Digital health company Carrot Inc. has announced the appointments of Kristin Russel as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Laurie Zaugg as Chief Revenue Officer. The two industry veterans of the wellness market and health join recent hire Scott Osler, VP of Sales, as Carrot drives to commercialize Pivot, the company's tech-enabled smoking cessation program, which uses a mix of app-based learning, human coaching, and the Pivot Breath Sensor to transform the way people quit smoking.

Russel will lead Carrot's marketing initiatives driving demand for the Pivot solution. Prior to Carrot, she was Vice President Marketing for Humana's wholly owned subsidiary Transcend Insights and was recently named as one of Becker's top 100 women in healthcare. Russel uses her MBA in international finance from the École Supérieure de Commerce de Rennes, France and her master's degree in public administration from Carleton University in Canada to support the strategic endeavors of the organizations she leads.

Zaugg, previously Chief Operating Officer at Happify, is charged with delivering commercial strategy and spearheading growth initiatives to drive demand for Pivot. She brings 14 years experience as a healthcare executive and change leader at UnitedHealth Group and Optum, ranging from General Management of the employer channel for specialty networks and behavioral health to leading Growth Operations and HR. Prior to that, she held leadership positions at both Thomson Reuters and American Express. She has a MEq in Industrial Organizational Psychology from the University of Minnesota and a BA in Psychology from Concordia College, Moorhead.

With the addition of Kristin & Laurie, we round out our commercial team and garner immediate value as we further position Carrot to deliver on its promise of transforming the market for smoking cessation by helping millions of people quit smoking… at scale

"We are excited to extend our focus beyond product development, clinical trial work and regulatory clearance into this next phase of commercialization and growth," said David Utley, MD, Carrot's founder, President & CEO. "With the addition of Kristin & Laurie, we round out our commercial team and garner immediate value as we further position Carrot to deliver on its promise of transforming the market for smoking cessation by helping millions of people quit smoking… at scale."

Smoking is the leading cause of preventable illness, premature death, excess health care expenditure, and lost work productivity. In the U.S., nearly half a million people die from smoking-related illnesses each year. Carrot's multidisciplinary team of physicians, scientists, engineers, and designers is on a mission is to save millions of lives with Pivot.