Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of hirings, firings and retirings throughout the industry. Please submit the good news—or the bad—from your shop, and we will feature it here at the end of each week.
Olive
Ali Byrd, chief financial officer, and Rohan D’Souza, chief product officer, announced this week that they will be leaving the once-unicorn health IT company Olive AI. Jeremy Friese, president of health insurer markets, told the company earlier this month that he plans to leave as well.
The healthcare automation startup laid off 450 employees in mid-July due to economic conditions as well as a strategy “misstep,” according to the CEO Sean Lane.
"Olive’s values of 'choose vision over status quo' and 'act with urgency' drove us to make significant investments across the most pressing parts of healthcare, scale our teams and move quickly to bring solutions to the market," Lane wrote in a message to employees posted on Olive's website in July.
The AI company made news with $400 million in funding a year before the widespread layoffs. At the time, the company was valued at $4 billion.
Babylon Health
Andrew Hine was hired as the vice president of the go-to-market team for Babylon. He will lead the company’s sales efforts in Africa, Asia, Europe and Middle East and oversee the value-based care provider’s overseas expansion.
Hine recently held the position of head of health for the Middle East and North Africa at Ernst & Young. He has spent 30 years in healthcare including in positions such as operational manager and trust board director of the U.K.’s National Health Service where he led service delivery in tertiary and secondary acute care, primary care and mental health care services.
Hine spent 13 years at KPMG UK as a consulting partner where he led client engagements across the U.K., Europe and the Middle East. At KPMG, he focusing on strategic design, operational improvement and leadership of health services and organizations and systems.
Hine will work closely with Paul-Henri Ferrand, Babylon’s chief operating officer.
Walmart
Howard Hacker was named as the new vice president of health and wellness compliance for the retail giant, effective Oct. 17. Hacker will report to Matt Miner, global chief ethics and compliance officer.
Hacker most recently held the position of chief compliance officer at Tenet Healthcare where he managed the ethics and compliance program. Preceding his six years at Tenet, he held positions including chief compliance counsel of global established pharma and chief compliance counsel of emerging markets, primary care and established products business units at Pfizer.
Hacker began his career as an attorney specializing in mergers and acquisitions.
Earlier this month, Walmart continued its move into healthcare through penning a 10-year partnership with UnitedHealth Group. The partnership aims to propel value-based care in Walmart clinics and launch a new Medicare Advantage plan.
Cue Health
Suzanne Stone has been tapped as the healthcare technology company's new chief commercial officer.
Stone will lead the expansion of Cue's global commercial growth. She will be charged with the success of the company's international marketing initiatives such as branding, advertising and e-commerce.
Stone previously held the position of senior vice president of U.S. revenue at medical device company DexCom, which focused on glucose monitoring systems. At DexCom, she oversaw almost $2 billion in revenue within the U.S. market.
Cue's at home COVID-19 at-home test kit was the first FDA-authorized molecular diagnostic test. The company plans to expand the number of tests compatible with the Cue Reader.
> MetroPlusHealth promoted Lila Benayoun to chief operating officer of the health plan.
> Global Healthcare Exchange, a healthcare business and data automation company, welcomed Tina Murphy to the new role of chief executive officer.
> Blue Health Intelligence, a healthcare data and analytics firm, appointed Divya Srungaram as vice president of product management.
> UPS Healthcare announced that Cathy O’Brien has been appointed as the new vice president of international sales.
> Woebot Health, maker of a mental health chatbot, named Brad Gescheider as chief commercial officer.
> AmeriHealth Caritas, a company providing Medicaid managed care and other health solutions, appointed David Finkel as executive vice president, specialty products and services and strategic business operations.
> Komodo Health, a healthcare data company, named Lauren Stahl as vice president and head of sales.
> Evidation tapped Meghann Dryer to the role of chief marketing and design officer. The health data and tracking platform also promoted Matt Bedrossian to general counsel, Melanie Ball to senior vice president of research, Matt Butner to senior vice president of consumer and Bertina Yen to senior vice president of people and community.
> Bamboo Health, a healthcare technology company formerly known as Appriss Health + PatientPing, announced that Russell Olsen will join its executive team as chief product officer.
> Stride Health hired Lee Hurley as the new chief marketing officer of the health insurance startup.
> Preferred Behavioral Healthcare Group selected Tara Chalakani as chief executive officer.
> Ingenovis Health, a healthcare staffing firm, named Lauren Pasquale Bartlett as the organization’s first chief marketing officer.
> Nuvance Health hired Dan DeBarba as chief financial officer of the health system.
> Edifecs, a health IT company, added to its leadership team: David Peterson as senior vice president of marketing and Milla Rahmani as general counsel.
> MedTrainer, a provider of healthcare compliance software, hired Nai Kanell as chief marketing officer and promoted Todd Scott to chief technology officer.
> mPulse Mobile, a company focused on conversational AI and management solutions, appointed Lara Stell to chief financial officer, and Sanjeev Sawai was appointed to chief product and technology officer.
> SimplePractice, an electronic health records platform, named Ian Knox as chief product officer.
> First Choice Health has hired Hillary Galyean as vice president of enterprise account management and David Agler, M.D., as new vice president of medical management.
> West Virginia University Health System welcomed Tom Takubo as its executive vice president of provider relations.