Kent Thiry, who has been active in Colorado political causes while leading one of the state’s largest corporations, will step down as chief executive officer of Denver-based DaVita Inc. on June 1, the company announced Monday.

Thiry, who also serves as chairman of the health care company, will stay on as executive chairman, the company said.

DaVita named Javier Rodriguez as its next CEO starting June 1. Rodriguez has led DaVita’s core kidney-dialysis business since March 2014.

Thiry has been DaVita’s chief executive since 1999. The company moved its headquarters to Denver from southern California a decade ago.

Thiry has been tapped to help lead Colorado’s proposed November ballot initiative to raise taxes on tobacco and vaping, and took part in last week’s announcement of the plan by Gov. Jared Polis.

He also helped lead last year’s successful campaign to pass a pair of ballot measures reforming the way Colorado draws its congressional and legislative boundaries.

He considered running for Colorado governor in the last election, but announced in 2017 that he would not enter the 2018 race, instead turning his political efforts to backing “centrist candidates” and “common-sense causes.”

“I am deeply grateful for my opportunity to be a part of the DaVita journey, with thousands of teammates for whom I have immense respect and affection,” Thiry said in Monday’s announcement. “We have done so many wonderful things for patients and their families.

“I am excited that Javier Rodriguez, with whom I have partnered for 20 years, will succeed me. The Village is in a strong position for the next chapter, and Javier is the right person to build on our foundation and take us to the next level of clinical and economic performance,” he added, using the company’s nickname for itself.

As Colorado Politics’ Marianne Goodland noted in her “winners and losers” analysis after the 2018 election, Thiry “didn’t wind up running for governor – despite registering as a Republican and making noise last year about funding his own campaign – but he might have left as much of a mark on the state’s political landscape as anyone.

“After paying to support a ballot measure in the last election that allows unaffiliated voters to participate in Republican and Democratic primaries, Thiry led the charge this year on a pair of proposals to change the way the state draws congressional and legislative boundaries after every census,” Goodland noted.

“Unaffiliated voters turned out in droves in the June [2018] primaries – with more opting for the Democratic ballot than the Republican one – and repeated the feat in the general election, proving that unaffiliated doesn’t mean uninterested or uninvolved.”

“Amendments Y and Z, referred to the ballot unanimously by lawmakers after Thiry and a competing group hashed out compromise measures, passed by big majorities in an election when voters didn’t pull the lever in favor of many proposals,” Goodland said.

DaVita ranks at No. 179 in the Fortune 500 list of the nation’s largest companies, with annual revenue of $16 billion. It employs 74,500 workers companywide and operates nearly 3,000 kidney dialysis centers in 10 nations.

Peter Grauer, the company’s lead independent director, praised Thiry for his “vision and leadership as CEO and the extraordinary culture he helped create. Under his leadership, DaVita has grown to be one of the largest and most innovative health care communities in the world.”