth Group – No. 3 On the Fortune 500 and the largest US health company in 2024. John F. Rex, who entered the company in 2012 and has been working as a CFO since 2016 – is not replaced by an internal candidate, but by an external rent. Rex becomes a strategic consultant of CEO Stephen J. Hemsley.
Wayne S. Deveydt, most recently managing director and company partner of Bain Capital, will take over the CFO role on September 2. Deveydt offers experience in operational improvement and growth acceleration – a ability that will be valuable because Unitedhealth’s share price drops by more than 50% in the previous year. The change of leadership follows a disturbing Q2 2025, in which Unitedhealth’s financial results have decreased far beyond the expectations of Wall Street and the investors continue to rattle.
The company shocked the markets on July 29 by reporting unexpectedly weak quarterly resultsaccordingly Assets‘S Geoff Colvin.
As Colvin writes: “The crisis manifested itself for the first time in April. Unitedhealth Group the trauma of the top -class murder of Executive Brian Thompson emerged in December when the company published the expectations of Wall Street well under the expectations of Wall Street in the first quarter. The stock fell and dropped over 100 billion US dollars from the market value within hours. A month later, CEO Andrew Witty resigned abruptly for non -specified personal reasons, and former CEO Stephen Hemsley returned to the job. The share dropped again. ” (You can Read the full report here.))
Manage risk and costs
Now Deveydt – also former chairman and CEO of surgery partners and former CFO near Anthem (now hurry) – has to get an important role in the steeper of Unitedhealth again. The company has four main segments: Unitedhealthcare (cover), Optum Health (Care Delivery), Optum Insight (software and analytics) and optum RX (Pharmacy advantages).
Industry analysts say that the way before us will not be easy. I asked Julie Uutterback, Senior Equity Analyst for health care in Morningstar, for her assessment. “Unitedhealth and frankly, the entire management of the Managed Care Organization (MCO)-to find out how the current mismatch between the rates and medical use can be reconciled in their risk operations,” she told me.
The US health system includes this problem: at the end of 2023, which were spread out on Medicaid in mid-2024, and now prints on the individual stock exchanges and endangered employer plans, according to contotback, began at the end of 2023 at the end of 2023.
In other words, increasing health costs exceed the premiums, which harms the profit for insurers like Unitedhealth.
On average, it is expected that the medical cost quota (the percentage of income that is issued for patient care for patient care) in 2025 is more than 450 basis points higher than in the past ten years.
In addition, Unitedhealth is exposed to his optum Health Unit, in which the company not only offers nursing services in some agreements, but also takes the risk of managing the general health of a patient, she said.
In order for MCOs to return to the target margins, you have to get better compensation for the risk that you will enter into throughout the US health system.
With regard to Deveydt’s priorities as CFO, according to Uutterback, financial organizations will continue to highlight cost controls. A further introduction of AI and other digital tools to improve back office efficiency will remain a focus, although Unitedhealth has prioritated such initiatives for several years.
Deveydt will enter the CFO role in the next month with a huge to-do list and the future of the financial recovery of Unitedhealth.
Sheryl Scot
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com
Ranking
Costin Corneanu was called EPP and CFO from AmtrakWith effect from August 4, Corneanu, who came to the company in 2020, has been representative of CFO since January. He succeeds Tracie Winbigler, who will retire on January 1, 2026 from Amtrak. Until then, Winbigler will remain in her EPP role as Chief Transformation Officer. Before he came to Amtrak, Corneanu spent eight years at Spirit Airlines and four years at US Airways.
Kalani ReelitzCFO from Compass, has resigned after an effective August 22nd SEC entry. Scott Wahlers, Chief Accounting Officer from the company for seven years, has been appointed the new CFO. Before he came to Compass, Wahlers spent 16 years at WEBMD, where he worked as Vice President for Finance, Controller and Treasurer.
Big deal
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) published July Work report On August 1, which showed a modest profit of only 73,000 jobs. However, the real surprise was a strong revision of the previous months: According to Ey-Partenon chef economist, the workplace gains in May and June were reduced with 258,000. Since employment rose in May by only 19,000 and 14,000 in June, the three-month average salary account growth is only 35,000 sunk from 123,000 a year ago.
“With persistent political uncertainties, tariffs and reduced immigration flows, the US economy flirts with job losses and shows a job market that is much weaker than most fed political decision -makers, the Fed is now behind the curve,” said Daca in an e -mail.
Employment appears for a further slowdown by the summer, since companies that are reorganized with renewed cost volatility through escalating trade voltages are still geared towards management of labor costs through reduced attitudes, performance -related layoffs, reserved wage growth and lower wages of the entry.
On Friday, President Donald Trump ordered Dr. Erika Mcentarfer, the commissioner of the BLS, on when the administration dealt with unexpectedly weak jobs that included the great revision of the last two months of job data. Assets reported.
Go deeper
“How companies benefit from the exchange of data“Is a report in the Wharton Business Journal. Huan Tang, a Professor of Finance at Wharton, argues that there is a new way to understand how companies interact and create value in the digital economy. Tang’s research discovers a hidden network of interfirm data flows, whereby the companies are not only connected by products or supply chains, but also through the information they exchange.
Oversighted
“I see a lot of young people who want to take the simple way without working so hard. But the truth is that you have to make sacrifices. You have to assert yourself a lot of complaints.”
– Sara Sabry told Assets In an interview. Sabry became the world’s first Egyptian astronaut after flown to space in the new Shepard Rocket on August 4, 2022.
