Wendy Werve · VP of Communications

Roadmap

30 · 60 · 90 Day Plan

Days — Listen & Map

I've walked into a $400M+ health platform before. Here's how I start, and what I'm already watching.

FDA posture audit — The blood pressure warning letter was a communications failure before it was a regulatory one. The phrase "medical-grade health & performance insights" triggered it. I want to know every claim on every surface that could create the next one, and build the proactive regulatory communications posture that prevents it
Will Ahmed executive visibility map — Audit his current footprint: where he's showing up, how he's being positioned, what's working and what's creating risk. At $10.1B and with an IPO narrative being written right now, the CEO communications program needs to be airtight
Internal alignment assessment — 600+ new hires coming in 2026. How aligned is the existing 1,300+ person global team with WHOOP's mission? Culture fractures during hypergrowth. Internal communications is how you prevent it
Kristen Holmes and the Scientific Advisory Council — Map what's being produced, what's being placed, and what's being left on the table. This is WHOOP's most underleveraged earned media asset
Health OS narrative audit — WHOOP has explicitly named "Health Operating System" as its long-term vision. Is that phrase showing up consistently across all external communications? Is the media covering WHOOP as a fitness tracker or as something categorically bigger? The answer to that question tells you everything about the current communications gap
Media relationship audit — Who are WHOOP's tier-1 relationships across health, science, tech, business, financial, and lifestyle press? Where are the gaps? The IPO story will need Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and Financial Times relationships that may not exist yet
Social and owned channel voice audit — What is WHOOP publishing, at what cadence, in what voice? Who owns editorial standards? For a brand where the product IS the content (daily health data, member stories, research), the owned channel strategy is inseparable from the communications strategy
Awards and industry recognition audit — Is WHOOP winning the right awards? Being named to the right lists? Gartner, Fast Company, TIME, Forbes Health, these aren't vanity. They're institutional credibility signals that show up in media coverage, sales cycles, and investor decks. At Virgin Pulse we built a systematic awards program that generated coverage and pipeline simultaneously
Comms team assessment — What does the team need? What are the blockers? What's the agency roster and are they delivering?

Days — Build & Prioritize

Build the architecture. Address the hot buttons. Get ahead of what's coming.

Global communications strategy brief — External PR, executive comms, regulatory narrative, internal comms, crisis framework, analyst relations, and IPO-readiness communications, integrated into one document Will Ahmed and the board can act on
Regulatory communications posture — WHOOP is a Medicare participant, an FDA-adjacent platform, and a clinical research partner. The next regulatory moment is coming. Build the proactive posture now, not after the warning letter arrives
The 45–60 women's market narrative — WHOOP's Advanced Labs Women's Health panel launches April 2026. This is the moment to build the communications program that speaks directly to the highest-spending health demographic WHOOP currently ignores. I am the proof of concept for this story
Analyst and financial media program — Gartner, Forrester, IDC don't cover consumer wearables the same way they cover enterprise health tech, but they will need to as WHOOP scales. Start building those relationships now, before the IPO conversation begins
Roadshow narrative foundation — Begin building the IPO narrative architecture: the mission arc, the category ownership story, the moat, the growth thesis. When the roadshow comes, the communications scaffolding needs to already exist. This is not a 30-day job, it starts now
Scientific Advisory Council communications program — Turn Kristen Holmes, Andrew Huberman, Robin Berzin, and the advisory council into a systematic earned media engine. Research-driven coverage that no competitor can replicate because no competitor has this scientific bench
Subscription retention narrative — At $149–$359/year, every renewal is a communications challenge. Build the content and messaging system that earns the subscription daily, turning data into decisions people trust enough to act on
Member communications infrastructure — Templates, escalation protocols, and audience-appropriate messaging hierarchies for outages, pricing changes, FDA moments, and product updates
WHOOP Unite communications strategy — The B2B enterprise buyer is a fundamentally different audience. Chief HR Officers, Chief People Officers, and corporate wellness program managers need case studies, ROI narratives, and peer validation, not athlete stories
Athlete and ambassador program infrastructure — Move from individual athlete moments to a systematic communications program: data-verified stories, research-backed narratives, coordinated editorial calendars tied to athlete performance windows

Days — Activate & Measure

Show what an integrated global communications function looks like in motion.

