Heather Cianfrocco

Heather Cianfrocco became chief executive officer of Optum in April 2024, after serving in various leadership positions at Optum, including president, CEO of Optum Rx, CEO for Optum’s Health Services, and CEO of UnitedHealthcare Community and State. Optum is a division of UnitedHealth Group, America’s largest insurer and the No. 4 company on the 2024 Fortune 500. Cianfrocco took the helm at Optum at a particularly challenging time, in the wake of a massive February 2024 cyberattack on its subsidiary, the health care technology and billing platform Change Healthcare. The hack caused chaos among American health care providers and pharmacies and, by some estimates, put one in three Americans’ health data at risk. The ransomware attack and its aftermath are expected to cost the parent company $2.3 billion to $2.45 billion, according to UHG’s second-quarter earnings report. Still, UHG posted profits of $4.2 billion for the quarter—a number that is down from $5.4 billion a year earlier, but beat Wall Street expectations.