Tempest Appoints Health Tech Industry Leader Ruth Sun As New CEO

Under Sun's leadership, alcohol recovery pioneer Tempest is poised for rapid growth amidst the rise in demand for digital solutions sparked by COVID-19

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Tempest

Feb 16, 2021, 12:00 ET

NEW YORK, Feb. 16, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Tempest, the modern recovery company, announced today that its Board of Directors has appointed health technology leader and industry veteran Ruth Sun as their new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Upon assuming this role, Sun will succeed Holly Whitaker, founder of Tempest, who will move to a newly created role, as Chief Creative Officer.

After careful consideration, Whitaker and the board decided together that now is the time to draw on Sun's growth-at-scale expertise to make this critical change at Tempest for an impactful path forward.

"Ruth is a proven health technology leader with a distinguished track record of innovation, talent development, and a deep knowledge of how to help stimulate growth. She will continue a values-based cultural leadership approach with a hyper focus on operational execution and growth," says Mike Sweeney, of the Tempest Board.

Sun joins Tempest with more than 25 years of technology and leadership experience, including 18 years at IBM (Watson Health) where she began her career. Through this experience, the Board is confident that Sun, together with the rest of the leadership team, will ensure strong execution of Tempest's strategy to build on its product leadership and take advantage of the significant market opportunities ahead as the company continues to transform from a category creator to a category leader.

"Tempest has been ahead of its time since its creation in 2015 and has modernized alcohol recovery with evidence-based outcomes. Today the rest of society has caught up to what Tempest has known for years: anyone, at any time can decide to change their relationship with alcohol, no matter where they fall on the spectrum of excessive alcohol consumption," says Sun. "I am thrilled to help Tempest capture this groundswell of awareness as the category leader in the modern recovery industry."

"When I first spoke to the board about evolving my role, I knew finding someone who could come in and take Tempest to the next level would be a tall order, and then we met Ruth," says Holly Whitaker. "She's one of the smartest people I've ever met, and immediately understood the potential behind what we've created at Tempest. Her background in leading organizations through hyper growth makes her a perfect fit for this next phase of Tempest's category leading business."

Most recently, Sun served as the Chief Operating Officer at Force Therapeutics, where she led business strategy, GTM, Product and R&D innovation. Sun served as the SVP, of Growth at Welltok, the VP of Strategic Development at Blackboard and started her career at IBM where she later became Managing Director of Watson Health. Sun was also the President & Co-Founder of Sun Medical, which was acquired by Hackensack Meridian Health in 2020.

About the Market:
Excessive drinking is a massive issue, with only 2% of the 51 million US problem drinkers in treatment. Tempest's solution addresses every existing barrier to treatment allowing for the full spectrum of the market to be treated. JAMA Network Open's recently published survey noted that COVID-19's impact has led to a 54% increase in alcohol sales for the week ending March 21, 2020, and the overall frequency of alcohol consumption increased by 14% among adults over 30, compared to the same time the previous year. Women increased their heavy drinking episodes (defined as four or more drinks within a couple of hours) by 41%.

Tempest is the first and only complete recovery system that provides effective, engaging, holistic and life long care to anyone who wants to change their relationship with alcohol. Tempest provides alcohol use disorder treatment for the 46 million Americans who don't identify as addicted. Tempest is a modern alternative to current recovery options like AA and is focused on an approach that's empathetic and empowering, driven by a brand that's desirable and aspirational. Learn more at jointempest.com.

SOURCE Tempest