First fully owned campaign — From brief to tier-1 coverage. Demonstrating the integrated PR, executive, scientific, and brand approach working as one system
IPO communications readiness assessment — Deliver a frank assessment of where WHOOP's communications infrastructure stands relative to what a company at this valuation stage needs before a public markets conversation. With a recommended roadmap to close the gap
Roadshow media training program — Begin formal executive media training for Will Ahmed specifically calibrated for financial press and investor audiences, different from consumer or tech media in tone, scrutiny, and consequence. The webMethods IPO taught me what "ready" looks like. I know the difference
Global expansion communications framework — UAE is active, EMEA is opening, 600+ roles are hiring globally. Localizing without fragmenting the brand is one of the hardest problems in communications. I've done it across 190+ countries and 20 languages
Monthly comms dashboard — Share of voice, sentiment, tier-1 placements, executive visibility, internal engagement scores, subscription narrative performance. What gets measured gets managed
Spokesperson development program launch — Kristen Holmes positioned as WHOOP's primary science voice in media. Advisory council members activated in their specific domains. A bench of credible spokespeople who can carry the brand narrative when Will isn't in the room
First awards and recognition wins — Fast Company Most Innovative Companies, TIME100 Health, Forbes Health, identify the highest-value targets for 2026 and begin the submission and relationship process
12-month roadmap and team structure — Resourcing ask benchmarked against what it took to build a world-class communications function at scale, presented to Will Ahmed and leadership with full business case

Thinking

Current WHOOP
Communications
Themes

🤖

AI in health is the most dangerous communications territory WHOOP will navigate

WHOOP's AI Coach is already live. The Stanford-ARPA-H coalition is building AI-powered health assessments. Advanced Labs integrates AI coaching with 75+ biomarkers. The $10.1B valuation story is partly an AI story. And the FDA already demonstrated exactly how fast "wellness AI" becomes "regulated medical device" when the communications posture isn't disciplined.

AI communications in health requires a specific and rare skill: making the technology feel transformative without making claims that trigger regulatory scrutiny, building consumer trust without overpromising clinical outcomes, and navigating the line between "this AI helped me optimize my recovery" and "this AI diagnosed my condition." One wrong word, and the next warning letter writes itself.

I have managed AI communications in regulated health environments for years, at Virgin Pulse (12.5B+ data points monthly, behavioral AI and ML engines) and at Comply (AI-powered compliance technology in financial services, one of the most regulated industries in the world). I know how to tell the AI story in a way that builds credibility, drives adoption, and stays on the right side of every regulator watching.

the biggest communications opportunity · and the biggest risk

🖥️

WHOOP has named its destination. The VP of Communications has to make the world believe it.

Will Ahmed has said it explicitly: WHOOP's long-term vision is to become the world's Health Operating System, "health that is always-on, preventive rather than reactive, personalized instead of generic." That is one of the most ambitious category-defining statements in health technology. It's also completely unclaimed communications territory.

Apple has distribution. Google has data. Samsung has hardware. But none of them have committed to the Health OS narrative, and none of them have WHOOP's depth of continuous biometric data, clinical integration, AI coaching, and Advanced Labs biomarker integration. WHOOP is the only company positioned to own this category. The communications infrastructure to make that claim stick, credibly, consistently, and before a competitor decides to take it, is the most important thing a VP of Communications can build right now.

At Virgin Pulse, our team coined and trademarked the category narrative that defined an entire market. That's the same job here, at a bigger scale, with a more powerful vision.

Health OS

the category · unclaimed · the window is open

⚡

Tracking → Action → Identity

Will Ahmed said it himself: "Health monitoring is becoming one of the most important platforms in the world, and WHOOP intends to own the category." Owning a category requires owning its definition. Right now WHOOP is simultaneously a fitness tracker, a medical device, an enterprise wellness platform, an AI coach, and a longevity tool. That's five different stories. A VP of Communications has to make it one. I already have the answer: tracking → action → identity → Health OS. And I've built that narrative system before, at scale, for the company WHOOP Unite now competes against directly. The communications job is to make 'Health Operating System' mean something before Apple, Google, or Samsung claims the category.

One

story · not five · that's the job

⚖️

The FDA fight exposed the gap

A single phrase on WHOOP's website, "medical-grade health & performance insights," became regulatory poison and triggered an FDA warning letter in July 2025. WHOOP went public fighting when a more disciplined communications posture might have resolved it quietly. The episode is over, but the vulnerability isn't. WHOOP is now a Medicare participant, a clinical research partner, and a blood pressure monitoring platform. The next regulatory moment is coming. I've managed health data narratives across HIPAA, GDPR, and SOC-regulated environments for 7 years. I know the difference between fighting and winning.

