US healthcare provider HealthPartners has hired Sarah Karlgaard as chief legal officer, replacing general counsel Nancy Evert, who recently retired.
Karlgaard joins from Fujifilm’s North American business, where she was GC. She brings two decades of legal experience across health services, care delivery and medical device organisations.
At HealthPartners, she will be oversee all legal, clinical risk management, integrity and compliance, physical security and sustainability matters, while working alongside executive and operational leaders on strategic issues.
Minneapolis-based HealthPartners operates hospitals and clinics, health plans and a research and education institute. It serves more than 1.4 million patients in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Andrea Walsh, HealthPartners president and CEO, said: “[Karlgaard] is a collaborative leader with strong expertise in navigating complex legal and regulatory environments. Her perspective and partnership will help us advance our mission while continuing to innovate and improve the care experience.”
Karlgaard spent just under four years at Fujifilm Holdings America Corporation, having previously been GC at Canon Medical Informatics for three years before that. She also had in-house spells at Allina Health (as senior associate GC) and OptumInsight (as associate GC).
She started her career in private practice at Lockridge Grindal Nauen.
Evert, meanwhile, retires after more than 21 years with HealthPartners, becoming GC in 2019. Earlier in her career she worked in private practice at Dorsey & Whitney as well as in-house at Allina Hospitals & Clinics.
In other recent health-related moves, in April US biopharma company Avalyn Pharma hired Freshfields’ global head of life sciences Adam Golden as GC, ahead of its plans to go public.
Also in April, commercial-stage biopharma company Ardelyx hired Felecia Ettenberg as CLO from Bristol Myers Squibb, replacing Elizabeth Grammer in the role, while Dublin headquartered late-stage clinical biotech company Prothena promoted deputy GC Michael Isaacs to GC, succeeding Michael Malecek.
In March, US medtech business QuidelOrtho hired STAAR Surgical legal head Nathaniel Sisitsky as CLO, replacing Michelle Hodges who was retiring.
And in February, US medtech giant Becton Dickinson hired Walgreens Boots Alliance CLO Lanesha Minnix as GC, filling the seat left vacant by Michelle Quinn’s departure for Medtronic in July last year.
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