Delta Dental Names Nilesh Patel Group Vice President, Enterprise Operations

Business Wire, Sept 25, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO -- The holding company system that includes Delta Dental of California, Pennsylvania and affiliates announced today the appointment of Nilesh Patel as group vice president, enterprise operations.

Patel will oversee operations throughout the enterprise, whose affiliated companies cover 21 million subscribers in a total of 16 states plus the District of Columbia.

Patel comes to Delta Dental with extensive dental benefits industry experience, most recently as president of California's dental and vision programs for UnitedHealth Group/Spectera UnitedHealthcare Dental. Prior to that, he held a number of leadership positions, including executive vice president and CFO, operations and finance, at PacificDental Benefits, Inc.

Patel is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine, where he received a bachelor's degree in economics with a minor in business administration.

"The group vice president of operations is a new position focused on the development of our next generation claims processing system, which unifies all of our claims and service centers," said Anthony S. Barth, Delta Dental's chief operating officer. "Nilesh brings a tremendous degree of knowledge, experience and success in addressing precisely this kind of large scale project."

Last year, Delta Dental's holding company system processed an estimated 30.1 million claims, and paid $4.1 billion in total dental expenses throughout the country.