Kenneth I. Shine to Join UnitedHealth Group Board of Directors
MINNETONKA, Minn.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) announced that Kenneth I. Shine, M.D., will join the company's Board of Directors.
Stephen J. Hemsley, president and chief executive officer of UnitedHealth Group, said, "For more than 30 years, Ken Shine has been a leader in the health care community, and he is a trusted authority on improving health care and addressing key issues in medicine. He will bring to UnitedHealth Group not only his professional medical experience, but also his vast knowledge of the U.S. health care system and the challenges it faces, his commitments to evidence-based care, expanding medical research and patient safety programs, and his expertise in global health care issues. We will benefit greatly by having his thoughtful voice on our Board."
Dr. Shine is Executive Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs for the University of Texas System. The University of Texas System is made up of nine academic universities and six health institutions, serving the higher education of 194,000 students. The Office of Health Affairs has primary responsibility for the oversight of the six health institutions of the System, including budgets, academic planning and programs, health care delivery, facilities planning and construction, and personnel. Dr. Shine also served the University of Texas System as interim Chancellor from May 1 through December 18, 2008.
Before joining the University of Texas System in November 2003, Dr. Shine was President of the Institute of Medicine (IOM). A component of the National Academy of Sciences, the IOM provides unbiased, evidence-based, and authoritative information and advice concerning health and science policy to policy-makers, professionals, leaders in every sector of society and the public at large. Under Dr. Shine's leadership from 1992 until 2002, IOM researchers led studies on nutrition, food safety and child development and examined availability and side effects of vaccines. Dr. Shine also organized symposia to underscore the importance of cultural sensitivity in health care and supported programs to increase immunization rates, decrease use of tobacco among adolescents and improve care of the dying. He emphasized the importance of broadly communicating the results of scientific findings and recommendations and initiated new IOM programs in patient safety and quality of care.
Dr. Shine was founding Director of the RAND Center for Domestic and International Health Security. He led the Center's efforts to make health a central component of U.S. foreign policy and to guide the Center's evolving research agenda, applying his decades of experience in working with international health experts on global issues such as emerging infectious illnesses, bioethics, and access to care.
Dr. Shine is Professor of Medicine Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Medicine. A cardiologist and physiologist, he received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1961. Before becoming president of the IOM, he was Dean and Provost for Medical Sciences at UCLA.
Dr. Shine is a member of many honorary and academic societies, including Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha, Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, Master of the American College of Physicians, and was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 1988. He served as Chairman of the Council of Deans of the Association of American Medical Colleges from 1991-1992, and was President of the American Heart Association from 1985-1986.
UnitedHealth Group's Board is expected to appoint Dr. Shine as an independent director at its regularly scheduled meeting in the first quarter 2009. In 2007, UnitedHealth Group's Board committed to adding five new independent directors to the Board by the end of 2009. Dr. Shine's appointment will be the fourth new director added to the Board since that commitment was made to shareholders.
About UnitedHealth Group
UnitedHealth Group is a diversified health and well-being company dedicated to making health care work better. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Minn., UnitedHealth Group offers a broad spectrum of products and services through six operating businesses: UnitedHealthcare, Ovations, AmeriChoice, OptumHealth, Ingenix, and Prescription Solutions. Through its family of businesses, UnitedHealth Group serves more than 70 million individuals nationwide.