Our Team

LEADERSHIP

Steven Zinsli

Founder & CEO

A New Zealand native, Steven started his career on the frontline of healthcare  as a clinical musculoskeletal podiatrist. Moving into leadership early, Steven learned to lead multifunctional distributed teams. Steven has a proven track record of growing businesses through all the growth phases.

Clinical experience showed Steven firsthand the cost barriers to accessing care that patients face. Grasping the potential for technology to help solve the cost barrier, Steven founded HealthNow in 2020. Instantly popular with health care merchants and consumers in New Zealand, HealthNow quickly attracted investor support to go multinational. Now, having combined with CoverUS, Steven is expanding the business to the US and Australia in 2022. Apart from work Steven loves learning, fitness, and the outdoors.

Steven’s passion continues to drive the mission: changing lives through leveraging technology to increase access to healthcare for everyone. 

Andy Laken

Chief Product Officer

Andy has spent the past 25 years solving big problems at the intersection of technology, learning, and social impact. Over the past four years at CoverUS Andy has driven product development, user experience, technology direction, customer success, and compliance, while contributing to business strategy, messaging, and strategic partnerships.

Before CoverUS, Andy led consulting teams at Acquia, powering sites, apps, and digital experiences for government, health care, and media clients. Previously Andy was Technology Lead at CivicActions, helping governments and nonprofits use technology more effectively, and Director of Technology at the Quixote Center, improving the lives of poor people across the globe.

Andy is continually learning to be a better leader and collaborator through work with Conscious Leadership Group, Radical Candor, and other frameworks. Outside work he loves guitar and cooking, practices meditation, and spends time with his partner and animal companions in Portland, Ore.

Andrew Hoppin

Board of Directors and Strategic Advisor for Partnerships

Andrew is a former NASA scientist who has since dedicated his life to doing good things here on Earth. Before CoverUS, Andrew founded NuCivic, an open source technology company (later acquired by Granicus) that helped everyday citizens better connect with their government. He was also previously the New York State Senate Chief Information Officer, where his team created the world’s first government GitHub repository and he was honored as 2010 New York Public Sector CIO of the Year. He has served on the Boards of Global Integrity, Humanity in Action, OpenPlans, The Participatory Politics Foundation, and the Space Generation Foundation, and is an Edmund Hillary Global Impact Fellow and Board Member of the Hillary Institute and the Edmund Hillary Fellowship. Andrew spends his time between Brooklyn, NY and Portland, Ore. trying to stay fit chasing younger people around soccer fields and occasionally dancing to ska (which is not dead yet).

Carl Thompson

CMO

Laura Kelly

Design Lead

Brendon Tribe

Lead Developer – Back end

Jake Briscoe

Lead Developer – Front end

Simon Shan

Software Engineer

Katelin Scott

Lead customer success

ADVISORS

John Joyce

Advisor

John is a global technology investment veteran. He is known for his financial leadership, with a long career as CFO of IBM, and as Managing Director of SilverLake Partners.                                                                                                           

John served as the President of IBM Asia Pacific, responsible for providing business direction and strategy  across the region. He served as a Vice President and Controller of IBM’s global operations, and was part of the team responsible for the successful reengineering of IBM in the mid-1990s. In his M&A capacity he oversaw the sale of IBM’s PC business to Lenovo, its HDD business to Hitachi, and its purchase of PWC Consulting. John’s final role at IBM was running Global Services, responsible for $60B of revenue and 178,000 employees

In 2005 he joined SilverLake Partners. As Managing Director, John was a member of the investment committee, and a leader of SilverLakes value creation team. After SilverLake, he took Silver Spring Networks public, serving as Vice Chairman and CFO.

John has been on the boards of Hewlett Packard, Avago (Broadcom), Bertelsmann AG, Intelsat, Gartner, and Sabre.

John’s decades at the top of international technology finance brings vast networks and relationships, and direct access to the US market for our successful global ventures.

Alexis McGill Johnson

President and CEO, Planned Parenthood

Alexis McGill Johnson is the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund. Planned Parenthood provides vital health services to 2.4 million people each year through its more than 600 health centers across the country. She is the co-founder and former co-director of the Perception Institute, a consortium of researchers, advocates, and strategists who translate cutting edge mind science research on race, gender, ethnic, and other identities into solutions that reduce bias and discrimination, and promote belonging. She is a renowned social and racial justice leader, lifelong political and cultural organizer, and frequent commentator on FOX News, CNN, MSNBC, and in the press.

