Louisville-based Humana Inc. has seen another change on its board of directors.
The company disclosed through a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that Karen DeSalvo would leave the board, effective October 15, in order to avoid the appearance of any conflict of interest in connection with her plan to pursue a new executive opportunity.
It’s not clear what opportunity DeSalvo is pursuing. She has not returned a request for comment for this story.
This is the second move on the board in about a month. In September, the board elected Karen Katz. She was CEO of the Dallas-based international luxury retailer Neiman Marcus Group LTD LLC from 2010 to February 2018. At the same time, the board approved an expansion from 10 members to 11.
Kate Marx, a spokesperson for Humana, said in an email that Humana’s board changes to add new skills, experience and capabilities to its roster.
DeSalvo was elected to the board in November 2017. She is a former government public health administrator and university administrator. She held two overlapping roles with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: national coordinator for health information technology from January 2014 until August 2016 and the assistant secretary for health in the HHS department from October 2014 until January 2017.
DeSalvo was the health commissioner for the city of New Orleans from 2011 to 2014 and held a number of positions with Tulane University, also in New Orleans, including chief of general medicine and geriatrics and vice dean for community affairs and health policy in the Tulane School of Medicine.
The board elects its own members through its nominating and corporate governance committee who fields nominees. The committee assesses nominations from the board, third-party search firms and from recommendations from stockholders.
The board considers candidates that have risk oversight ability in a particular field of expertise, have standing and reputation in their field and are considered independent from the company according to company and regulatory standards.
Source: The Business Journals