UnitedHealth Group has named long-time executive Tim Noel as the new chief executive for its massive UnitedHealthcare health insurance business.

The announcement Thursday came a little more than seven weeks after the Dec. 4 murder of Brian Thompson, the UnitedHealthcare CEO who was killed in a fatal ambush on a New York City sidewalk.

In 2007, Noel joined the health insurance division at Eden Prairie-based UnitedHealth Group. He served most recently as CEO for UnitedHealthcare Medicare & Retirement, which includes the company’s Medicare Advantage health plans.

Noel takes the helm at the nation’s largest health insurer at a time of turmoil for the industry amid lingering questions about whether business practices wrongly delay or block care for too many patients. A group of faith-based shareholders at UnitedHealth Group announced this month a petition calling on the company to report on the human and economic toll from limiting or delaying access to health care.

“As a business leader, Tim views the path to success through a simple prism: Listen to employees and customers, focus on what they say matters most, then consistently and reliably deliver on those expectations. Every time. No exceptions,” Andrew Witty, the UnitedHealth Group CEO, wrote in a message to employees obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune.

“As a leader of teams and of people, Tim is a consummate collaborator,” Witty wrote. “He’s the first to tilt the spotlight onto others. He channels his energies into developing the people around him.”

Noel became CEO for the company’s Medicare business in 2021. He’s moved through a series of finance and operations roles, Witty wrote, over 18 years with the company.

UnitedHealth Group is the parent company to UnitedHealthcare, as well as a fast-growing health services business called Optum. It’s one of the largest companies in the country, with about 400,000 workers overall, including about 19,000 in Minnesota.

At the end of December, about 49.3 million people in the U.S. had health insurance from UnitedHealthcare, up from 47.2 million people at the end of 2023.

“Today, more people are choosing United, and many millions more continue to stay,” Witty wrote. “What they’re responding to are the many ways we’re working to make it easier for consumers to engage with their health care.”

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