Built

proactive privacy infrastructure · not reactive

💰

$10.1B needs a unified narrative

WHOOP just closed a $575M round at a $10.1B valuation, with 2025 bookings up 103% year over year and a $1.1B run rate. That number demands a story, one that makes investors, enterprise buyers, media, and consumers believe simultaneously, not just in the product, but in the Health Operating System vision that justifies the valuation. Right now the narrative is fragmented across athlete brand, enterprise platform, medical contender, AI coach, and global expansion. The VP of Communications has to build the single through-line that makes $10.1B feel inevitable, not aspirational. We trademarked a platform narrative, Homebase for Health™, that unified a $400M+ company. That is exactly this job.

$10.1B

valuation that needs one story

🌍

Global expansion without brand fragmentation

Will Ahmed said it explicitly: "It's time to expand globally." WHOOP is already active in the UAE, expanding Advanced Labs internationally, and hiring across North America, Europe, and beyond with 600+ roles opening in 2026. Global communications, localizing without fragmenting, entering new markets without confusing the core identity, is extraordinarily hard. I ran marketing for a platform operating in 20 languages across 190+ countries. I've done this. At scale. In a regulated health data environment.

190+

countries · done this before

🔄

Justifying the subscription every single day

With tiers at $149–$359/year and Oura offering comparable data for $6/month, every renewal is a communications challenge. The story has to continuously earn the subscription, turning data into decisions people trust enough to act on, and actions they repeat until WHOOP becomes identity. This is the behavior change loop. It's the hardest problem in the category. We solved it at 100%+ Net ARR Retention for a $400M+ platform. The system I'd build at WHOOP starts the same way: own the moment of daily decision, not just the moment of purchase.

100%+

Net ARR retention · built on this loop

👥

The highest-spending health consumer WHOOP isn't talking to

Women 45–60 are the single highest-spending demographic on preventive health, wellness products, supplements, and health technology. They have peak earning power combined with the health urgency that comes with perimenopause and menopause. WHOOP's Advanced Labs Women's Health panel launches April 2026. The communications have not caught up. WHOOP's current brand voice skews young, male, and sport-focused. Nobody is speaking directly to the 45–60 woman who is the most motivated, most engaged, most willing-to-pay health consumer in the market. I am that woman. 57 years old. 928-day streak. WHOOP Age 10 years younger than my actual age. Top 1–5% daily strain. I never considered myself an athlete until WHOOP showed me in data that I was performing like one. That is the most powerful story WHOOP hasn't told yet. And nobody on the current team can tell it from the inside the way I can.

45–60

highest-spending women's health demographic · untapped by WHOOP

🏆

Athlete and ambassador communications is its own discipline

LeBron James. Rory McIlroy. Patrick Mahomes. Aryna Sabalenka. Sha'Carri Richardson. Cristiano Ronaldo. These aren't just endorsers, they are communications assets. And WHOOP is underleveraging the women. Sabalenka is the World No. 1 in tennis, a WHOOP ambassador, and the face of one of the most compelling communications moments WHOOP has had: the Australian Open wearables ban controversy, where she publicly defended wearing her WHOOP on court. Will Ahmed fired back, "Data is not steroids!", and WHOOP released a video of top ambassadors wearing the band. It was a moment. But it needed a system behind it. The athlete communications program needs to be systematic, data-verified, and audience-targeted, not just reactive to moments as they happen.

Sabalenka

World No. 1 · WHOOP ambassador · the women's story untold

🎤

Will Ahmed can't be everywhere. Build the bench.

A VP Comms at this level doesn't just manage the CEO's visibility, they build a roster of credible spokespeople who can carry the brand narrative across every audience and channel. Kristen Holmes is the most obvious and underutilized asset: a Principal Scientist, elite athlete, Ivy League championship coach, and 7-year US National Team member who speaks the language of performance, data, and human potential. Beyond Kristen, the Scientific Advisory Council, Huberman, Berzin, Brager, Shepherd, each has their own audience and credibility. A systematic spokesperson development program turns those individuals into a coordinated communications force. We built this at Virgin Pulse with our Science Advisory Board. I know exactly how to do it.

Bench

Kristen Holmes · advisory council · beyond the CEO

💬

Member communications is a crisis waiting to happen, or a loyalty engine

WHOOP has millions of members who receive communications every day. When something goes wrong, an outage, an FDA moment, a pricing increase, a data concern, how you communicate with members in the first 24 hours determines whether you retain them or lose them. The WHOOP 5.0 launch showed what happens when a pricing promise breaks: immediate public backlash from the most loyal members. I managed a catastrophic Black Friday outage that put millions in revenue at risk. I know the difference between a member communication that defuses and one that accelerates. Building the member communications infrastructure, templates, escalation protocols, audience-appropriate messaging hierarchies, is day-one work.