Bryan Sivak

Former CTO, US Department of Health and Human Services

Bryan serves on the Boards of Vesta Healthcare, Canvas Medical, and Osso VR.   Previously he served as Vice President, Medicaid Transformation and Managing Director, Ventures at Kaiser Permanente.  He also served as the Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EIR) at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, where he brought new ideas and perspectives to the work of the Foundation, and challenged existing processes and assumptions to help build a Culture of Health more effectively. From 2012-2015 Bryan served as the Chief Technology Officer at the US Department of Health and Human Services.  Earlier in his career he served as the Chief Innovation Officer to Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, and the Chief Information/Technology Officer for the city of Washington, DC.

Christopher Sealey

Strategic Advisor

Christopher is Vice-President and Creative Director at OneOf. He has spent his career helping everyone from rock stars to philanthropists tell their story, from traditional media to NFTs.  Before CoverUS, Christopher helped run economic think tanks for philanthropists George Soros and Pete Peterson, learning about inequality and what happens when we can’t afford care.  Christopher was also the first-ever Creative Director in US state government, working with Andrew Hoppin at the New York State Senate, and spent five years advocating for HIV+, low-income New Yorkers at NYC AIDS nonprofit, Housing Works. Christopher started out making hip-hop records with the Wu-Tang Clan, and was lucky enough to DJ for Prince, The Rolling Stones, and three United States Presidents. Christopher lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two young children, but still listens to Boston sports radio every day.

Anna Mowbray

Advisor

As Co-Founder and Director of ZURU, Anna has grown the business into the third largest privately held toy company in the world. Among her philanthropic endeavors, Anna has a special passion for women’s professional development and leadership. Notably, Anna is dedicated to leading a workforce that is two-thirds female.

ZURU won NZ Entrepreneur of the Year, and Anna was named 2020 Wonder Woman in Manufacturing by Women In Toys, Licensing & Entertainment. She has been featured in Forbes and the Wall Street Journal.

Scott Pickering

Advisor

Scott is an experienced Non-Executive Director and CEO with over 30 years global business expertise. He currently sits on the Board of Kiwibank and Insurance Australia Group (IAG). Scott is also an External Advisor to global management consulting firm Bain & Co and runs his own management and leadership consulting company Engage Consulting Limited. 

From  2013 to 2021 Scott was Chief Executive at Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC), where he led its most significant transformation in its history. Previously, Scott was Regional CEO for Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa for Willis (Towers Watson) one of the world's largest insurance brokers. Scott also served as President - Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa.

Scott is an Associate of the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance & Finance and a Certified Insurance Professional. He is also a Member of the Institute of Directors New Zealand. 

William Klitgaard

Former CIO and CFO, Covance

Bill served as President of Enlighten Health, a division of LabCorp focused on innovation and creation of new information-based services utilizing core assets of LabCorp and Covance. Previously, he spent 19 years at Covance, one of the world’s largest contract research organizations, where he served for three years as Corporate Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer and nearly twelve years as Corporate Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Prior to his time at Covance, Bill held finance leadership positions at Kenetech Corporation and Consolidated Freightways, Inc.

Sari Miller

Investor and Entrepreneur

Sari Miller has been a lead investor in numerous startups and social ventures as well as an entrepreneurial leader of large financial services companies. She was the first angel investor in LeapFrog Investments, a $135 million micro-insurance fund insuring the underserved in Africa and Asia. For Grassroots Business Fund, she was also an angel investor and sits on the senior advisory board. Miller was the first outside investor in Purpose Global, a media-strategy-tech company that builds social movements to catalyze millions of people for good. She was a founder and remains a member of the board at Nexii. She also serves on the board of Digital Divide Data. Earlier in her career, Miller was a founding investor in Switch & Data Facilities (which went public and is now part of Equinix)

Jessie Lam

Investor

Jessie is a passionate and active tech investor  internationally, with a focus on data-driven technologies. Previously,  she was Partner & COO at Parameter Ventures, a New York-based  venture capital firm, she invests in early stage enterprise companies.  Before that as CFO and investment committee member at global venture  accelerator Brinc, Jessie managed capital  formation, investment strategy, fund accounting, portfolio analytics,  investor reporting, risk and governance for three early stage funds  spanning five offices worldwide. In addition, she mentored over 70  portfolio companies on fundraising strategy and financial planning. Jessie has been a featured speaker on venture capital at leading industry events including TEDx, Collision, and RISE.

Efe Ekhaese

Consultant, Russell Reynolds Associates

Efe is a member of Russell Reynolds' global Healthcare Sector. He is a trusted client advisor, working with leading organizations globally to recruit, develop and assess top talent from a range of industry verticals. With more than a decade of consulting experience in both the UK and US, Efe has developed a particular focus in medical devices and diagnostics, pharmaceuticals and life sciences, as well as working with private equity clients to help build effective leadership teams across portfolio companies.