Andrew Agwunobi is departing his dual roles as interim president of the University of Connecticut and CEO of UConn Health for a job with health insurance company Humana, university officials announced Friday morning.
“It has been an honor to serve as CEO of UConn Health and as interim president of this amazing university,” Agwunobi said in a statement provided to the media by UConn spokesperson Stephanie Reitz. “I had no plans to leave UConn, but a unique and unexpected opportunity in the private sector presented itself and while I am excited about this new chapter, the decision to leave UConn was a difficult one. I am immensely grateful for my time at UConn and UConn Health and I wish the board of trustees, the UConn Health board of directors, my colleagues and our faculty, staff and students all the best.”
On Friday morning, Humana announced it hired Agwunobi as president of its home solutions business and that he would report directly to the Louisville, Kentucky-based company’s President and CEO Bruce Broussard.
UConn’s board of trustees said it will meet Jan. 26 and expects to appoint the school’s vice president for research, innovation and entrepreneurship, Radenka Maric, interim president effective Feb. 1. The current dean of the UConn School of Medicine, Bruce Liang, is expected to be named interim CEO of UConn Health, also on the first of next month.
Agwunobi, who stepped in to replace Thomas Katsouleas as interim head of UConn after Katsouleas’s abrupt resignation last year, will remain on the job until Feb. 20.
Board Chair Daniel Toscano said a national search for a new, permanent president will begin immediately, with the goal of naming UConn’s next president by this fall.
Agwunobi, a pediatrician by training, previously held hospital system leadership jobs in Washington and Georgia before assuming his current role at UConn in 2015.
