Woebot hires regulatory strategy exec and more digital health hires

Also: Decentralized clinical trial startup Curebase names vice president of clinical operations, and digital opioid use disorder-treatment company Ophelia hires a chief technology officer.
By Emily Olsen
01:27 pm
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Robbert Zusterzeel

Photo: Woebot Health

Woebot Health, maker of a mental health chatbot, recently appointed Dr. Robbert Zusterzeel as vice president of regulatory science and strategy.

Zusterzeel comes to Woebot from IQVIA, where he served as senior director of U.S. regulatory science and strategy. He'd previously worked at the FDA for nearly 10 years. 

"We believe in and have embraced regulation from the start and have expanded our science-based product organization, which makes it the perfect time to add deep expertise to accelerate the process toward clearance. Robbert’s unique mix of clinical, scientific and regulatory skills and passion for this emerging space will be instrumental in bringing our clinically-proven products to market," Woebot founder and president Alison Darcy said in a statement.

In March, the startup added a $9.5 million investment from Leaps by Bayer, building on a $90 million Series B from July 2021. Woebot also received FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for its investigational postpartum depression digital therapeutic, WB001, last year. Additionally it's working on a product for adolescent depression, dubbed WB002.


Decentralized clinical trial startup Curebase named Sean Lynch as vice president of clinical operations.

Lynch previously worked as senior director of clinical project management at tech-driven clinical trial company TrialSpark. He'd also served as senior director of global sales and senior project manager at clinical research organization Syntactz.

"Sean is an experienced clinical trial professional with a strong business development background, which makes him ideal to lead our clinical operations," Curebase founder and CEO Tom Lemberg said in a statement. "His ability to organize and motivate clinical trial teams and his project management training will drive growth for the company while opening up opportunities for more people to participate in medical research."

Earlier this year, Curebase raised $40 million in Series B funding


Ophelia, which offers virtual treatment for opioid use disorder, appointed Lon Binder as chief technology officer.

Binder most recently was CTO at Cityblock Health, a tech-enabled provider startup aimed at the Medicaid and low-income Medicare populations. He has also served as CTO at vision-care and glasses retailer Warby Parker.

"Lon is an experienced technology leader with a rare combination of vision, creativity, heart and drive," Zack Gray, cofounder and CEO of Ophelia, said in a statement. "We couldn't have found a better match for our mission, culture and team. We're extremely proud to work with him and to build the core technology together that will power the future of addiction treatment."

Ophelia raised two rounds of funding in 2021: a $15 million Series A announced in April and a $50 million Series B from December. 


Suki, maker of an AI-backed healthcare documentation assistant, announced two new hires for its product team. 

Belwadi Srikanth will serve as vice president of product and design. He worked at Google for more than 15 years, where he worked as director of product management.

Anmol Rastogi was named senior director of product management. He'd previously served as vice president of products at Indian online loan company Lendingkart and as India product lead with financial services firm Tala.

"At Suki, we recognize that winning products come from teams comprised of deep talent. We want to attract the best in the business as we aim to bring joy back to medicine by alleviating physician burnout," Punit Soni, founder and CEO of Suki, said in a statement. "These two new product leads are key appointments who are more than prepared to provide the leadership that will make our product vision a reality in the coming years."

Suki most recently announced a $55 million Series C round in late 2021. 


Home and senior care platform Honor Technology named Andrew Steinberg as chief financial officer. 

He previously worked at investment banking firm Evercore, where he was a managing director focused on M&A and capital markets advisory in software, AI and machine learning, medtech and travel tech.

"I am thrilled to welcome Andrew with his deep breadth of knowledge to our executive leadership team," Honor CEO and cofounder Seth Sternberg said in a statement. "His alignment with Honor’s mission to expand the world's capacity to care will position us to optimize the massive opportunities we are experiencing in the home care market and enhance our ability to deliver on this vision."

In October, Honor announced it had raised $70 million in a Series E round and $300 million in debt financing, earning the company unicorn status with a valuation of more than $1.25 billion. The company also recently acquired home care provider Home Instead.

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