‘Personal reasons’: Andrew Witty steps down as UnitedHealth Group C.E.O.

Andrew Witty, chief executive of UnitedHealth Group, has stepped down from his role for “personal reasons,” the company announced Tuesday.

UnitedHealth also withdrew its financial forecast for 2025, citing higher-than-expected medical costs. The company now expects to “return to growth in 2026.”

The news sent UnitedHealth Group’s stock tumbling more than 17 percent. Combined with an earlier drop in April following disappointing earnings, shares have now lost nearly half their value in the past month.

Stephen Hemsley, the company’s board chairman and former chief executive from 2006 to 2017, will return to the C.E.O. role immediately.

“[Mr. Witty] led UnitedHealth Group during some of the most challenging times any company has ever faced,” Hemsley said in the statement.

The company has faced significant turmoil recently.

Meanwhile, Tribune Online reported in December that Brian Thompson, C.E.O. of UnitedHealthcare—UnitedHealth’s insurance division—was shot and killed in Midtown Manhattan.

Luigi Mangione, 27, was arrested five days later in Altoona, Pa., and charged with Thompson’s murder.

Authorities said Mangione was not a UnitedHealthcare customer. When arrested, he was carrying a statement condemning the health care industry’s “corruption” and “power games.” He has pleaded not guilty.

Shortly after Thompson’s death, Witty addressed broader issues with the U.S. health care system in a New York Times Opinion piece.

“We know the health system does not work as well as it should, and we understand people’s frustrations with it.

“No one would design a system like the one we have. And no one did. It’s a patchwork built over decades. Our mission is to help make it work better,” he said.

UnitedHealth is a giant in nearly every part of American health care.

In addition to its health insurance business, it owns Optum, which includes around 90,000 physicians and clinics, and is a major pharmacy benefit manager.

In November 2024, the U.S. Justice Department and four Democratic state attorneys general filed an antitrust lawsuit against UnitedHealth.

They aimed to block the company’s $3.3 billion acquisition of Amedisys, a large home health provider.

Before joining UnitedHealth in 2021, Mr. Witty was C.E.O. of GlaxoSmithKline. From 2013 to 2017, he served as chancellor of the University of Nottingham, his alma mater in England.

(New York Times)

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