24hrs

member comms in a crisis · the window that matters

🏢

WHOOP Unite needs its own communications voice

WHOOP Unite competes directly against Virgin Pulse (now Personify Health), the company where I spent seven years building the communications infrastructure for the enterprise health and wellbeing market. The B2B buyer, Chief HR Officers, Chief People Officers, corporate wellness program managers, is a fundamentally different audience than a consumer athlete or a Medicare participant. They need case studies, ROI narratives, regulatory compliance reassurance, and peer validation. I have spent more time inside the communications strategy for this exact buyer than anyone WHOOP is likely to interview. That is not a parallel skill. That is direct experience.

B2B

WHOOP Unite · enterprise buyer · different voice entirely

📈

The IPO moment is coming, and the communications infrastructure needs to be built before it arrives

At $10.1B and with 600+ hires coming, when the roadshow comes, the VP of Communications will be a critical guide in the room. Roadshow prep means crafting the narrative that makes institutional investors believe, not just the financials, but the mission, the category, the moat, and the team. It means media training Will Ahmed for the most scrutinized interviews of his career. It means managing the story across financial press, tech press, and health press simultaneously without letting any of them fracture the narrative.

I was part of the webMethods IPO, 508% first-day pop, built on years of analyst positioning and financial media credibility. I prepared Plateau Systems for a $290M acquisition by positioning them as a Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader. The VP of Communications role at WHOOP likely exists in part because this moment is coming. I've been in that moment before. Not after.

Roadshow

IPO narrative · media training · financial press · the moment is coming

🍎

Apple has distribution. WHOOP has depth.

Apple Watch holds ~30% of the global smartwatch market. Samsung, Garmin, Fitbit, all adding recovery metrics. And then there's Oura: $5.2B valuation, headed toward $1B+ in revenue, $6/month, and increasingly feature-comparable. The communications job isn't to pretend the competition doesn't exist, it's to make WHOOP feel categorically different, not just better. Oura wins on price and simplicity. WHOOP wins on science, data depth, clinical credibility, and identity, and is the only company in the category with a credible claim to being a true Health Operating System. That is not a product claim. It is a communications category to own, before Apple, Oura, or Samsung gets there first. That is a communications problem, not a product problem. Ahmed said it: "Health is the north star of these devices and so many companies seem to lose sight of that." That's a positioning instinct. But instinct isn't a system.

At Virgin Pulse we competed against well-funded, lower-cost competitors every day and we won on narrative. The same playbook applies here: own the depth story, make the science undeniable, and build the communications infrastructure that makes WHOOP feel like the only credible choice for people who take their health seriously. WHOOP has the assets to build that system. Dr. Kristen Holmes, Global Head of Human Performance, Principal Scientist, former Princeton national championship coach, US National Team athlete, is one of the most credible voices in human performance anywhere. The Scientific Advisory Council includes Dr. Andrew Huberman, Dr. Robin Berzin, Dr. Allison Brager, Dr. Jessica Shepherd, Dr. Gina Merchant, and Dr. Hazel Wallace. That is an extraordinary bench of credibility. It is not being fully leveraged. At Virgin Pulse, our team built a Science Advisory Board of global experts and turned their voices into earned media gravity. I know exactly how to build that communications infrastructure around Kristen and the advisory council to make WHOOP's depth feel like the only credible choice in the category.

Depth

beats distribution · if you tell the story right

The case

I Never Called
Myself an Athlete.
WHOOP Did.

"Biohacking without biofeedback is just guesswork. Invest in a WHOOP."

Wendy Werve · "Blueberries and Biohacks" · 6Sense Empowered CMO Summit · 2025 · 100 invite-only B2B CMOs · Unpaid. Unprompted. Because I believe it.

Wendy Werve

Marketing and Communications Executive · PR & Media Relations Native · Hands-On Practitioner · Master Storyteller · Narrative Architect · Crisis Communications · Media Training · 25+ Years in the Communications Function · Health, Wellbeing & Regulated Industries

I never thought of myself as an athlete. WHOOP changed that. Not by telling me I was one, but by showing me, in data, every single day, that I was performing like one. A 928-day streak. A WHOOP Age 10 years younger than my actual age. Top 1–5% for daily strain across every community I participate in. Pace of aging: 0.1x, slower than last week. That shift, from "I'm not an athlete" to "the data says otherwise", is the most powerful thing WHOOP does. It doesn't just track you. It rewrites how you see yourself. And that is exactly the story I want to help the world understand.

