Daversa Partners Recruits Chief Product Officer for Twin Health

April 6, 2022 – Daversa Partners, which helps build leadership teams for growth and venture-backed companies, has assisted in the recruitment of Chris Szeto as the chief product officer of Twin Health in Mountain View, CA. Sarah McDonald and Julie Wrapp led the assignment. “It has been incredible to partner with this world-class team on their mission to reverse and prevent chronic metabolic diseases,” Daversa Partners said. Mr. Szeto is an experienced product management executive with an engineering background, an eye for design, and a passion for building great products. Previously, he was senior director of product, customer product experience with LinkedIn. Before that, Mr. Szeto was VP of product for FiveStars. Earlier in his career, he was founder of StreamPunch, which helped people find and watch streaming movies and tv shows across popular services like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, iTunes, and Vudu.

Twin Health is on a mission to reverse and prevent chronic metabolic diseases so that people can live healthier, happier lives. Twin has developed the Whole Body Digital Twin, a dynamic, digital representation of a member’s metabolism. Using the Twin mobile app and connected wearable sensors, they use thousands of data points gathered daily and apply powerful AI to learn and offer precision treatment to heal the body’s metabolism.

“I love Twin’s mission and its unique approach: blending cutting-edge technology, advanced medical science, and compassionate care,” said Mr. Szeto. “As someone with a family history of diabetes, Twin’s mission is also deeply personal. With over a billion people in the world living with chronic metabolic diseases, we have the opportunity to really help transform lives.”

Daversa Partners, founded in 1993, builds executive teams for growth stage and venture backed companies. Its global footprint spans two continents and eight offices, giving its teams visibility into the entirety of the market. Daversa is dedicated to developing meaningful relationships with entrepreneurs, executives and investors across consumer and enterprise businesses. In addition to its primary location in Westport, Conn., the firm has offices in New York; San Francisco; Washington, D.C.; Orlando, FL; London; and Waterford, Conn. where the firm maintains a data and people analytics facility.

Since joining Daversa in 2010, Ms. Wrapp has been working hand in hand with founders and CEOs as a strategic thought partner. She leads Daversa’s New York City office but splits her time between San Francisco and New York. She prides herself on building out executive teams and has been recognized for her work with product lead growth and digital health companies, an area of particular interest and passion. She works closely with investors at Benchmark, NEA, Thrive Capital, Greylock, and A16Z.

Ms. MacDonald, a senior associate, has made a name for herself building out the VP and C-suite management teams for healthcare, enterprise, product-led growth and consumer businesses like Benchling, Lattice, Grammarly, Chainalysis and Redesign Health, to name a few. While she works across all functions, her expertise includes product, engineering, customer success and people.

Recruiting Chief Products Officers

Today’s chief product officer is responsible for all product-related matters, and the role is growing in demand, according to executive recruiters who place them. The post typically includes product conception and development, production, innovation, and project and product management. In many IT/ telecommunications companies, the position includes release management and production. Chief product officers generally work on product strategy based on goals set by the CEO and/ or board members. The high demand for chief product officers is keeping executive search firms busy.

A number of executive search firms have stepped up to find top chief product officer for top organizations. Here is a sampling from the Hunt Scanlon archives:

ON Partners assisted in the recruitment of former Match Group executive Andy Chen as chief product officer of Glassdoor, a provider of insights about jobs and companies. ON Partners consultants John Morrow and Jeff Hocking led the assignment. “With the future of work evolving, we have the right team in place to help us further innovate and deliver on Glassdoor’s vision of bringing deeper transparency to workplaces everywhere,” said Christian Sutherland-Wong, CEO of Glassdoor.

Riviera Partners, a recruitment provider specializing in C-level engineering, product and design leader placements, assisted in the placement of Stephanie Cuthbertson as executive vice president and chief product officer at HubSpot in Cambridge, MA. Andrew Abramson led the assignment. “Stephanie’s deep experience in product strategy from Google, Amazon and Microsoft makes her well-poised to have a big impact at HubSpot,” said Yamini Rangan, CEO of HubSpot. “She has a strong reputation for leading with humility and empathy, coaching exceptional talent and operating with a customer-centric mindset.”

Accelent recently placed Rahul Lahiri as the new chief product officer for PebblePost, a leading digital to direct mail platform. Mr. Lahiri will head the product division as the company looks to build on the momentum and growth it has experienced in the last year. Leading the assignment were John Boehmer, managing director; Maura McShane, partner; and Jerzy Jung, associate. “This has been a blockbuster year for PebblePost and the brand we work with,” said PebblePost CEO Jacob Ross. “Rahul will play a critical role in evolving the Programmatic Direct Mail platform and the PebblePost Graph to further our mission of enabling brands to reach consumers at home with the most relevant and respectful physical mail.”