St. Louis-based Centene Corp. (NYSE: CNC) has named former Magellan Health executive Jim Murray as its Chief Transformation Officer, the company announced Thursday.

In the new role, Murray will lead the company’s Value Creation Office and the Centene Advanced Behavioral Health division and will report to Centene Board Vice-Chair Sarah London.

Murray joins Centene following the company closing its $2.2 billion acquisition of Phoenix-based Magellan Health, where he served as the President and Chief Operating Officer and oversaw its Behavioral and Specialty Health and Magellan Complete Care business segments.

“Jim brings a wealth of experience and unique background in both managed care and the delivery side of healthcare, and he is well-positioned to lead our transformation efforts as part of our value creation plan we announced in June,” London said in a news release. “His leadership will be critical as we foster a culture of continuous improvement and drive excellence and innovation, all while remaining true to our mission of providing better health outcomes at lower costs.”

Prior to his roles at Magellan, Murray served as President of Dallas-based PrimeWest Health, which supports physician shift to value-based care, and as CEO of Dallas-based hospital system LifeCare HealthPartners. Murray was also executive vice president and chief operating officer for Louisville-based health insurance titan Humana Inc.

Centene’s take over of Magellan Health positions it to be a major force in the behavioral health space. In its closure announcement, Centene CEO Michael Neidorff said that the Magellan deal gives his company the foundation to “innovate and reimagine behavioral and specialty health” for its members.

The deal adds an estimated 41 million users to the behavioral health platform of Centene, which offers a mix of commercial and government-sponsored plans to almost 1 in 15 individuals nationwide.

The deal also adds Magellan’s $4.6 billion in revenue to Centene’s $111 billion in revenue. Both figures are for 2020 annual financial disclosures filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

About 96% of Centene’s 2020 revenue is tied to its managed care division, which provides managed care services to government health plans and to commercial health plans. The remaining 4% of its revenue comes from Centene’s specialty services division which sells to its managed care customers and other external clients, according to the company’s latest annual report.

Magellan also provides services to health plans, other managed care organizations and other organizations that offer health benefits. The company operates health care, pharmacy management and corporate divisions.

The health care division, called Magellan Healthcare, offers exclusively behavioral health and specialty services following the close of a separate deal with Long Beach, California-based Molina Healthcare a year ago. Closed Jan. 4, 2021, Centene sold its Magellan Complete Care to Molina Healthcare for about $1 billion.