I don't talk about performance. I measure it. These aren't vanity metrics, they are the output of a disciplined system: consistent training, data-driven recovery, precise nutrition, and the willingness to listen to the signal even when the instinct says push harder. That same discipline is how I approach communications. I build systems, measure outcomes, and optimize relentlessly. The right narrative, delivered consistently, with rigorous measurement behind it, compounds over time, exactly the way training does.

I am not a marketer who learned communications. I am a communications professional who grew into a CMO. Journalism degree. PR agencies. Twenty-five years in the discipline before the C-suite. I've pitched journalists, placed tier-1 coverage, media trained CEOs, managed data privacy crises, and built research-driven earned media programs that generate pickup without a pitch. I know how newsrooms work. I know where the landmines are. And I know the difference between a statement that defuses and one that accelerates.

One thing worth noting: over the past 13 years I've also led full marketing functions, teams ranging from 13 to 100+ people, across health, wellbeing, regulated industries, and marketing technology. I'm here for the VP Communications role and fully committed to it. But if WHOOP ever needs someone who can bridge communications and the broader marketing function, that's a conversation I'm ready to have.

What makes me different from every other candidate reading this job description: I don't need to learn WHOOP's mission. I live it, every single day, with data to prove it. I know where WHOOP is headed, because they've said it explicitly: a Health Operating System that helps people live better and longer. That's not a product roadmap. That's a communications mandate. They've named it themselves: a true Health Operating System. I've already built the communications infrastructure for the company WHOOP Unite now competes against directly. And I want to bring everything I've built, measured, and learned to make that vision real.

928

Day streak · still going

-10 Yrs

WHOOP Age

Top 1–5%

Daily strain · every community

Biomarkers tracked · Advanced Labs

Why WHOOP Wants Wendy

A lot of VP Communications candidates can tell a story. Far fewer have done it inside a company scaling from $20M to $400M+ with a trademarked platform narrative they built from scratch, while living the mission on their wrist every single day.

The combination, narrative architect and revenue-scale operator, communications native and category insider, proven crisis manager and WHOOP member with a 928-day streak, is what makes this different. WHOOP is building toward a true Health Operating System. That requires a communications leader who can own a category, not just manage a brand. That is exactly what I have done. This isn't a candidate who learned about behavior change communications. This is someone who built the infrastructure for it, measured it, scaled it, and wears the proof on her wrist.

How I map to the job description

JD requires

10–15+ years communications experience

Journalism degree. PR & comms specialist. 25+ years in the communications function before becoming CMO. This is my native discipline.

JD requires

Trusted counselor to CEO and top executives

Sat on the C-suite at Virgin Pulse. Reported to CEO. Media trained executives. Built the executive comms engine.

JD requires

Crisis communications with sound judgment

Managed real crises, data privacy incidents, Black Friday outages, working with crisis agencies to build plans and craft responses. Know what defuses and what accelerates.

JD requires

Policy communications

Navigated regulatory landscape for a health data platform across global markets including EU GDPR compliance and US health data regulation.

JD requires

Internal communications that drive culture and alignment

Owned internal comms at Virgin Pulse across 1,400 employees in 13 global offices. Built the culture narrative through 7 acquisitions.

JD requires

Global perspective, cultural nuance, international markets

20 languages. 190+ countries. Global Centers of Excellence in Zurich, Bosnia, Singapore, Melbourne.

JD requires

AI and healthcare intersection experience

Launched AI-driven health products at VP. 12.5B+ data points monthly. Built communications around behavioral AI and ML engines.

JD requires

Deep media relations and journalist instincts

Started in PR. Know how journalists think, what they need, and where the landmines are. Pitched and placed stories. Built research-led earned media programs that generated coverage without a pitch.

JD requires

Passion for the WHOOP mission

"Biohacking without biofeedback is just guesswork. Invest in a WHOOP." Said from a stage. Unpaid. WHOOP Age: 10 years younger than my actual age.

Career timeline

COMPLY · New York & Washington, DC (in office)

CMO, Category leader in regulatory compliance software, consulting, and education for the financial services sector (7,000+ clients including hedge funds, broker-dealers, RIAs, and private equity). Leading go-to-market across demand generation, corporate communications, brand, digital, product marketing, and field. Serving as PR contact and communications lead for all press releases and media. Expanded COMPLY's footprint into UK and EMEA markets in 2025.

