The general counsel at Bright Health Group intends to retire this summer and will relinquish his post at the end of the week, the second announced departure in recent months among top executives at the Bloomington-based health insurer.
Bright Health Group general counsel stepping down, second executive departure in 2022
Bloomington-based health insurer has announced two exits by top executives in two months amid plunging share price.
March 16, 2022 at 1:54PM
Keith Nelsen will step down as general counsel and corporate secretary effective March 18, Bright Health Group said in a regulatory filing Tuesday. Nelsen will stay on with the company until June 30 to help with the transition for the company's next top executive for legal matters.
In February, Bright Health announced that Simeon Schindelman, who led the company's insurance division, would step down on March 11.
The leadership changes come at a rocky time for Bright Health, which earlier this month saw its share price plunge with the release of disappointing fourth quarter financial results. Two days later, the company told the Star Tribune it was cutting about 150 jobs, or 5% of its workforce.
The stock saw similarly large drops last year after reporting second and third quarter results — the only other quarterly earnings reports issued by Bright Health since the company went public last summer. The insurer raised $924 million through Minnesota's largest-ever initial public offering.
Schindelman is being replaced by interim chief executive Jay Matushak, who was the division's chief financial officer. Jeff Craig, currently a vice president in the company's legal division, will succeed Nelsen.
In December, Bright Health group awarded retention equity awards to five top executives including Nelson and Schindelman.
In last year's IPO, Bright Health sold 51.35 million shares at $18 per share — less than the 67.2 million shares it expected to sell in the range of $20 to $23 per share. In its first day of trading in June, the stock closed at $16.47, down 8.5%
On Wednesday, the stock traded up 1% to close at $2.11.
New York-based Oscar Health, another health insurer that went public in 2021, also has seen its share price plunge over the past year, falling from the IPO price of $39 per share to $8.15 at the end of trading Wednesday.
With supplier issue now resolved, the Minnesota-run medtech company expects to “reach and then exceed” market growth in the fast-growing sector for “pulsed field” atrial fibrillation treatments.
