Paul Mango, a former Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate and senior health official during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term who was advising on the current transition, has died.
Mango’s death was confirmed Thursday afternoon by his current employer, the Paragon Health Institute.
“Paul was a mentor and friend who dedicated his life to serving his country, who led a life of amazing accomplishment, and who will be dearly missed,” Brian Blase, Paragon’s president, said in a statement to POLITICO. “Professionally, Paul’s unmatched leadership and management skills and attention to detail were instrumental in the success of Operation Warp Speed, saving many Americans’ lives.”
A longtime health care consultant, Mango spent three years in the Trump administration, including as deputy chief of staff at the Department of Health and Human Services. He played a central role in the creation of Operation Warp Speed, the federal initiative designed to accelerate the development of a Covid-19 vaccine during the pandemic’s early days.
Mango later touted Warp Speed, which helped generate two vaccines for the disease in less than a year, as an unprecedented example of cross-government collaboration and efficiency in an inside account of the vaccine sprint that he published in 2022.
“Leaders within business, professional sports, government and politics know that talent and teamwork are often at odds with each other,” he wrote in Warp Speed: Inside the Operation That Beat Covid, the Critics and the Odds. “Operation Warp Speed was totally different, and the difference started at the top.”
Mango was tapped to help the Trump campaign with transition plans for the federal health department after he won reelection in November.
He had been on the short list to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, one of the department’s largest agencies, during Trump’s second term. He was also floated as a potential deputy secretary.
He most recently was an adviser at Paragon, a conservative think tank.
Prior to joining the first Trump administration, Mango ran an unsuccessful campaign for Pennsylvania governor in 2018, losing in the GOP primary to the eventual Republican nominee, Scott Wagner.
A military veteran, Mango spent nearly three decades as a consultant at McKinsey, eventually leading its health care practice.
David Lim contributed to this report.