2024 – Present · CMO

Marigold (now Zeta Global) · Nashville, TN

CMO, Led integration and rebrand of six separate brands (Campaign Monitor, Emma, Sailthru, Cheetah Digital, Selligent, Vuture) into a single unified platform. Consolidated team from 112 to 63, unified GTM under "Relationship Marketing" positioning, improved LTV:CAC from 2.0x to 3.5x, grew pipeline 67% at 45% of spend. Launched Marigold brand across US and EMEA.

2022 – 2024 · CMO

Virgin Pulse (now Personify Health) · Framingham, MA → Providence, RI

CMO, Scaled the only global SaaS platform in digital health and employee wellbeing to 7.5M+ lives, 4,000+ enterprise customers (24% of Fortune 500), $400M+ revenue at 15% CAGR, 100%+ Net ARR Retention, 17x LTV/CAC. Trademarked Homebase for Health™ and Changing Lives for Good™. Led full rebrand, AI product launches, Thrive Summit (1,000+ companies, Mel Robbins, Matthew Walker, Josh Bersin), health data privacy narrative across HIPAA/GDPR/SOC. Generated 72% of total company pipeline. Commuted 4 days/week from Washington, DC.

2015 – 2021 · CMO

SumTotal Systems · Skillsoft

VP Marketing → Marketing Leader, Rebranded SumTotal in 60 days. Led all aspects of global marketing including Corporate Communications/PR, demand gen, analyst relations, and field marketing. Grew bookings 269%, pipeline 23%, MQLs 52%. Managed successful exit to Skillsoft (2014). Led post-acquisition integration of comms and marketing functions.

2013 – 2015

OpenText (Metastorm acquisition) · Fairfax, VA

Director, Global Public Relations, Built and executed global PR programs positioning OpenText as the leader in Enterprise Information Management across all media and influencer channels. Managed five-person team, global PR agency, and regional agencies worldwide. Prior: Director of Marketing & Influencer Relations for OpenText's BPM group post-Metastorm acquisition.

2010 – 2013

Plateau Systems (acquired by SuccessFactors/SAP) · Arlington, VA

Director, Marketing Communications, PR & Analyst Relations, Secured coverage in USA Today, Washington Post, InformationWeek, HR Executive, CLO, and top trade publications. Positioned Plateau as a Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader. Organized first Analyst Day. Helped prepare company for $290M exit to SuccessFactors (subsequently acquired by SAP for $3.4B).

2006 – 2010

Appian Corporation · Vienna, VA

Senior Manager, Corporate Communications, Coined the term "BPM Suites" to define a new market category, major analysts later redefined the space using it. Secured CEO as InformationWeek Top 10 Innovator. Generated coverage in Washington Post, USA Today, InformationWeek. Led PR, analyst relations, and events. License revenue grew 170%+ during tenure.

2004 – 2006

webMethods (acquired by Software AG) · Fairfax, VA

Senior Manager, Analyst Relations & Corporate Communications, Built global analyst relations and comms programs from the ground up. Company went public in 2000, rising 508% on day one, fourth-best IPO debut at the time. Revenue grew from under $12M to nearly $200M. Consistently positioned as a leader across B2B, integration, and web services markets.

1999 – 2004

Ketchum Thomas · Maples Communications · Poppe Tyson PR · Irvine & Redwood City, CA

PR Agency, Technology clients including Sun Microsystems, Hitachi, AST Computer, Toshiba, Active Software, Intuit. This is where I learned the craft: pitching journalists, placing stories, managing executive visibility, and understanding how newsrooms actually work.

Mid-1990s · Career foundation

Robinson Lake Sawyer Miller (RLSM) · US Senator Herb Kohl (WI) · Washington, DC

Public Affairs, Early-career experience in political communications and public affairs, including work in the US Senate. Informs the policy communications instincts I bring to regulated-industry narratives today.

Early career · Public affairs

Marquette University · Milwaukee, WI

Bachelor of Arts, Journalism & Communications · Minor: Political Science. The degree that started all of this.

Foundation

Selected work · available on request

Virgin Pulse member story compilation · opened Thrive Summit · used in the sales roadshow when we were selling the company
Morton Salt enterprise case study · how a Fortune 500 manufacturer drove company culture and employee engagement through wellbeing
Comply CTO trust letter · April 2026 · proactive trust-rebuilding communications in a regulated industry · NDA
"From Data to Identity" · WHOOP-native narrative deck · custom-built for this conversation

I believe in WHOOP's power of Why, I live it every day, and I know exactly how to tell the story of a true Health Operating System.

