Gambling exec Gary Loveman to join Aetna
Loveman left Caesars Entertainment in June as the gambling giant waded into a thorny bankruptcy proceeding.
Aetna Inc. announced that Gary Loveman, former CEO, president and chairman at Caesars Entertainment Corp., will join the company's executive committee and senior leadership team.
Loveman will become executive vice president and president of Healthagen health services, which oversees population health, clinical care management and consumer insight capabilities.
Also, Rick Jelinek, a former executive at UnitedHealth Group, will become an executive vice president responsible for the Aetna-Humana integration and Aetna’s enterprise strategy.
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Jelinek will replace Joe Zubretsky, Healthagen's senior vice president, who is leaving Aetna after nearly nine years. His tenure included stints as head of Aetna's national businesses unit and its chief financial officer.
A statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission said Loveman and Jelinek will report to chairman and CEO Mark Bertolini.
“I am delighted to welcome Gary and Rick to Aetna at an exciting, important time for our company,” Bertolini said. “Their leadership and expertise will help us to take full advantage of the many opportunities before us as we pursue our mission of building a healthier world.”
Loveman, a former Harvard Business School professor who resides in the Boston area, resigned in late June from the gambling giant after 12 years. The parting came as Las Vegas and legalized gambling worldwide are fighting slumping revenues. Caesar's largest unit, Caesars Entertainment Operating Co., filed for bankruptcy early this year.
Loveman is widely credited with pioneering a loyalty program that helped its casinos track customers and the giveaways that brought them back quickly to the slots and gaming tables.
“We use database marketing and decision-science-based analytical tools to widen the gap between us and casino operators who base their customer incentives more on intuition than evidence,” Loveman is quoted as saying in 2003 to the Harvard Business Review.
Reporter Grace Schneider can be reached at 502-582-4082 or by email at gschneider@courier-journal.com.