William W McGuire

Born in Troy, N.Y., Dr. McGuire and his family moved to League City, Texas, when he was a child. Upon graduating from the University of Texas at Austin in 1970, he enrolled in UTMB’s School of Medicine. He married his UT Austin sweetheart, Nadine, in 1971 and received his medical degree in 1974, graduating with highest honors. After completing his internship in internal medicine at UTMB in 1975, Dr. McGuire was an internal medicine resident, chief resident and pulmonary fellow at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. Following his graduate training, he joined the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in 1978, where he conducted basic research on immunopathology of the lung. Leaving academia, he and Nadine moved to Colorado Springs in 1980 where, board-certified in pulmonary and internal medicine, he worked as a critical care and pulmonary medicine specialist. Dr. McGuire soon became involved with the Colorado Foundation of Medical Care and its Quality Assurance Committee. This experience spurred his involvement with a local health plan in the early days of health maintenance organizations. After leaving his clinical practice in 1986 to work in that arena, he was named executive vice president of United HealthCare Corporation in Minneapolis in 1988 and became chairman and chief executive officer in 1991. In 1996, he and Nadine established the William W. McGuire and Nadine M. McGuire Family Foundation, which provides support for education, the arts, medical research, and biodiversity and the environment.