Dan Gentry

My parents put a RadioShack TRS-80 Color Computer under the Christmas tree in 1980, and I wrote my first BASIC program before the wrapping paper was cleaned up. I've been in computers ever since. At nineteen that meant the Air Force, operating the mainframes that flew weather satellites for the U.S. military. No degree — everything since has been learned by building: a corporate intranet from scratch in the 90s, a four-year run as my own boss in insurance and real estate, then seventeen years at UnitedHealth Group going from developer to senior director, one shipped system at a time.

Today I lead a 35-person product and engineering organization at one of the largest healthcare companies in the country, where my teams run the platforms and I run the operating model — including our first fully AI-integrated development team.

Along the way I gave a TEDx talk, wrote a book, and have hosted a podcast for eight years. The thread through all of it is a distinction I call Machine Work vs. Meaning Work: technology should absorb the repetitive so people can do the human. That's not a slogan to me. It's how I run teams.

I live in Ocala, Florida, with my wife. Five kids and five grandkids later, I have very concrete reasons to care about giving people their time back.