Gov. John Hickenlooper will nominate Kaiser Foundation Health Plan executive Donna Lynne to replace Joe Garcia as Colorado’s lieutenant governor, sources close to the governor confirm. Hickenlooper plans to introduce Lynne at a news conference at 11:30 a.m. Friday at the state Capitol.

Lynne is executive vice president of the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and is group president responsible for Kaiser’s Colorado, Pacific Northwest and Hawaii regions. She hasn’t held elected office before but spent two decades working in various government positions in New York City, including as deputy commissioner of the Office of Labor Relations, director of the Mayor’s Office of Operations and senior vice president of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. She co-chairs the Denver Education Compact Executive Advisory Board for Denver Mayor Michael Hancock.

Garcia announced in November he wanted to start work as president of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, a Boulder-based advocacy organization, and would be stepping down before July 1. The Pueblo Democrat, who also serves as executive director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education, has twice won election as Hickenlooper’s lieutenant governor.

Hickenlooper’s nominee must be confirmed by a majority vote in both the House and Senate.

Calling Lynne “one of our state’s most prominent, energetic and effective business leaders,” former Senate Minority Leader Mike Kopp, executive director of Colorado Concern, praised the governor’s nomination of Lynne. “All of us at Colorado Concern are pleased to congratulate Donna Lynne on her appointment as our next lieutenant governor,” Kopp said. “Gov. Hickenlooper couldn’t have made a better choice. She has been a leader and innovator not only in the health care arena but as an advocate for policies that have helped make Colorado’s economic climate more vibrant.”

Lynne was executive vice president and CEO for Group Health Inc., a $2.5 billion managed care organization, from the late 1990s until 2005. In the mid-1990s, she was executive director of the New York Business Group on Health.

She serves on the boards of Colorado Education Initiative, Colorado Mountain Club, Colorado Regional Health Information Organization, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Denver Public Schools Foundation, Teach for America-Colorado, U.S. Bank Colorado Advisory Board and is the former chair of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.

Lynne has a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from the University of New Hampshire, a master’s degree in public administration from George Washington University and a doctorate in public health from Columbia University. She received an honorary doctorate of public service from the University of Denver in 2004. Since 2005, Dr. Lynne has been an Adjunct Associate Professor of Public Health at Columbia University.

She lives in Denver and has three children.

— ernest@coloradostatesman.com