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Headspace Announces Leadership Transition

Santa Monica, CA - Headspace, a global leader in mindfulness and meditation, today announced that CeCe Morken has been appointed to the role of Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective January 1, 2021. At that time, current CEO and co-founder Rich Pierson and co-founder Andy Puddicombe will transition to the new roles of Co-Executive Chairmen of the Board.

CeCe is a highly accomplished executive with more than 35 years of operational expertise and experience scaling large organizations. Since assuming the role of President & COO of Headspace in April 2020, CeCe has overseen all areas of Headspace’s global operations, played a key role in the development of the Company’s growth strategy, including strengthening its technology capabilities, and oversaw the Company’s COVID-19 response. In addition, she has helped to launch several recent initiatives and partnerships, including Headspace’s partnership with Microsoft Teams, the launch of Headspace Mini in partnership with Snap and the appointment of John Legend in the new role Chief Music Officer. She also helped lead the introduction of the Headspace Promise, a commitment to providing expanded access to mindfulness and meditation tools for healthcare workers, K-12 educators and unemployed individuals during the public health crisis.

“When we founded Headspace in 2010, we never imagined it would become the meditation and mindfulness leader it is today. As the world continues to recognize the benefits of meditation and mindfulness, Headspace has seen tremendous growth: in the past six months, we’ve doubled our new subscribers versus the same period last year, and our B2B business has seen a +500% increase in interest from companies globally. With our business stronger than ever and a deep leadership bench, we concluded that now is the right time to evolve our roles, as we take a step back to begin the next chapter on our own personal journeys – devoting more time to our philanthropic endeavors,” said Rich Pierson.

Andy Puddicombe noted, “We, along with our Board, are confident that CeCe is the right person to serve as CEO and lead Headspace into its next era of growth. The pivotal role CeCe has played over the past few months and the deep experience she brings delivering high growth during rapid periods of industry disruption give us the utmost confidence in her leadership. We look forward to continuing to support CeCe and the entire Headspace team in our new roles as Co-Executive Chairmen.”

“I am honored to play a deeper role in accelerating Headspace’s strong momentum and our vision to improve health and happiness around the world,” said CeCe Morken. “Our mission has become even more essential and relevant to consumers and businesses, presenting a tremendous opportunity to continue to disrupt the industry and address key real-life issues through our differentiated product offering. While Headspace has experienced significant growth over the past few years, I believe this is just the tip of the iceberg. I am excited to lead the organization at such an important time in its history.”

In their new roles as Co-Executive Chairmen, Rich and Andy will remain integrally involved in the Company, as Board members, the largest stakeholders in the Company and advocates for Headspace and its mission.

Since March 2020, Headspace has seen exponential growth across its direct-to-consumer business and B2B segment both in the United States and internationally. In addition, Headspace continues to expand beyond direct-to-consumer, B2B and pure-play meditation with the launch of its new multi-platform studio creating and distributing mindful living content, Headspace Studios, as well as its work at Headspace Health to bring to market the world’s first effective digital therapeutic product. Headspace is also accelerating its international growth efforts in 2020 and beyond, including investing in India, one of the fastest growing health and wellness regions in the world, and across Europe, one of the fastest-growing B2B regions worldwide.

CeCe Morken Biography

CeCe is a recognized pioneer in applying design-thinking methodologies to digital technology products and solutions to solve business challenges. Prior to joining Headspace, CeCe led multiple business units at Intuit. Most recently, she oversaw Intuit’s Strategic Enterprise Partners platform, where she was responsible for the Accountant Business Segment, building strategic partnerships between Intuit and financial institutions, enterprise platforms and government and educational entities, as well as leading Intuit’s Corporate Responsibility efforts. Before that, CeCe led Intuit Financials Services, which provides digital banking solutions to help financial institutions connect with customers.

Prior to joining Intuit in 2002, CeCe was responsible for sales of all products and professional services at WebTone Technologies. She also served as senior vice president for retail lending at Fortis Investments and spent 15 years in a variety of positions with John H. Harland Co.

CeCe currently serves on the Boards of GENPACT and NDSU College of Business. CeCe is a graduate of North Dakota State University, where she majored in economics and business administration. She also attended the University of Chicago Booth's executive development program.

About Headspace

Headspace was created with one mission in mind: to improve the health and happiness of the world. Reaching more than 65 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, having 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 1,300 companies, such as Starbucks, Adobe, GE, Hyatt and Unilever, to help them build healthier, more productive cultures and higher performing organizations. Headspace partners with government entities like New York State to offer mental health resources to its residents as well as many of the world’s most-recognizable brands, including Apple, Amazon and more. Headspace also partners with brands like Nike, NBA and the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team to offer sport and movement content. In 2018, Headspace launched Headspace Health, a digital health subsidiary pioneering new ways to incorporate the Headspace mindfulness experience into digital medicine. Headspace has been recognized by Fast Company as one of the World's Most Innovative Companies, Apple's Best of 2018, Samsung's Best of 2019 and one of CB Insights' top digital health companies, along with being selected for five Webby Awards in health and fitness between 2018 and 2019. For more information please visit us at www.headspace.com, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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