EXECUTIVE BIOGRAPHY
Nationally recognized and respected C-Suite officer, advisor and counsel for fast-paced large and mid-cap multi-national corporations undergoing significant growth, innovation and transformation.
With 25 years of experience guiding small and large public and private organizations through significant growth and financial and operational transitions, Denise is known as an energetic and forward-looking leader who thrives in challenging environments.
Denise currently serves as agilon health, inc. Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary where she leads global corporate governance, enterprise risk, corporate transactions, compliance, and regulatory affairs. Since joining agilon, Denise has led this multinational rapidly growing $5B global NYSE healthcare company through significant change in a highly regulated environment with a strong focus on technology, data and multi-state partnerships. Denise is a trusted boardroom advisor and director on several of agilon’s subsidiaries and domestic operating companies.
Denise brings more than 15 years of non-profit board service, including service in various leadership roles. She has also guided public boards on critical strategic, operational matters and risk management. Through her years of service, Denise has developed expertise in corporate governance, executive compensation, board risk oversight, enterprise risk and ESG. Her experience also includes supporting the board through director, CFO and other leadership searches and succession planning. Denise regularly advises on a variety of complex topics, including shareholder activism, cybersecurity risk, crisis management, and best-in-class corporate governance policies and procedures to assist the board in carrying out its fiduciary duties.
Denise joined agilon health, inc. from UnitedHealth Group where she served as Optum Deputy General Counsel leading a team of attorneys and non-attorney professionals providing operational and strategic support and guidance to physician groups and healthcare executives on a broad array of areas including critical strategy development, identification and leveraging of high-profile risks and opportunities, regulatory guidance, mergers and acquisitions, state regulation of risk-bearing entities, compliance with corporate practice of medicine, privacy and employment law. Prior to Optum, Denise led a team at UnitedHealthcare in the coordination and management of nationwide legal, regulatory and compliance matters related to all lines of health insurance business where she advised insurance business units on issues related to antitrust, bankruptcy, behavioral health, claims reimbursement, contract disputes, employment, ERISA, Medicare, Medicaid, member privacy and provider disputes. She supported provider network and contract negotiation teams and led projects related to interoperability, budget, legal spend and law firm diversity.
In addition to her service on several non-profit boards, Denise is a frequent speaker on topics such as enterprise risk, leadership, healthcare, corporate governance, compliance, company culture, and diversity and inclusion. She has been an active member of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD), CHIEF, Tech GC, Society of Corporate Governance and several national healthcare and legal member organizations. She founded the UnitedHealthcare annual diverse 1L summer internship program and previously served as Chair of UnitedHealth Group’s Diversity & Inclusion Council and was selected by UHG Chief Legal Officer as a 2013 Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) Fellow and a 2017-18 UHG Emerging Leader. She continues her commitment to diversity at agilon health, serving as the Executive Sponsor to the Pride@agilon LGBTQI+ Employee Resource Group, as well as being actively involved in many other diversity activities at the organization related to mentorship, sponsorship, education and recruiting.
Denise is an active member of her community and serves as a mentor to high school and college students. She serves as a board member of the Connecticut Bar Foundation, a foundation dedicated to promoting equal access to justice; as a board member of the Hartford Promise Scholars program, a nonprofit organization focused on high school and college success for Hartford public school students, and as a board member of the Connecticut Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel. She is an active member of the Georgetown University Alumni Admissions Program and has received numerous award and distinctions for her commitment to diversity and the practice of law.
Prior to moving in-house to UnitedHealth Group, Denise completed a two-year federal clerkship and practiced complex commercial litigation at large multinational law firms. She received her J.D. from Columbia Law School and her B.A. in government from Georgetown University.
She and her family reside in Connecticut.