Delta Dental of Kansas and Surency today announced the appointment of Todd Barfield as Chief Legal Officer.
Barfield brings more than three decades of legal and business leadership across Fortune 100 companies, national law firms, and private equity-backed organizations. He has advised boards and executive teams on corporate governance, regulatory compliance, labor and employment, litigation, and strategy, and he has built legal departments from the ground up. Throughout his career he has been a business partner as much as a lawyer, helping lead initiatives that drove growth and innovation.
Most recently, Barfield served as Chief Legal Officer of Gateway Fiber, a fast-growing internet service provider, where he unified the legal and regulatory functions following a merger. Before that, he was the first Chief Legal Officer of WANRack, where he established the company’s legal function, developed its enterprise risk and compliance programs, and supported its expansion into new markets and services.
Earlier, Barfield spent nearly two decades at Sprint Corporation and T-Mobile. His work there covered corporate governance, employment matters, regulatory compliance, and corporate finance. He led legal teams on some of the largest transactions in telecommunications history, among them the combination of Sprint and T-Mobile, SoftBank’s strategic investment in Sprint, and Sprint’s acquisition of Nextel Communications. He began his career at the national law firms Dentons and Shook, Hardy & Bacon.
“Todd is a proven leader with extensive experience advising Boards and executive teams on nearly every issue a company can face,” said Dean Newton, President and CEO of Delta Dental of Kansas and Surency. “He has built high-performing legal teams from the ground up and guided organizations through heavily regulated industries. He will strengthen every part of our business and is an outstanding addition to our team.”
“I am honored to join Delta Dental of Kansas and Surency at such an exciting time,” said Barfield. “This high-growth organization has earned a reputation for service excellence, innovation and effortless user experiences. I look forward to working with the leadership team, our employees, providers, and partners to build on that record.”
Barfield earned his Juris Doctor, with distinction, from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, where he served as Articles Editor of the UMKC Law Review. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Missouri-Columbia and is admitted to practice in Kansas and Missouri.
About Delta Dental of Kansas and Surency
Delta Dental of Kansas and its subsidiary Surency provide ancillary benefit products to employers and individuals across 42 states. The company has nearly doubled in size over the past 15 years, driven by a mission to improve healthcare through affordable, quality benefits, effortless user experiences and exceptional service. That focus has produced industry-leading satisfaction ratings among consumers, employers, and brokers, along with national recognition as a Best Place to Work in Insurance, Company of the Year for insurance, and Most Innovative Company of the Year. Learn more at deltadentalks.com and surency.com.