Kent Thiry stepped down as Executive Chair of DaVita in June 2020. During this time, DaVita:

1. Grew revenues from approximately $1 billion to $11 billion
2. Emerged as the leading clinical innovator in the kidney care community, and a leader in clinical outcomes generally

DaVita is known for a distinctively engaged culture and for developing well-rounded general managers and leaders. 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, and they fulfilled that pledge in 2016.

He is significantly involved in the national U.S. democracy movement and has been a leader in seven successful statewide ballot initiatives across three states. 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 for all its citizens. He co-founded The Aspen Group with Senators Bill Frist and Tom Daschle, a group dedicated to non-partisan healthcare reform. He is also a founding board member of Colorado Endeavor, an international entrepreneurial 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 $80 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 to KKR, The Partners Group, Techstars, and Guild. He also sits on the board of SonderMind and serves as a coach for a group of younger CEOs.

Earlier in his career, Kent served as Chairman and CEO of Vivra and 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.

Kent received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Denver Corporate Citizenship in 2013. In 2016 he received the International Bridge Builders Award from the University of Denver. In 2020, he received the Governor’s Citizenship Medal for Growth & Innovation.

KT is married to Denise O’Leary, has two children, and is an enthusiastic but modestly capable mountain biker and backpacker.