We are passionate about providing scalable virtual care.

Julia Hu CEO, Co-founder

Julia Hu is an American entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of Lark. Founded on the personal experience of having grown up with an undiagnosed chronic condition, Julia is passionate about bringing compassionate care to those struggling with or at risk of chronic disease. Hu was named one of the “Top 10 Women in Tech” by Forbes and was a winner of Inc. Magazine’s “30 under 30”. Prior to founding Lark in 2011, Julia ran global startup incubator, the Clean Tech Open, built a sustainable construction startup, and was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Stanford’s StartX incubator. She is on the board of the Council for Diabetes Prevention and a Singularity University faculty member. Hu received her Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees at Stanford University and half of an MBA from MIT Sloan before founding Lark. Julia loves to stay fit with hip hop.

Jeff Zira CTO, Co-founder

As the technical cofounder, Jeff is continuing to discover how to apply technology to bring humanity and connection to people with chronic conditions. Prior to Lark, Jeff co-founded and sold a social networking startup in Japan, co-founded Sanergy, the waterless sanitation startup at MIT that now has 250 employees, architected the backend tools to improve Kiva’s microfinance platform, and Product Managed Yahoo.com’s homepage.

Jeff has a BS from UC Santa Barbara and MBA from MIT Sloan. When possible, Jeff spends at least one whole day each weekend meditating.

Vadim Axelrod Vice President, Integrations and Security

Vadim is a customer-focused technologist with a passion for delivering revolutionary technological solutions to real-world problems for users. He is responsible for engineering processes, technical partnerships and security at Lark. For the last 2 decades, Vadim has founded and scaled transformational VC-backed companies in the health care technology, networking, real estate technology, security and educational technology as CTO and VP of Engineering including Rentals.com as co-founder and CTO (acquired by Primedia) and Business Signatures as Principal Technologist (acquired by Entrust).

Vadim holds an MS in Computer Science from Stanford University and loves Broadway shows and playing ultimate frisbee.

William Beyer Chief Financial Officer

Bill has been working with Lark since 2018. He is transactionally-skilled, having negotiated and closed numerous financings and M&A deals, been a key contributor to an IPO and follow-on, and conducted commerce in over twenty countries worldwide. Previously, he served as Advising CFO of Tubi.tv resulting in an acquisition by Fox (NASDAQ: FOX), COO and CFO of Raydiance, Inc. resulting in an acquisition by Coherent, Inc. (NASDAQ: COHR) and as CFO of Bitfone Corporation where he was instrumental in its acquisition by Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), among other venture-backed companies as CFO. Bill is a CPA (inactive) and holds a Bachelor of Science in Commerce degree in Accounting from Santa Clara University. He is a guest lecturer for the Sonoma State University School of Business and Economics and, has served on the Board of Directors for a technology company and as a Trustee for an educational institution.

Iveta Brigis Vice President of Human Resources

Iveta is an experienced People Operations leader with a track record of building high-performing teams and creating innovative HR programs. Before joining Lark, she helped build Google's People Operations function as the company grew from 10,000 to 100,000 employees, working on compensation, performance management, manager development, diversity & inclusion, and internal communications efforts. Iveta earned her MBA from the University of California at Irvine, and her BS in Human Development from Cornell University. She lives in Ann Arbor MI with her husband and two children.

Hallie Higbee Vice President of Account Management

With over 15 years of experience in healthcare and employee well-being at companies like Welltok and Cigna, Hallie is an expert at understanding the needs of clients and their customers, and finding solutions that support their business objectives. Hallie has a track record of managing and developing teams of Program and Account Managers, ensuring delivery of client commitments, operational excellence and a consultative approach. Hallie has an MBA from the Haas School of Business at Berkeley.

Anita Nair-Hartman Chief Strategy Officer

With a passion for making healthcare work better for everyone, Anita has dedicated over 29 years helping organizations bring data, insights and innovation to key stakeholders to improve care. Prior to joining Lark, she led Payer & Provider Strategy at IBM Watson Health after their 2016 acquisition of Truven Health where she was Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Operations. Earlier in her career, she also worked at Medecision, Aetna and Watson Wyatt. Anita earned a Master of Health Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from The Pennsylvania State University.

Shannon Marques Senior Vice President, Revenue Operations

With a focus on making healthcare more accessible and efficient, Shannon has over 20 years of experience helping payers, providers, pharmaceutical, and medical device organizations utilize their data and technology to unlock unprecedented value. Prior to joining Lark, she built Salesforce’s first commercial Healthcare & Life Sciences team in Texas. She previously held positions at HMS, EY, and HCA. Shannon earned a Master of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial & Systems Engineering from the University of Florida.

Lynne Nowak, MD Chief Medical Officer

Passionate about using data and technology to improve healthcare, Dr. Nowak has over 30 years of experience helping patients live healthier and more fulfilling lives.  Before joining Lark, Dr. Nowak led provider experience, clinical analytics and product strategy, and health information interoperability as VP/GM Clinical Data and Provider Solutions at Evernorth (formerly Express Scripts) and Cigna.  She also has nearly 15 years of direct patient care experience as a Board-Certified internal medicine physician in outpatient primary care, inpatient hospitalist medicine, and hospice/palliative care.  Dr. Nowak earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Notre Dame and her Medical Degree at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago, and she completed her Internal Medicine training at the Mayo Clinic. 

