David Smith

David Smith is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Third Horizon, where he oversees the firm’s strategic direction, client engagement, business development, finance, and organizational operations. He also hosts The Cost of Care podcast, produced with Lemonada Media, which has surpassed 1.5 million downloads and ranks among the top health and wellness podcasts globally. Since founding Third Horizon in 2018, he has grown the organization to 28 full-time professionals while leading engagements spanning behavioral health transformation, payment innovation, and market analytics for government agencies, payers, providers, and community organizations nationwide.

David brings 16 years of experience in health care strategy, payment reform, coalition building, and systems transformation. His expertise includes health care economics, strategic planning, alternative payment model design, facilitation, and cross-sector collaboration.

Prior to founding Third Horizon, David spent eight years at Leavitt Partners, where he served as Chief Development Officer alongside former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt. During his tenure, he organized and facilitated 11 cross-sector alliances focused on federal health policy reform, coordinated strategic planning initiatives for more than 30 organizations, and delivered over 100 national speaking engagements on health care transformation. He also served as an original convener of the Alliance for Addiction Payment Reform and co-created the Medicaid Transformation Project with former CMS Administrator Andy Slavitt, bringing together 27 health systems to advance payment and delivery reform initiatives.

David earned a Master of Statistics from the University of Utah and a Bachelor of Business Management from Utah Valley University.