Wysa, the Leading AI-Powered Mental Health Platform Welcomes New Senior Executive Members

BOSTON, MA, October 12, 2021 | Wysa announces the appointment of Zereana Jess-Huff as the Chief Clinical Officer. Zereana Jess-Huff, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical practitioner with over 15 years of unique experience in clinical innovation, operations strategy, and product development with a specific focus on digital health. Some of her accomplishments include the HEDIS focused product designed to reduce behavioral health readmissions and securing a $77-million 5-year rebid award for the Maryland Public Behavioral Health System. 

Ramakant Vempati, Co-Founder of Wysa said “It gives me great pleasure to welcome Zereana to the Wysa team as part of the US leadership team. Zereana joins us with rich experience setting up and running clinical teams at SilverCloud, Lyra, and Beacon; equally importantly, her energy and enthusiasm is infectious.”

Zereana will lead the rollout and management of Wysa’s US-based therapy network in support of Wysa’s AI + expert human model.

Chad Cruse has joined Wysa as the Head of Sales. As an Employee Benefits and HR Technology executive, Chad brings a strong track record of scaling enterprise sales in the industry, with specific expertise in commercializing new solutions to serve the needs of employers, consultants, and insurance carriers through phases of hypergrowth. At Wysa, Chad will lead on scaling the US enterprise and healthcare business and be responsible for all aspects of the company’s go-to market strategy in the US including accelerating growth in existing channels and expanding Wysa’s reach through new channels.

“As a society, we must reimagine the way we think about mental health care. Large swaths of our population are suffering in silence – either due to stigma associated with seeking care or because the traditional treatment infrastructure does not afford efficient access to care. It’s time for radical transformation and I could not be more excited to join the team at Wysa as we drive towards a more equitable mental health infrastructure.” said Chad Cruse, Head of Sales.

Ross O’Brien brings 15 years of rich experience in the healthcare industry, mainly focusing on mental health and equity of access for underserved communities and digital innovation. 

Ross has joined Wysa as the Managing Director for the UK and Europe. We are excited to see the expertise and understanding he will bring from his time at the National Health Service (NHS) to collaborate with Wysa to offer patients high-quality mental health treatment as well as free up more time for clinicians supporting patients with digital health tools.

“I've worked with numerous digital health providers in the UK, and for me, Wysa has the most to offer the patient and the wider NHS. Wysa’s approach is all about actively engaging the patient, offering a personal level of support that allows people to explore their own wellbeing. I'm so excited to see where we can take this journey and just how many people’s lives we can change for the better!” said Ross O'Brien, Managing Director (UK & Europe).

Ross recently exited the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) as an Associate Director Innovation and Technology. He also previously had worked as the Service Lead for the Grenfell Health and Wellbeing Service. Ross was also the Programme Lead of the London Digital Talking Therapies Programme at Healthy London Partnerships where he worked to establish a digital single point of access and triage tool for all Londoners accessing NHS psychological therapy services. 

In addition to these incredible achievements, he is also a Founder of the UK XR Health Alliance and the Holomedicine Association and was the Lead Author for ‘The Growing Value of XR in Healthcare in the UK’ a report bringing together UK government agencies to create a strategy for UK Immersive Healthcare. Ross holds a Human Rights Masters from the University of London and is a graduate from the Digital Health London Digital Pioneer Fellowship. 

About Wysa 

Wysa is a global leader in AI-driven mental health support, available both to individuals and through employer benefits programs. Wysa helps in dealing with stress, depression, and anxiety with the help of an “emotionally intelligent” bot, which uses evidence-based cognitive-behavioral techniques (CBT), meditation, breathing and mindfulness exercises, as well as micro-actions to help users build mental resilience skills. For employers, Wysa offers a workplace solution that caters to the full spectrum of mental health needs. This solution embeds into existing company benefits, such as Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) or external health care provider networks, and can be customized by geography or cohort. Currently, Wysa has facilitated over 100 million conversations in 65 countries across the globe. Wysa works with 20 enterprise partners and 7 million employees worldwide, with partners that include Accenture Global, Aetna International, NHS, L’Oreal, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and the Ministry of Health in Singapore. 

For more details, please visit www.wysa.io/. 

For any media inquiries, please contact mariam@wysa.ai