Energy management specialist Supersapiens, which utilises Abbott’s Libre Sense Glucose Sport Biosensor, has welcomed Howard Zisser, MD, and Robby Ketchell to its executive team.
The US-based company recently finished its latest funding round, attracting more than US$13.5 million, and will ‘look to the new leaders to help execute on key initiatives for rapid growth over the coming month.’
“Supersapiens is leading the future of fuelling and sports performance,” said Supersapiens founder and CEO, Phil Southerland. “These renowned experts will expand our ability to offer insights to truly meaningful glucose data.
“Supersapiens powered by Abbott’s Libre Sense is the only energy management system that directly integrates with a sports CGM [continuous glucose monitoring] – adding Howard and Robby to our leadership team will turbocharge our growth, and more importantly, our impact to our customers.
“This technology is moving quickly, and we are fortunate to have their expertise and leadership to drive innovation. Collectively we believe every human is an athlete, and with the addition of these amazing leaders, we hope to inspire the world to get active, and give them the data needed to achieve their goals and dreams.”
Howard Zisser, MD, Chief Scientific Officer
An expert in the medical community, Dr Howard Zisser has dedicated his career to improving the daily lives of people living with diabetes. His research has focused on new and innovative therapies for type 1, type 2, and gestational diabetes, including trials of glucose sensing and artificial pancreas technologies.
Dr Zisser most recently served as Verily/Google Life Sciences’ Clinical Lead where he championed the expansion of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) for people living with type 2 diabetes and built systems to remotely deploy, monitor, and risk stratify these patients in order to optimize their care. He was also an active member of the Google Food Lab, where he taught food industry leaders the importance of glucose sensing technology.
Prior to Verily, he was Insulet’s Medical Director and the Director of Clinical Research & Technology at the Sansum Diabetes Research Institute. In addition, Dr Zisser served as Adjunct Professors of Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara and CalTech in Pasadena.
“I have been very involved in CGM technology and research for the last 18 years,” said Dr Zisser. “I envision the broad expansion of this life-changing technology into sports, education, food science, and beyond.”
Robby Ketchell, VP of Innovation
For more than a decade, Ketchell has worked at the forefront of sport technology and data science.
His career as a data scientist in professional sports began with Garmin-Sharp Pro Cycling where he was the Director of Sports Science and was known as the team’s ‘secret weapon’ for the number of innovations he brought to the sport.
Among his many technological achievements, Ketchell is ‘the creator of the fastest speed suit in the world’, the BAT Box (the world’s first on-board measuring device to replace a wind tunnel), and Platypus (cycling’s first big data analytics tool). Following Garmin, he joined Team Sky and the INEOS Grenadiers helping the teams win four Tour de France titles.
Most recently, Ketchell served as a member of the performance team for the INEOS 1:59 Challenge, which saw Eliud Kipchoge become the first person to run a marathon in less than two hours, in a time of 1:59:40.2.
“In my career, I have helped create technological innovations that have unlocked human greatness,” said Ketchell. “The opportunity that we have with Supersapiens can lead to the next great, human, athletic achievement.
“I’m fortunate to be a part of this great organization and help understand a key element to unleashing the next steps to performance.”
A partnership with global healthcare leader Abbott makes Supersapiens the only energy management system that directly integrates with a Bluetooth-enabled sports CGM (continuous glucose monitor) — the Abbott Libre Sense Glucose Sport Biosensor.
The Supersapiens product ecosystem is now available in Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
