AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ladder, the digital marketplace for health and wellness coaching, today announced the addition of six seasoned business and technical professionals to its leadership. President Tom Digan, Director of Product Justin Forte, Director of Design Chad Geraci, Director of Magic Zach Allia, Head of Recruiting Jamie Brooks, and Head of Digital Growth Greg Drewganis bring combined decades of experience at Fortune 500 and other influential companies such as Apple, PayPal, and Uber.
Founded in late 2015, Ladder is the company bringing health and wellness coaching to anyone, anywhere, via a mobile application that matches users with certified personal trainers to deliver customized fitness programs and ongoing coaching. With a sharp focus on accelerating business growth, product innovation, and leadership in the wellness industry, these six veteran executives have come on board to drive Ladder’s mission of reimagining personal training and transforming the health and wellness industry.
“From the very beginning, we’ve always believed that the team we create is paramount to our success,” said Brett Maloley, CEO and co-founder, Ladder. “We have folks joining us from some of the most successful companies in the world, but more important than that, we have brought together some truly amazing people who all believe there’s a huge problem out there in the world and are psyched to put the work in to fix it.”
Ladder’s new executive appointments include:
- Tom Digan, President. Tom comes to Ladder after eleven years as a partner at Sorin Capital Management and brings to the team a deep understanding of corporate finance, capital markets and experience working with the world’s top institutional LPs. He was one of Ladder’s early investors has served as a member of its Board of Directors, assisting in strategic planning and fundraising since 2016. Now, as president at Ladder, he will continue to focus on developing the company’s fundraising strategy, partnerships within the commercial fitness industry, and its position as a benefit in the healthcare space.
- Justin Forte, Director of Product. Justin is an accomplished product leader with a proven track record of creating and delivering innovative products that drive revenue and establish new market opportunities. He most recently served as the senior director of product management at open-source marketing software company, Mautic, and built his career at a number of high growth startups including Layer, ShippingEasy and Applause.
- Chad Geraci, Director of Design. Chad will oversee user experience (UX) across all on- and off-product initiatives. From product design to marketing collateral, he will be tasked with driving a consistent look and feel to build a powerful and longstanding brand presence. Chad was previously creative director at PayPal, where he worked closely with the executive team to create mobile designs that demonstrated PayPal’s strategic vision. Following his time at PayPal, he was a senior UX designer at Apple, working with design researchers and key executives to distill product requirements, user needs and technical feasibility into beautiful consumer products. Most recently, he oversaw all UX programs at Amazon in support of its business partnership with Whole Foods. His team was responsible for creating the look, feel and architecture of the website, mobile applications and email channels.
- Zach Allia, Director of Magic. Zach will head up special projects, focusing his web development expertise on new product and engineering opportunities for the company. A serial entrepreneur and tech executive, Allia previously founded Free Gifts, one of the most downloaded apps ever on Facebook; 64 pixels, the world’s largest network of Google Chrome Extensions; and co-founded Soma, a company that designs eco-friendly water filtration systems.
- Greg Drewganis, Director of Digital Growth. Greg will be responsible for all paid growth strategies, campaigns and initiatives. He built his career as a digital marketing and growth executive at a number of large brands, including Playboy Enterprises and Encyclopedia Britannica, where he served in senior manager roles for digital marketing. Most recently, he was senior director of online acquisition and experience at Beachbody, the $1.4B health and wellness company behind P90X, Instanity, 21 Day Fix, Beachbody on Demand, and Shakeology. While there, he defined, implemented and optimized digital strategies and tactics as an integrated part of the company’s overall branding, custom acquisition, and website optimization efforts.
- Jamie Brooks, Head of Recruiting. Jamie will be responsible for sourcing and vetting all prospective teammates. He brings to Ladder over a decade of international recruiting experience helping build some of the world's fastest growing tech companies. He was an early employee of Uber and the company’s second international recruiter, hiring most of the new city teams across Europe and India as well as scaling the London office from two to 150. He also led operations and hiring across the US for Wayfair, supporting the COO and sourcing leadership talent to help build Wayfair’s first custom supply chain network globally. Most recently, Jamie worked with ofo, where he hired the first 100 US-based employees.
“We can’t wait to see what this team will be able to accomplish together,” continued Maloley. “Tom’s a born leader and operator, and one of the most dynamic people I’ve ever met; Greg has tremendous experience in digital growth and a finite domain expertise; and Zach flat-out knows how to build scalable products that people love. We believe that we’re solving for one of the biggest problems currently facing society, and bringing people like this onto the team positions us to be able to help more people.”
About Ladder
Ladder’s mission is to bring health and
wellness coaching to anyone, anywhere. Through its digital marketplace,
Ladder matches health and wellness professionals with people who want to
experience all of the benefits of customized fitness on their own terms
– affordable, convenient and rewarding. Ladder also helps personal
trainers build their business by optimizing their time and talent,
expand their client base and providing them with the tools and support
they need to be successful.
To learn more, visit https://www.joinladder.com/, or follow us on Instagram @joinladder or Twitter @joinladder.
