Women's health company Tia unveiled key leadership changes as it ramps up its focus on operations and expanding its clinics.
Co-founder Carolyn Witte, who served as CEO since the company's founding eight years ago, is transitioning to chairwoman of the board and co-founder Felicity Yost, who also served as president, will be stepping in as interim CEO.
In an email sent to company employees, which was posted on LinkedIn Thursday afternoon, Witte said the move will enable her to focus on driving strategy related to the future of Tia at the board of directors level and shift away from leading the company day-to-day.
"This decision realigns our roles around our respective strengths and talents in support of what Tia needs today to maximize success for our team, and impact for our patients and health system partners as we continue to further our vision of transforming healthcare for women," Witte wrote.
"Felicity’s operational superpowers and deep institutional knowledge of Tia and our health system partners make her the optimal leader for Tia’s current needs," she wrote.
Started in 2017, Tia’s model includes virtual and in-person services, fusing primary care, mental health and gynecological care with wellness services like acupuncture in one integrated experience. The company aims to build a "modern medical home for women."
Tia now operates nine clinics in four markets — New York City, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco. It plans to open two more by the end of the year. Tia currently serves 40,000 members.
The company also has inked health system partnerships to expand its reach to more patients. A year ago, Tia teamed up with Cedars-Sinai to open up clinics in the Los Angeles area.
It marked the third health system partnership tie-up for the company following tie-ups with UCSF Health in San Francisco in 2022 and CommonSpirit Health to launch Tia-branded women's health clinics, with an initial focus on the Phoenix market.
To achieve near-term and long-term goals, Witte said Tia needs a CEO and leadership team who excel in operations.
"Tia is well beyond the 'proof-of-concept' stage and now in the 'rinse, repeat and strengthen' stage, which requires a maniacal focus on operational excellence," she wrote in the email to employees. "This is both a normal and exciting evolution for a company at our stage and size. Specifically, to hit our near-term financial goals, we need to ramp up clinics and further strengthen our unit economics — all while maintaining and improving quality of care and experience for our patients and partners."
The company also is focused on refining Tia's longer-term strategy to set it up for continued growth in a "rapidly evolving primary care and women’s healthcare market."
The company also is eyeing opportunities to expand and serve more patients as women’s health access dwindles and outcomes worsen, Witte noted. "I am motivated to spend more time ensuring Tia can seize the right expansion opportunities at the right time to further our mission and business for the long-run."