Former Cigna Global Chief Compliance Officer Tom O’Neil Joins BRG

A governance, compliance and risk management thought leader, O’Neil has a successful record of accelerating cultural transformations and restoring trust with regulators, enforcement officials and investors.

BRG announced today that Tom O’Neil has joined the firm as a Washington, DC-based managing director in its Health Analytics practice. He is a highly respected adviser and corporate director with broad private- and public-sector experience, including leadership roles in the boardrooms and C-suites of companies in the consumer, financial services and healthcare sectors. As a governance, compliance and risk management thought leader, he collaborates with financial sponsors, corporate boards and leadership teams to drive ethical and sustainable growth through disruptive innovation and fulfillment of stakeholder expectations.

“Over the past decade, I’ve had the pleasure of working with BRG professionals in a number of complex governance, compliance and regulatory enforcement matters,” said O’Neil. “The firm provides a unique and powerful platform for advising clients on how best to navigate successfully those challenging situations, which often present enterprise reputational risks. BRG’s extraordinary breadth of expertise, highly collaborative culture and deep commitment to superior client service made this a tremendous opportunity at this stage of my career. I’m excited to work with such a deep bench of world-class experts.”

During a distinguished career spanning several decades, O’Neil has developed an exceptional record of accelerating cultural transformation and restoring trust with regulators, enforcement officials and investors. He has chaired the audit and risk oversight; ethics and compliance; and nominating and governance committees of corporate and mutual fund boards. In his most recent corporate role, he was the global chief compliance officer of Cigna Corporation, a leading health service company with over 70,000 employees and approximately $160 billion in top-line revenue. He has held a number of other positions in public companies, including executive vice chairman, general counsel and secretary of WellCare Health Plans, Inc. and senior vice president and general counsel of the MCI Group. O’Neil also has been a partner at two global law firms: DLA Piper LLP (US) and Hogan & Hartson (now Hogan Lovells US LLP). During his tenure at DLA Piper, he was a joint global practice group leader and chaired the US Government Affairs practice group.

“We are delighted to have Tom join us,” said BRG Principal Executive Officer and President Tri MacDonald. “Tom thrives in high-growth, turnaround, restructuring and crisis settings and is well positioned to advise clients navigating uncertain environments.”

O’Neil was the founder and president of The Saranac Group LLC, a strategic consulting firm that provides healthcare governance and compliance advice to boards of directors, senior management teams and private equity firms, which is now affiliated with BRG. Earlier in his career, he served as an Assistant US Attorney in the District of Maryland, a law clerk to US District Judge Alexander Harvey II and a legislative assistant to former Congressman Stewart B. McKinney. He received his AB (magna cum laude) from Dartmouth College and his JD from Georgetown University.

As an adjunct professor of law, O’Neil has taught corporate governance at Georgetown University. He is a former member of the school’s Board of Regents, the Board of Visitors of the Georgetown University Law Center and the Board of Trustees of the Walters Art Museum. He also served as co-chair of the Advisory Board of the Georgetown Corporate Counsel Institute.