Jason Paruthi, MD Medical Director

Jason Paruthi, MD is the Medical Director at Lark. With extensive experience in clinical medicine, translational research, and health technology business development, Dr. Paruthi educates partners and prospects on how to best leverage Lark for optimized health outcomes, care coordination, and cost savings in their patient populations. Additionally, he collaborates with Lark’s Health Committee and product teams to incorporate the latest evidence and clinical guidelines into Lark’s AI coaching platform. He received his BA and MD from Boston University and was a trainee and translational researcher at Harvard Medical School where he studied clinical interventions for the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity-related chronic conditions. Outside of work, Dr. Paruthi enjoys spending time with his family and trying out new healthy, spicy recipes.

Sharon Rapoport Vice President of Data Science & Analytics

As Lark Health’s Vice President of Data Science and Analytics, Sharon leads a dynamic team whose efforts inform the behavioral interventions at the heart of Lark’s products. Our data team is focused on applying A.I and ML models to personalize the Lark coaching experience, identify and enhance clinical outcomes, and drive member engagement.

Prior to Lark, Sharon helped lead Data Science initiatives at a number of successful startups, including Plaid, the data-driven FinTech platform acquired by Visa in 2019 for $5.65 billion. Sharon received her B.Sc in Physics from MIT and her Ph.D in Astrophysics.

Christian Ricciardiello General Counsel

Christian is an experienced healthcare technology General Counsel with experience in start-up and high-growth environments, establishing and leading in-house legal and privacy teams, and advising executive leadership. Before joining Lark, Christian was the General Counsel and SVP, Legal and Business Affairs at Rally Health, Inc., a leading digital healthcare company, where he led all aspects of Rally Health's legal, privacy, compliance, and business affairs functions. Prior to joining Rally Health in 2015, Christian had a nearly ten-year career at the Central Intelligence Agency, Office of General Counsel, where he led the Agency's litigation and investigations divisions. Christian lives in Vienna, VA with his wife and three children.

Melissa Ross Vice President, Strategic Operations

Melissa's career of more than 25 years has been dedicated to driving scale and growth for leading companies at the intersection of healthcare and technology. Prior to joining Lark, she advised early stage healthcare technology companies, served as Chief Operating Officer of VisiQuate (a healthcare revenue cycle analytics and workflow company), and co-founded BRIIA.io (an accelerator program for AI startups). Earlier, Melissa spent more than a decade in business development, operations, client management, and engineering leadership positions at MedeAnalytics (the largest pure play healthcare analytics firm) while they scaled from small start-up to over 500 employees and were acquired by a private equity firm.

Melissa earned her Executive MBA from Saint Mary's College of California and her BA from Loyola University Maryland. Outside of Lark, Melissa loves spending time with her family, travel, and occasionally a good (bad) pun.

Susan Singer Vice President, Technology Operations

Susan is an experienced executive leader with a demonstrated history of success at optimizing the performance of product strategy and development, business operations, and stakeholder communications. Prior to joining Lark, she was VP of Strategic Initiatives at Rally Health, helping the company grow and scale product delivery, as it transformed from a 40-employee startup into an organization of over 1,800 employees and was acquired by Unitedhealth Group. Before that, she worked at Linden Lab (the creators of the pioneering virtual world platform Second Life), the Corporate Executive Board, as well as founded a boutique consulting firm focused on helping companies identify needs, develop project plans, and manage processes for web-based solutions delivery. Susan earned her MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia and a BA in Cognitive Science from Wellesley College.

Jonathan Fielding, MD, MPH Senior Clinical Advisor

Jonathan Fielding is a Distinguished Professor of Health Policy and Management and of Pediatrics in the Schools of Public Health and Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Fielding is an expert in public health preparedness and communications.

He served as Massachusetts Commissioner of Public Health and for 16 years as Public Health Director and Health Officer for Los Angeles County. In this capacity, he was responsible for the county’s public health response to numerous infectious disease threats. He served as a founding member of the U.S. Clinical Preventive Services Task Force and, for 17 years, as Chair of the U.S. Task Force on Community Preventive Services. He chaired the Advisory Committee for the U.S. Healthy People 2020 objectives and is currently Co-Chair for the Healthy People 2030 objectives. He was appointed by President Barak Obama to the National Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion and Integrative and Public Health, and is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Fielding founded the UCLA Center for Health Advancement, which models policies and programs to cost-effectively improve health and health equity and also researches waste in medical care. He is also a founder and co-director of the UCLA Center for Healthy Climate Solutions, which focuses on protecting human health from the harmful effects of climate change. He has authored or coauthored more than 300 original articles, commentaries, editorials and chapters on various aspects of public health, preventive medicine, health services, and health economics. He is the longstanding editor of the Annual Review of Public Health and currently writes a monthly opinion column on health issues for The Hill.

Dr. Fielding holds MD, MPH, and MA degrees from Harvard University and an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. His honors include the UCLA Medal, the Sedgwick Medal, and the Roemer, Fries and Porter prizes, as well as honorary doctorates. The UCLA Fielding School of Public Health is named for him and his wife Karin.

Robert Gabbay, MD, PhD Senior Medical Advisor

Robert A. Gabbay, MD, PhD, has 20 years of clinical and research experience and is Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President at Joslin Diabetes Center. His research focuses on improving primary care health care delivery to enhance diabetes outcomes and patients’ experiences.

Dr. Gabbay served as faculty chair of Pennsylvania’s statewide Chronic Care Model-focused Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) initiative (Chronic Care Initiative) involving more than 150 primary care practices with support from 17 payers. Throughout his career, Dr. Gabbay has been committed to providing the best quality possible to diabetes patients while exceeding the highest national clinical quality measures.