I want to be part of this movement. You want me on this team.

Member since day one

Why I WHOOP

"The price of admission into our house is showing Wendy your recovery score."

My teenage daughter's friends · unprompted · not on a stage · just the truth.

I am a constant, unapologetic, and completely shameless promoter of WHOOP. At dinners. At conferences. In text threads. From stages. To strangers at Barry's. If you spend more than 10 minutes with me, there's a good chance I'll ask to see your recovery score. I can't help it. I believe in it.

Wendy Werve · not a paid promotion · never has been · never needed to be.

"Just saw Rory McIlroy wearing a green WHOOP at the Masters!"

My head of product (David Biss) · texted mid-round · after I convinced him to invest in a WHOOP · his excitement was genuine · my response: Yeah, he's an early investor. Just wait until they publish his stats in a few days!

🦃

The day I hit 20.5

Thanksgiving morning, Dana Point Turkey Trot. I ran the 5K. Then the 10K. Came in 3rd in my age group. Then went and lifted for 30 minutes. My WHOOP registered a 20.5 strain score, the highest I've ever hit. I wasn't chasing the number. The number confirmed what I already knew: that I was capable of more than I'd been told, and that data doesn't lie. That day lives in my WHOOP history as the moment I understood, viscerally, not intellectually, what this platform actually does. It doesn't just track you. It tells you the truth about yourself.

20.5

personal max strain · Dana Point · Thanksgiving

🧬

What Advanced Labs changed

When I subscribed to Advanced Labs, I wasn't expecting surprises. I was expecting confirmation. What I got was precision. My results sent me back to basics on three fronts simultaneously: I overhauled my nutrition protocol based on what the biomarkers actually showed, not what I assumed was working. I adjusted my training intensity and timing to align with my recovery data rather than my calendar. And I added and eliminated specific supplements based on what my bloodwork said I actually needed, not what the internet recommended. WHOOP didn't tell me what to do. It told me what was true. The rest was just logic.

behavioral shifts · driven by real data

⏱️

10 Years Younger. Confirmed.

When my WHOOP Age came back as 10 years younger than my actual age, I didn't feel surprised. I felt vindicated. Every early morning. Every Barry's class. Every decision about sleep, nutrition, recovery, and consistency, the data confirmed that the work was working. That number isn't a vanity metric for me. It's proof that behavior change is real, that it compounds, and that the gap between knowing and doing can be closed, if you have the right system giving you the right feedback every single day. That is what WHOOP does. That is what I want to spend the next chapter of my career helping the world understand.

-10 Years

biological age · confirmed

🏃

Top 1–5% strain. Every day.

In every WHOOP community I participate in, I consistently rank in the top 1–5% for daily strain. Not occasionally. Not on good weeks. Every day. I don't lead with this because it's impressive, I lead with it because it's instructive. It means I understand WHOOP's most obsessive users from the inside. The ones who check their recovery before their email. Who plan their week around their data. Who have genuinely changed how they live because of what WHOOP told them. Those are the people this brand needs to speak to, and I am one of them.

Top 1–5%

daily strain · every community I'm in

🔋

Recovery as a competitive strategy

I used to train on a schedule. Now I train on a signal. WHOOP recovery scores changed how I think about performance at work as much as in the gym, because the data doesn't distinguish between a hard workout and a hard week. It just tells you where you are. On days when my recovery is in the green, I push. On days when it isn't, I adapt. That discipline, listening to the data even when your instinct says otherwise, is the same discipline I bring to communications strategy. Don't push the story when the signal says wait. Know when to sprint and when to recover. WHOOP taught me that.

Green

means go · yellow means adapt · I live this

I'm not applying because I think I'd be good at this job. I'm applying because I've already been living it, and I want to help the world understand what I understand about what WHOOP actually does to a person who pays attention.

Wendy Werve · April 2026

Advisory

A Case Study
in CEO
Communications

"Confidence isn't something you're given. It's something you build, through connection, preparation and self-discovery."

Will Ahmed · Founder & CEO · WHOOP

Will Ahmed is a rare founder, authentic, bold, deeply credible on the mission. The communications opportunity isn't to change who he is. It's to build the infrastructure that protects and amplifies him, so when a moment arrives, the response is disciplined, not reactive. Here are two case studies. One where the instincts were right. One where a VP of Communications would have made a material difference.

