Health Union Unveils High-Growth Leadership Team

Health Union Unveils High-Growth Leadership Team, Aimed at Driving Social Health Transformation

Company promotes new president, hires CFO, announces chief innovation officer and new executive roles; moves represent strategic push to support aggressive growth

Published July 15th, 2021 | 4 Minute Read

PHILADELPHIA — July 15, 2021 — Health Union today announces a number of moves – promotions, appointments and role transitions – within its leadership team that will align with the company’s accelerated growth strategy, evolving needs and vision to improve health through social connection. These moves include the promotion of a new president; the appointment of a chief financial officer, chief innovation officer and chief commercial officer; and the transition of Health Union’s co-founder and longtime president to an advisory role.

Lauren Lawhon has been promoted to president and chief operating officer. Since joining Health Union in 2014 – and serving as COO since 2016 – she has played an integral role in the company’s growth. With two decades of strategic leadership experience, Lawhon has effectively led the organization from a handful of online health communities to nearly three dozen today. She has done this while creating and continually improving Health Union’s organizational structure, operational efficiency and effectiveness across all business units to align with its fast-paced growth.

Prior to Health Union, she held leadership roles at strategic marketing firm imc2, focusing largely on healthcare clients, and patient advocacy organizations, like the American Heart Association and Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

Tim Finley, who has two decades of finance and corporate development experience, has been hired as Health Union’s chief financial officer. Finley has extensive experience operating in various elements of rapid growth environments, including acquisitions, private equity and operational support. He will leverage his experience to drive and direct Health Union’s financial health as the company accelerates its growth strategy, which includes Health Union’s recent acquisition of WEGO Health and any subsequent strategic partnerships.

Finley’s previous work includes seven years in various leadership roles at MMIT (Managed Markets Insight & Technology) and eight years at PwC, focusing on transaction services and assurance.

Both individuals will assume the corporate leadership and financial responsibilities, respectively, of Tim Armand, who served as Health Union’s president since co-founding the company in 2010. Armand will continue to serve as adviser to the CEO and a voting member of Health Union’s board of directors, alongside directors from Court Square, a middle market private equity firm with one of the most experienced investment teams in the industry.

“I could not have asked for a better, more supportive partner to have created Health Union with more than a decade ago than Tim Armand, and I am thrilled he will still have an active role in deciding the direction of our rapidly growing company,” said Olivier Chateau, Health Union’s co-founder and CEO. “Fortunately, Lauren’s organizational strengths, as well as her unmatched leadership and operational skills, are exactly aligned with Health Union’s strategic needs and vision to redefine social health, making her the obvious successor to the role.”

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Following the acquisition of WEGO Health in June, Jack Barrette, the company’s CEO and founder, will join Health Union as its chief innovation officer. In this role, Barrette will focus on market development, external relations and strategic partnerships that will expand Health Union’s footprint within the healthcare industry. These new market opportunities, which will expand the use and benefits of the company’s online health communities and Patient Leader Network, will drive the next phase of growth as Health Union redefines and maximizes the benefits of social health for the greater good.

Barrette founded WEGO Health in 2007 after identifying the impact that patient leaders – a mixture of patient advocates, health activists, health community leaders, patient influencers and patient experts – can have on the healthcare industry and the health of others. His leadership and influence have earned him myriad industry recognitions, including the PharmaVOICE 100 and MM+M Healthcare Transformers. Previously, Barrette was an executive at Yahoo!, guiding strategy for meeting the needs of healthcare consumers and the pharmaceutical, healthcare and healthy lifestyle companies that market to them.

“Jack Barrette uniquely understands the power of the patient voice and the role it can play in impacting the healthcare industry and the lives of people living with chronic health concerns,” said Lauren Lawhon, Health Union’s president and COO. “As a result, I can’t think of a person better equipped to lead Health Union’s efforts to pioneer the most powerful force in social health.”

Finally, David Shronk, will step into the role of chief commercial officer. Since joining Health Union in 2015 as senior vice president of media, Shronk has played an invaluable part in driving the company’s revenue growth by 1,090% over that time. His new role will continue to leverage his vast experience in pharma marketing and digital measurement to ensure Health Union meets the needs of its partners and the people served within the company’s growing portfolio of condition-specific online health communities.

Shronk has earned numerous industry recognitions in honor of his work and leadership at Health Union, including being recognized among the 2021 PM360 ELITE and the 2019 PharmaVOICE 100. Before joining Health Union, he was a vice president at comScore, where he helped to develop a DigitalRx measurement platform for the health and pharmaceutical industry. Previously, he spent a decade at GlaxoSmithKline, working in both commercial analysis and product management.

About Health Union

Health Union, with the recent acquisition of WEGO Health, maintains the largest team of experts, patient advocates and healthcare leaders dedicated to social health. The company encourages social interactions that evolve into valuable online health conversations, helping people with chronic conditions find the information, connection, and validation they seek. Health Union does this by creating condition-specific online communities – publishing original, daily content and continuously cultivating social conversation – to support, educate and connect millions of people with challenging, chronic health concerns. The Health Union family of brands includes 34 online health communities, including LungCancer.net, ParkinsonsDisease.net, MultipleSclerosis.net and Migraine.com.

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A new class of migraine drugs, called anti-CGRPs (calcitonin gene-related peptide) are expected to reinvigorate a market that has been largely dormant for some time. Four biopharma companies, Amgen, Teva, Lilly and Alder are entering the fray. Not surprisingly, the intense competition and pharma investment associated with this market dynamic has led traditional “eyeball driven” publishers, like WebMD, Everyday Health and others on a quest to offer substantially more migraine-related content in reaction to this market opportunity.

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