Headspace Taps Seasoned Tech Leader as Chief Technology Officer

New Chief Technology Officer Fulfills Headspace’s Senior Leadership Team Search

SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today, Headspace, a global leader in mindfulness and meditation, announced that Krithika Swaminathan will join the company as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) effective August 11, 2021. Reporting into Headspace’s CEO, CeCe Morken, Swaminathan will oversee a cross-functional team leading the company’s technology roadmap and innovation to help accelerate the company’s mission of improving the health and happiness of the world.

“Krithika is a seasoned leader with a deep technology background, specifically in SaaS, data science, artificial intelligence and machine learning which was the perfect experience combination we were looking for in this role,” stated CeCe Morken. “As Headspace excellerates and grows as the leading mental health resource around the globe, we have confidence that Krithika will lead our world-class technology organization to new heights.”

“Of all the possibilities to have landed in my lap, I find it most serendipitous that I should come across Headspace: a company that specializes in the life-changing practice of mindfulness and meditation,” said Swaminathan. “My own practice began 16 years ago, when one of my family members received a serious medical diagnosis. Finding a way through is arduous for anyone, but I found mine through meditation.”

Swaminathan continued, “This is an opportunity that fulfills my dream of giving back in a substantive and personally meaningful way, while exercising the full spectrum of muscles I have built through years working in technology. I had imagined refining my practice in mindfulness post-employment, but sometimes the universe has other plans. I believe this is one of those times, and I won’t turn my back to the opportunity.”

Swaminathan most recently held the position of Vice President for Artificial Intelligence at Intuit where she was responsible for leading the Consumer Applications and Security, Risk and Fraud teams and Machine Learning engineering for the Intuit Artificial Intelligence organization. For over 10 years, she established a proven track record for delivering transformational organizational and business results. She was also Vice President of Platform Engineering for the Consumer Group (TurboTax, Turbo, Mint) with responsibility for operations, site reliability, performance engineering, development productivity, quality and security engineering. Before that, she was Vice President for Site Reliability, Security and Quality Engineering for Intuit Platform. Prior to Intuit, Krithika spent six years as Senior Director of Engineering Services with Borland Software Corporation - now a subsidiary of Micro Focus International - where her data-driven approach resulted in a significant increase in test automation and developer productivity for the company. Her extensive corporate experience also includes senior engineering roles at Citrix and Compuware. She holds a master’s degree in Computer Science from the National Institute of Technology in Tiruchirappalli, India.

About Headspace

Headspace was created with one mission in mind: to improve the health and happiness of the world. Reaching 70 million users in 190 countries, Headspace was one of the first meditation apps in the world and remains a leader in mindfulness and mental training. Headspace is committed to advancing the field of mindfulness through clinically validated research, with one of the largest research pipelines of any digital health and wellness company. Headspace operates a B2B business (Headspace for Work) to offer its mindfulness products and services to more than 2,000 companies, such as Starbucks, Adobe, Hyatt and Unilever, to help them build healthier, more productive cultures and higher performing organizations. Headspace supports government entities like New York State and the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) to offer digital mental health tools. Headspace partners with many of the world’s most-recognizable brands, including Apple, Sesame Street, Spotify, Amazon, and Nike as well as Netflix for a three part mindfulness series that premiered in 2021. Headspace Health is Headspace’s digital health subsidiary pioneering new ways to incorporate the Headspace mindfulness experience into digital medicine. Headspace has been recognized as TIME100’s Most Influential Companies of 2021, Fast Company’s 10 most innovative social good companies of 2021 and World's Most Innovative Companies. Other accolades include Apple's Best of 2018, Samsung's Best of 2019 and one of CB Insights' top digital health companies, along with being selected for seven Webby Awards in podcasts, health and fitness. For more information please visit us at www.headspace.com, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.