Eric D. Hargan is the Founder and CEO of The Hargan Group, a full-service consulting firm with unparalleled experience offering regulatory guidance, public health innovations and strategic public policy solutions. He has 30 years of experience working for the public and private sectors and unique insight and experience working for the United States Government.
 
Hargan served as the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from 2017 to 2021, as well as Acting Secretary in 2017-2018. From 2003 to 2007, Mr. Hargan also served at HHS in a variety of capacities, including holding the position of Acting Deputy Secretary.
 
Beginning in the Spring of 2020, he served on the Board of Operation Warp Speed coordinating HHS agencies and working with multiple public and private sector entities to facilitate efforts across the entire endeavor in developing vaccines and therapeutics.
 
With over 80,000 employees across 26 divisions, HHS is the largest department in the federal government and has an annual budget in excess of $1.3 trillion. As Deputy Secretary, Hargan oversaw the development and approval of all HHS, CMS, and FDA regulations and significant guidances; as well as the day-to-day operations and management of the department, while leading policy and strategy development. In March 2020, he launched the $175 billion Provider Relief Fund. Hargan convened the HHS-White House team, coordinating with HRSA to administer, and United Health Group to service the fund’s operations, resulting in $26 billion in relief sent to providers in under two weeks from passage of the CARES Act.
 
In between his times at HHS, Mr. Hargan was a practicing attorney specializing in healthcare regulation, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, and government relations. Hargan received his B.A. cum laude from Harvard University, and his J.D. from Columbia University Law School, where he was Senior Editor of the Columbia Law Review.
 
He is an Adjunct Professor of Management at Vanderbilt University and Fellow of the Center for Healthcare Market Innovation in the Owen Graduate School of Management.

 

He currently serves on the boards of University Hospitals, based in Cleveland, Ohio; Alio Medical, based in San Francisco, California; Tomorrow Health, based in New York, New York; HealthTrackRx, based in Denton, TX; and SIU Medicine Department of Population Science and Policy, based in Springfield, IL. He is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation and is a Fellow of the Health Evolution Forum.
 
Mr. Hargan was born and raised in Mounds, Illinois, and lives in Virginia with his wife, Emily, and their two sons.