Telehealth Startup Ro Taps Ex-HHS Deputy Gia Lee as Top Lawyer

Ro, a privately held telehealth organization that noticed its valuation rise to $7 billion this year, has recruited a new legal main in veteran wellness treatment lawyer Gia Lee.

Lee, a previous deputy common counsel at the US Section of Health and fitness and Human Products and services, most not too long ago invested more than three years as normal counsel for health and fitness insurance provider Clover Overall health Investments Corp., which went public very last 12 months right after remaining backed by Google parent Alphabet Inc.

Lee commenced in November at New York-dependent Ro, according to a spokesman for the firm, officially named Roman Wellness Ventures Inc. She succeeds Ro’s former normal counsel Adam Greenberg, who still left in June to just take the exact purpose at Blank Avenue Inc., a venture cash-backed coffee startup.

Started in 2017, Ro in the beginning was identified for its ads about erectile dysfunction, while it has given that expanded its offerings to address a array of other wellbeing issues, these kinds of as fat administration and women’s overall health. Ro’s technological innovation system combines in-dwelling treatment, diagnostics, labs, and pharmacy providers.

Ro stated it dealt with in-household its most new $150 million fundraising from present traders in February, which saw the company’s valuation rise to $7 billion as it seemed to bridge online and in-particular person health care. Ro appointed Tony West, the prime lawyer at ridesharing giant Uber Technologies Inc., to its board in 2020.

Lee is dependent in Washington and oversees legal and public policy for the enterprise. She reports to Ro’s co-founder and main executive officer, Zachariah Reitano.

The previous Sidley Austin senior associate spent approximately eight many years as a regulation professor at the College of California, Los Angeles, prior to joining HHS in 2011. She put in nearly 6 several years at the company, possessing earlier worked at consulting firm McKinsey & Co. and in the Justice Department’s Business of Legal Counsel.

At Clover Well being, Lee wasn’t one particular of the 6 optimum-compensated executives in fiscal 2021, in accordance to a proxy assertion submitted in August. The doc pointed out that the firm compensated about $258,500 to legal professional and former HHS principal affiliate deputy secretary Demetrios Kouzoukas, who joined Clover Health’s board very last 12 months.

The firm paid out Lee a lot more than $1.4 million in complete compensation during 2020 and approximately $678,200 after she came aboard in 2019, per a money statement.

Lee remaining Clover Wellbeing in January, according to a securities submitting. As portion of a separation settlement disclosed involving her and the firm, she been given much more than $1.3 million in payments to offset a 12 months of her foundation wage and bonuses she was thanks. Clover Wellness agreed to fork out Lee $10,000 per month for consulting get the job done.

Clover Wellbeing, which has been coping with scrutiny over Trump administration-period wellbeing treatment applications, hired Joseph Martin as its new standard counsel in March.