Christopher H. Hunter
Chief Executive Officer
Chris Hunter has served as the CEO of Acadia Healthcare since April 2022. Acadia is the largest stand-alone behavioral health company in the United States, operating a network of 246 behavioral healthcare facilities in 40 states and Puerto Rico. The company has over 22,500 employees serving approximately 75,000 patients daily across 4 service lines.
Prior to joining Acadia, Mr. Hunter served as President of the Group and Military business at Humana, a $7B+ revenue business, where he was responsible for driving the growth and profitability of Humana’s Employer Group products including medical, specialty and wellness offerings. In addition, Mr. Hunter was responsible for Humana’s Military Business, the largest Medical Services contractor for active duty and retired military and eligible family members through the Defense Health Agency. In this role, he oversaw nearly 20 million members in 45 states.
From 2014-2018, Mr. Hunter served as Humana’s Chief Strategy Officer, with responsibility for leading Humana’s corporate strategy, as well as setting the direction of the company’s merger and acquisition, joint venture and partnership activities. He has extensive executive experience with both public and private growth companies and brings broad knowledge of the healthcare industry to his role at Acadia. His experience ranges from leadership of strategic planning and corporate development to responsibilities that included broad P&L and Board of Directors accountability.
Prior to starting with Humana in 2014, Mr. Hunter was President of Provider Markets at TriZetto, a Denver-based health IT software/services firm serving more than 200,000 providers. He helped take the company private (NASDAQ:TZIX) in 2008. Previously, he served on the executive leadership team at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee between 2004-2012.
Mr. Hunter earned a bachelor’s degree with highest honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He currently serves on the Boards of AfterNext HealthTech (NYSE:AFTR) and the Honors Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
