Steve Nelson, CEO of UnitedHealthcare’s West Region, Joins ABL Organization

Orange, CA — July 23, 2009 — Steve Nelson, CEO of the West Region of UnitedHealthcare, a UnitedHealth Group company, has joined the Adaptive Business Leaders Organization (ABL). As part of California’s leading vertical-industry Chief Executives’ Organization, ABL Members provide one another with executive leadership coaching through its confidential, professionally-facilitated, peer-CEO Advisory Board Round Tables, executive learning workshops, network of CEO peers, and expert resources.

Steve is responsible for UnitedHealthcare’s commercial health plan operations in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington. UnitedHealthcare is an operating division of UnitedHealth Group, the largest single health carrier in the United States. UnitedHealthcare's nationwide network includes 589,000 physicians and healthcare professionals, 80,000 dentists and 4,920 hospitals. Its pharmaceutical management programs provide more affordable access to drugs for 13 million people. UnitedHealth Group is a diversified health and well-being company dedicated to making healthcare work better. Headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, UnitedHealth Group offers a broad spectrum of products and services through six operating businesses: UnitedHealthcare, Ovations, AmeriChoice, OptumHealth, Ingenix, and Prescription Solutions. Through its family of businesses, UnitedHealth Group serves more than 70 million individuals nationwide.

Over a 20-year period, Steve held numerous management and executive positions with a variety of healthcare organizations, including publicly traded national health insurance companies and non-for-profit healthcare systems. He assumed his current role in August 2008. Prior to that, he was President of AmeriChoice, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, in Minnesota. Earlier, he was President of the Eastern Region and President of the Senior Products Division at HealthNet. He also served in a variety of executive roles over a ten-year period at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan.

Steve earned his BA degree in Biology from Portland State University in 1984, and Masters degrees in both Health Services Administration and in Business Administration from the University of Michigan in 1988. Steve is an avid outdoorsman and currently resides with his family in Phoenix, Arizona.

About the Adaptive Business Leaders (ABL) Organization
ABL supports the needs of its Member CEOs by providing a place for top-level executives to draw on the experience, knowledge and skill sets of their peers in a vertical industry, personal advisory board – “multi-coach approach” – setting.

The core component of the CEO Membership experience is the group Round Table meeting. Members meet once a month for a half-day with a group of peer CEOs, Presidents, COOs and Division General Managers from non-competing companies, all from the same industry (healthcare, technology or life sciences), in a trusted and confidential board room-like setting, which allows ABL Members to tackle topics and enhance their decision making and business performance. Topics include: developing and honing new business strategies and best practices, new lines of business, “A-players” on the management team, and an effective board of directors, as well as understanding trends in new markets, mergers and acquisitions, compensation, and other “hot” topics brought to the Round Tables by the Members themselves.

ABL Members also gather several times a year at workshops and conferences to exchange ideas and connect with other chief executives beyond their own CEO peer groups. In effect, ABL Members serve as one another’s business coaches within the Round Tables and are encouraged to connect and leverage their co-Member peers’ particular skills and expertise for additional leadership coaching, one-on-one, outside of their monthly group meeting. In addition, each Round Table’s facilitator also serves as an objective business advisor, offering executive and industry insights and advice.

 ABL's Chief Executive Leadership Development Round Table program is currently offered in California's Greater Los Angeles, Orange and San Francisco County areas. More information about the ABL Organization can be found at http://www.abl.org .