Kent Thiry
TNC Global Board Member and Former CEO & Executive Chairman of DaVita
Denver, CO
Kent Thiry TNC global board member and former CEO and Executive Chairman of DaVita. © Courtesy of Kent Thiry
Areas of Expertise
Corporate and Organizational Culture, Policy, Strategic Planning
Board Term
June 2019 - October 2029Biography
Kent Thiry (KT) was CEO of DaVita from 1999 to 2019, a Fortune 250 company with 70,000 teammates across 12 countries. He stepped down as Executive Chair in June 2020. During this time, DaVita:
DaVita has been the subject of leadership and culture case studies written by both Harvard and Stanford. Kent is regularly invited to speak on these subjects at top universities, companies, and not-for-profit leadership groups.
Kent made a public pledge in 2015 that DaVita would be one of the first Fortune 500 companies to have a majority diverse board. They fulfilled that pledge in 2016.
He is significantly involved in the national US Democracy Renewal Movement and has successfully led 5 major statewide ballot initiatives in Colorado in the last 6 years. Examples include: redistricting reform, open primaries, and fiscal reform. Each involved unusually broad “tri-partisan” coalitions (meaning both parties and independents).
KT serves on the global board of The Nature Conservancy. He also founded and chairs Colorado Thrives, a group consisting primarily of large Colorado company CEOs, which is focused on advancing economic mobility and the general wellbeing of Colorado and all its citizens. He is also a founding board member of Endeavor Colorado, an international entrepreneur network.
He is also the Founder and Chairman of AdvanceEDU, an innovative college focused on providing job competency and extensive support services to low-income students. Kent was Founding Chair of the Colorado Gap Fund and Fundraising Chair for the Climber Fund; together these two funds have raised over $50 million to help small businesses (owned by women, people of color, veterans and rural citizens) survive Covid.
Prior board seats include the Harvard Business School Advisory Board, Oxford Health Plan and Varian. He is an advisor/coach for multiple CEOs. He also serves as an advisor for KKR, Partners Group, and Techstars. He sits on the board of SonderMind. Earlier in his career, he was Partner at Bain & Company.
He earned his BA in Political Science, with distinction and Phi Beta Kappa, from Stanford University. He earned his MBA, with honors, from Harvard Business School. KT is married to Denise O’Leary, has two children and is an enthusiastic but modestly capable mountain biker and backpacker.