What worked

How I Built This with Guy Raz · July 2025

NPR · 1hr 6min · mainstream consumer audience

This was Will at his best. The founding story, Harvard squash captain, overtraining, 500 medical papers, a business plan born from obsession, is genuinely compelling. Guy Raz drew out the human arc: the years of struggle to gain traction with "mere mortals," the pivot away from elite-only positioning, the patient building of a category. Will came across as a founder who believes in something bigger than a product. The mission framing landed. The authenticity was undeniable.

What made it work

Stayed in founder/mission territory, where Will is unbeatable
The "mere mortals" pivot story opened WHOOP's appeal to a mainstream audience, exactly the longevity/50+ market opportunity
No legal claims, no regulatory arguments, just the story of why this company exists
Guy Raz's audience is exactly who WHOOP needs to reach next, curious, health-conscious, not yet converted

What I'd build on this

This is the template. Systematize it. More mainstream consumer press, more human-arc storytelling, more "I was never an athlete until the data said otherwise" narratives, from Will and from members. The founder story is WHOOP's most powerful earned media asset. It needs a program behind it, not just occasional appearances.

What I'd have done differently

The FDA / CNBC Response · August–December 2025

CNBC · LinkedIn · Boston Business Journal · public escalation

When the FDA issued a warning letter over WHOOP's Blood Pressure Insights feature in July 2025, WHOOP went public immediately, calling the FDA "misguided," telling the Boston Business Journal WHOOP was "not backing down," going on CNBC to argue the legal case, posting counterarguments on LinkedIn, and making an end-run to RFK Jr. The instinct to fight was understandable. The execution created a second crisis on top of the first. A published analysis in JMIR noted that the very phrase on WHOOP's website, "medical-grade health & performance insights", was the regulatory trigger. A single word choice. That is a communications problem, not a legal one.

What a VP of Communications would have changed

Caught "medical-grade insights" before it published, that phrase was the match that lit the fire
Kept the CEO off CNBC arguing a legal case, that is not the stage for that fight
Built a proactive regulatory communications posture, so that when the FDA called, the response was a press release, not a press war
Advised: fight the battle through the right channels, you can win the argument and still lose the narrative
Known the difference between defending what's right and escalating what's risky, I managed health data privacy crises in HIPAA/GDPR environments for 7 years. I know which battles to fight publicly and which to resolve quietly.

The bigger point

Will Ahmed's conviction and authenticity are genuine assets, they're a core part of what makes WHOOP's brand compelling. The VP of Communications job is to build the infrastructure that protects and amplifies that, and to be the trusted advisor who helps channel it into the moments that matter most. That requires trust. I build that kind of trust.

Member trust crisis

The WHOOP 5.0 Upgrade Backlash · May 2025

Member community · Reddit · Social media · Global

When WHOOP launched the 5.0 and WHOOP MG, the company changed a policy that members had been explicitly promised: free hardware upgrades as part of the subscription model. The backlash was immediate, loud, and came from WHOOP's most loyal members — the ones who had worn the device every day, evangelized it to friends and family, and built their identity around the data. These weren't casual users. These were the 928-day-streak people. And they felt betrayed. WHOOP eventually walked back aspects of the policy and offered accommodations — but the initial response was reactive, not proactive, and the damage to member trust was real. This is the hardest kind of crisis to manage: not an external attack, but a broken promise to the people who believed in you most.

What a VP of Communications would have changed

Audited the promise landscape before the launch — "free hardware upgrades forever" is the kind of commitment that needs to be surfaced, evaluated, and either honored or retired with significant lead time and member-first framing
Built the proactive member communication plan — if the policy was changing, the most loyal long-term members should have heard first, directly, with context, before the launch went public
Framed the accommodation as leadership, not retreat — when WHOOP walked back aspects of the policy, that should have been positioned as "we heard you and we're making it right," not managed quietly
Recognized that subscription businesses run on trust — at $149–$359/year, every member is making a bet that WHOOP will keep its promises. A broken promise isn't a PR problem. It's a retention problem, a referral problem, and a brand problem simultaneously

Why this matters for WHOOP right now

I have a 928-day streak. I am one of those members. I know exactly how that moment felt, and I know what a communications response that actually rebuilds trust looks like. The member communications infrastructure I would build at WHOOP is designed specifically to prevent this from happening again, and to ensure that when something does go wrong, the response is fast, honest, and member-first.

"The best communications counsel isn't the person who tells the CEO what they want to hear. It's the person the CEO calls before they do something they'll regret."

Wendy Werve · April 2026

I know how to work with a founder who moves fast, thinks big, and wants the job done right. Because that's how I'm wired too.

Wendy Werve · April 2026

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