Stephen Hemsley, the board chair and CEO of UnitedHealth Group, for years invested in health care startups that do business with or even compete against UnitedHealth, The Wall Street Journal reported. UnitedHealth shareholders were not told about these investments, which totaled tens of millions of dollars.
Hemsley stepped down after serving as the company's CEO for more than a decade but returned last spring after UnitedHealth dealt with a massive cyberattack, the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and various legal and regulatory issues. While serving as board chair in 2019, he founded the investment firm Cloverfields Capital Group, which he still owns.
According to the Journal, Cloverfields and affiliated entities have purchased stakes in privately held health care startups. These include a variety of interests, including a vaccine administration company that did business with UnitedHealth and a digital health services provider. Business ethics experts said these private investments create the potential for conflicts of interest.
UnitedHealth told the Journal that Cloverfield is a family office firm as well as an investment advisor. Hemsley maintains a diversified portfolio of public and private investments, it said, and in the "vast majority" of cases, he owns 5% or less of these health care companies and he doesn't have a controlling interest.
The company announced when Hemsley returned to UnitedHealth last year that he had transferred all of his personal ownership interests in health care-related companies to a newly established trust and recused himself from corporate decisions related to those interests. Hemsley is prohibited from participating in decisions made by the trust's independent trustees, which "aligns with established models for avoiding potential conflicts of interest," it added.
UnitedHealth hasn't publicly disclosed any information about the private health care investments tied to Hemsley or about the trust. It also didn't respond to the Journal's request to share trust documents or disclose whether the trust is "blind," which would prevent Hemsley from knowing which assets were being bought or sold.
UnitedHealth sought health care investments while Hemsley was board chair and privately investing in small health care entities. Optum, the company's venture capital affiliate, took stakes in more than 60 small health care companies from 2018 to 2025, according to its website.
UnitedHealth's conflict-of-interest and related-person transactions policies require disclosure to the board and its approval for any investment in the health care industry by a director. "Mr. Hemsley continues to comply fully with UnitedHealth Group's conflict-of-interest and trading policies, as well as all applicable SEC and other regulatory requirements," the company said in a statement.
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