Centene’s top executive, Michael Neidorff, has been in charge for 25 years, an unusually long tenure for a corporate leader. The payer will soon begin looking for Michael Neidorff’s replacement, launching an executive search for the first time since his appointment in 1996.
DistilInfo HIGH FIVE
1. A transformer:
Neidorff who transformed the company into a formidable corporation as one of the nation’s largest insurers and organizations as a Fortune 24 company is set to retire by the end of 2022 after striking a deal with an activist investor group keen on new leadership.
2. New decision:
The new board set to seat five new incoming leaders as part of the deal with Politan Capital Management will be responsible for picking Neidorff’s successor, who is likely to face continued uncertainties as the health sector heads into another pandemic year with a new variant bearing down on the U.S.
3. Successor:
“I think succession in any organization is difficult. I think it becomes more difficult in organizations with especially long tenures,” Peter Boumgarden, a business professor with a focus on organization structure at Washington University in St. Louis, said.
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4. Replacement:
Replacing a longtime leader is an inflection point for any company, and it can prove tricky to replace someone who has been viewed as the face of the organization, experts told Healthcare Dive.
5. Insights:
Paul Washington, an executive with the Conference Board, a research group that provides insights for businesses, said that the board needs “to think about the person actually joining an existing team and that’s something that a lot of boards don’t actually do,”. A better approach is to think about overarching succession planning that involves the entire team, not just a laser focus on replacing one person, he said.