Danny Mendoza

Entrepreneur-in-Residence

With over 20 years of leadership experience, Danny Mendoza’s focus is innovation by design. Danny served as a Digital and Innovation leader for The Cigna Group for the last decade. In this role Danny worked closely with business leaders, large employers, technology, and care-delivery partners to better understand the challenges in health care to improve or craft new, unimagined solutions. His work has introduced hyper-personalization of care and wellness for domestic U.S. and International Markets including the UK and Hong Kong. In this role, Danny forged partnerships with large and sophisticated employers exploring the needs of their populations, large technology partners and providers looking to collaborate on the future of care as well as new entrants wanting to prove the value of their ingenuity and innovation. As an intrapreneur, Danny led work focused on the futures of Digital, Virtual and Behavioral Health, Hybrid Workplace, Enterprise Learning and Precision Medicine. As Director of Technology Research and Development, Danny enabled business strategies by responsibly introducing new and emerging technologies to the health care industry and highlighting the need for trust, inclusivity, diversity and individualized value in how problems are examined and designed against.

Supporting communities through innovation is one of Danny’s greatest passions. Collaborating closely with local leaders to understand and represent the members of their community, their specific needs and the connections that spark change. Danny’s community-based innovation work has focused on Chicago and Hartford, mostly. For the City of Hartford, Danny has served as InsurTech Leader for several localized innovation efforts. Welcoming new founders, identifying and establishing opportunities for growth and partnerships that propel innovative ideas.

Prior to joining The Cigna Group, Danny co-founded TextStar, an Insurtech company focused on developing predictive models for safer driving and associated rewards. He has also held several leadership roles in Digital Technology and Design, delivering solutions for a wide range of industries including Defense, Finance, Automotive, Insurance, Beverage, Professional Sports and Fine Arts. Danny has a Bachelor of Science in Design from The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, where he graduated with honors and led the creation of a student-driven agency.

Danny enjoys crafting and improving experiences that are memorable and enhance the lives of others. Danny operates a Design Firm, DMBRAND, aimed at partnering with leaders looking to challenge their industries and introduce new innovation, from problem statement to solution design. He has recently co-founded The Zero ABV Project to help the Non-Alcoholic Beverage industry better understand the needs of its members through insights and digital strategies. This shift for the beverage industry represents social, behavioral and health improvements for our society.

In his personal life, Danny loves to serve others and prepare delicious meals. His Cuban-Guatemalan background and closeness to his family has helped infuse new flavors into the dishes he creates. Danny lives in Connecticut and enjoys spending time with family in Florida, Massachusetts and Vermont. Danny and his wife, Denise, have two young children who enjoy being immersed in the entrepreneurial spirit. Afterall, his wife Denise is also a CEO and Founder of their own company.