Sandy Helton

Current public company boards: OptiNose

Prior public company boards: Covance Inc., Covetrus, Lexmark International Inc., Principal Financial Group

Executive Experience: Sandra L. Helton serves on the board of directors and chairs the audit committee of OptiNose, a specialty pharmaceutical company. She served on the board and nominating/governance committee, and chaired the audit committee of Covetrus, a global animal health technology and services company, until it was taken private in 2022. From 2001 to 2022 she served on the board of directors of Principal Financial Group, a global diversified financial institution, where she chaired the audit committee and finance committee, of which she was founding chair, and served on Principal’s executive committee. Prior to the 2016 acquisition of Lexmark International Inc., she served on its board of directors and finance and audit committee. Sandy also served on the board of Covance Inc., a leading global drug development services company, prior to its 2015 acquisition. She chaired the finance and audit committee and served on Covance’s nominating and governance committee.

Sandy brings a global business perspective, strategic and financial expertise, and corporate transformation experience from a variety of industries to the boards on which she serves. She is passionate about achieving long term value for investors through delivering innovative, high quality products and services to customers with a fully engaged workforce. She has been recognized for her board leadership, most recently when she was named one of NACD’s 2021 Directorship 100 honorees.

Sandy was executive vice president and chief financial officer, and member of the board of directors of Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. Her strategic leadership and focus on profitable growth delivered rapid doubling of returns and tripling of stock price. She envisioned and led organizational transformation. Sandy also served on the boards of United States Cellular Corporation and Aerial Corporation, TDS’s publicly traded subsidiaries.

Before TDS, Sandy was vice president, corporate controller of Compaq Computer Corporation. Prior to Compaq, she held over a dozen increasingly responsible positions with Corning Incorporated, progressing through a series of engineering, finance, and strategy roles to become senior vice president and treasurer of Corning, Inc.

Sandy currently serves on the board of Northwestern Memorial Foundation. She previously served on the Board of Northwestern Memorial Health Care, a nationally recognized academic medical center, where she chaired the audit committee and was a member of the executive, finance and investment committees. She has served in leadership positions on numerous non-profit boards, including chair of the Corning Foundation, president of the board of the Rockwell Museum, and member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art business council.

She is a member of the CAQ (Center for Audit Quality) steering committee, Central Audit Committee Network, National Association of Corporate Directors and its Risk Oversight Council, Women Corporate Directors, The Chicago Network, and International Women’s Forum.

Additional information: Sandy holds an SM in finance from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and graduated summa cum laude with a BS in mathematics from the University of Kentucky. In 2009 she was inducted into the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame.