Jeff Arnold (internet entrepreneur)

Jeff Arnold
Arnold in 2015
Born1969 or 1970 (age 54–55)[1]
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Georgia
EmployerSharecare

Jeffrey Todd Arnold is an American Internet entrepreneur and executive. He is chairman of Sharecare, a health and wellness engagement platform that provides users with personal health tools.[2]

Education

[edit]

Arnold is from the U.S. state of Georgia. He attended the University of Georgia,[3][4] where he studied communications before withdrawing in 1993.[5][6] He graduated from the university at a later date.[7][8]

Professional career

[edit]

Arnold worked in pharmaceutical sales early in his career. Described by Atlanta magazine as a "serial" entrepreneur,[9] he has founded multiple health care companies, including cardiac monitoring business Quality Diagnostic Services (QDS), medical website WebMD,[10] and Atlanta-based Sharecare,[3] for which he is chairman and chief executive officer (CEO).[11][12] Arnold was also the chairman and CEO of HowStuffWorks.[13][14]

Arnold and his wife founded QDS in 1994,[5] and later sold the company in 1998 for $25 million.[1][6][15] In October 1998,[5] he launched WebMD, a health care company that provides consumers, health institutions, and physicians with medical information through the Internet. Arnold continued as CEO until he left WebMD in 2000.[5][16][17] In 2001, he formed The Convex Group,[18] a vulture fund, for which he also was chairman and CEO.[19][20] He has been credited with the growth of HowStuffWorks, which Convex purchased in 2003 for $2 million and sold to Discovery Communications in 2007 for $250 million.[13][21] He has also been credited with helping Convex acquire Flexplay and LidRock.[22][23] In 2010, he co-founded Sharecare with Mehmet Oz.[24][25] Arnold has been credited with finding investors for both WebMD and Sharecare in Nashville.[26]

In 2003, Arnold started LidRock, which produced promotional miniature CDs attached to the lids of fountain drinks.[27] LidRock CDs were placed in between two lids, with the top one peeled away to obtain the disc.[28] Arnold purchased 19 patents from various companies in order to produce the LidRock concept.[18][29][30] The CDs were typically sold at fast-food restaurants and movie theaters,[31][30][27] and generally were used to promote new video games or music from singers such as Britney Spears.[30][32][33] More than 10 million LidRocks had been sold as of 2004,[28] and more than 30 million as of 2005.[34]

Awards

[edit]
  • Entrepreneur of the Year, Southeast Region by Ernst & Young. (1999)[35]
  • Inducted into the Technology Hall of Fame of Georgia. (2013)[36]
  • Blumenthal Award[37] by Johns Hopkins University in recognition of his ability to bridge business and technology.(2013)
  • Technology Association of Georgia Icons of the Industry’ Award (2016).[38]
  • Lifetime Achievement Award from the Atlanta chapter of TiE (The IndUS Entrepreneurs) (2016)[39]
  • innovation category in the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Health Care Heroes (2016 ).[40]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Sullivan, Paul (January 18, 2019). "When Affluent Families Dig Up Their Past". The New York Times. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
  2. ^ "Jeff Arnold". Retrieved 2016-08-18.
  3. ^ a b Tuchman, Robert (April 15, 2021). "How Success Happened for WebMD and Sharecare Founder Jeff Arnold". Entrepreneur. Retrieved August 15, 2021.
  4. ^ "Undergraduate Students". University of Georgia. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
  5. ^ a b c d Carrns, Ann (January 17, 2001). "WebMD CEO Wygod Aims to Revive Struggling Firm With Strong Medicine". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
  6. ^ a b Sharpe, Anita (January 14, 1999). "WebMD Aims to Become One-Stop Medical Library". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
  7. ^ "Categories of Honorees: Technology & Research". Georgia Trend. Retrieved November 3, 2022.
  8. ^ "Undergraduate Students". University of Georgia. Retrieved November 3, 2022. Some famous Alumni include D.J. Shockley, former Atlanta Falcons Quarterback, Jeff Arnold, founder of WebMD, amongst others.
  9. ^ "2021 Atlanta 500: Business". Atlanta. January 25, 2021. Retrieved August 23, 2022.
  10. ^ Walljasper, Matt (October 29, 2018). "Jeff Arnold and Dawn Whaley". Atlanta. Retrieved August 23, 2022.
  11. ^ Hensley, Ellie (January 14, 2016). "Q&A with Sharecare CEO Jeff Arnold". Atlanta Business Chronicle. Retrieved August 15, 2022.
  12. ^ De Lombaerde, Geert (February 24, 2020). "Sharecare buys Franklin health IT firm". NashvillePost.com. Retrieved August 23, 2022.
  13. ^ a b Morrissey, Brian (December 16, 2005). "HowStuffWorks Plans Expansion". Adweek. Retrieved August 23, 2022.
  14. ^ Marshall, Matt (April 11, 2007). "HowStuffWorks raises whopping $75M for instructional video site". VentureBeat. Retrieved August 23, 2022.
  15. ^ Karkaria, Urvaksh (March 4, 2013). "WebMD founder Jeff Arnold inducted into Georgia Technology Hall of Fame". Atlanta Business Chronicle. American City Business Journals. Retrieved August 24, 2022. Arnold also was the founder of Quality Diagnostic Services
  16. ^ Helyar, John (March 5, 2001). "Jeff Arnold, founder of WebMD, could be the Poster Boy for the Internet bubble. And yet smart investors are already piling into his latest scheme". Fortune. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
  17. ^ Woodson, Alex (October 16, 2007). "Discovery buys HowStuffWorks.com". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
  18. ^ a b Lovel, Jim (2004-02-09). "Atlanta McDonald's testing LidRock concept". Atlanta Business Chronicle. Retrieved 2022-09-29.
  19. ^ Graser, Marc (January 19, 2003). "Convex adds CAA's Adler". Variety. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
  20. ^ "New DVDs have short life span". Sun Journal. January 18, 2005. Retrieved August 24, 2022.
  21. ^ Stelter, Brian (June 30, 2008). "Online Encyclopedia Gets New Push From Discovery". The New York Times. Retrieved August 23, 2022.
  22. ^ "WebMD's Founder Goes Hollywood". Bloomberg.com. October 18, 2004. Retrieved October 13, 2022.
  23. ^ Wilbert, Caroline (October 26, 2003). "Still thinking huge". The Atlanta Constitution. Retrieved October 13, 2022.
  24. ^ Brown, Joel (July 15, 2019). "School of Public Health Will Crunch the Data on Well-Being". BU Today. Boston University. Retrieved August 23, 2022.
  25. ^ "Alan Mnuchin-backed SPAC to take health app Sharecare public for $3.9 billion". Reuters. February 12, 2021. Retrieved August 23, 2022.
  26. ^ Fletcher, Holly (August 18, 2016). "Dr. Oz and the founder of WebMD just planted their flag in Nashville". The Tennessean. Retrieved August 23, 2022.
  27. ^ a b Lees, Nancy (2003-10-01). "LidRock puts its disks where kids' mouths are". Kidscreen. Retrieved 2022-09-29.
  28. ^ a b "Music With That Soda Cup? Try Lidrock". ABC News. 2004-04-02. Retrieved 2022-09-29.
  29. ^ Burke, Monte (2004-01-12). "Pop Music". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-09-29.
  30. ^ a b c Weinraub, Bernard (2004-03-29). "A Web Refugee Turns to Music And Says, 'Give the Lid a Spin'". The New York Times. Retrieved 2022-09-29.
  31. ^ Wilbert, Caroline (2004-03-01). "Pop Tops". money.cnn.com. Retrieved 2022-09-29.
  32. ^ Hirsch, Deborah (2003-06-27). "Singer Rachel Farris' Big Break is Under the Lid". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved 2022-09-29.
  33. ^ "Soda 'pop' promo". Gainesville Sun. Associated Press. 2003-07-01. Retrieved 2022-09-29.
  34. ^ "CDs on top of the pops". Chicago Tribune. 2005-01-23. Retrieved 2022-09-29.
  35. ^ "Trends & talk around the town - Atlanta Business Chronicle". Atlanta Business Chronicle. Retrieved 2016-08-18.
  36. ^ "Jeff Arnold Inducted into the Technology Hall of Fame of Georgia". www.tagonline.org. Retrieved 2016-08-18.
  37. ^ "Blumenthal Lecture: Jeff Arnold, Chair and CEO Sharecare (2016-03-24)". Retrieved 2016-08-18.
  38. ^ "Technology Association of Georgia To Honor Jeff Arnold with Icons of the Industry Award at 2016 Digital Media Entertainment Industry Summit - Technology Association of Georgia". Retrieved 2016-09-14.
  39. ^ "TiE Atlanta Top Entrepreneur Awards - Hypepotamus". 12 September 2016. Retrieved 2016-09-23.
  40. ^ "Arnold utilizes technology to promote better health - Atlanta Business Chronicle". Atlanta Business Chronicle. Retrieved 2016-08-18.


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