LifeSpeak announced the creation of its Growth Markets team, which will focus on expanding the company’s global customer base to more organizations outside its traditional footprint of enterprise employers, insurers and health plans. The company also announced two new strategic hires leading the new division – Paul Estey, VP of Growth Markets, and Erin Dixon, Director of Growth Markets. Together, Estey and Dixon will build and lead a team focused on developing new relationships, models, and partnerships for reaching people and groups around the globe in need of wellbeing support. TheGrowth Markets team will enable LifeSpeak to address the growing demand for education-based wellness solutions among many organizations that have not had access to this type of preventive health resource. As mental health support becomes more accepted, and in many cases, even expected, many organizations have turned to LifeSpeak for new levels of assistance. Clients who have experienced the benefit of sharing access to the LifeSpeak platform with their family members have expressed a strong desire for specific offerings to address the unique challenges of their loved ones. This is especially true for university students, and in response, has made partnerships with higher education institutions an important focus for the Growth Markets team. The pandemic has brought increased attention to the mental health challenges students face and has intensified an already alarming issue. A 2019 National College Health Assessment survey of 55,000 students across Canada found that more than two-thirds of those surveyed reported being lonely and feeling overwhelming anxiety. Over 50% felt so depressed it was difficult to function, and more than 16% seriously considered suicide. Through direct relationships, partnerships with organizations focused on social impact, and other arrangements, the new division will make LifeSpeak more available and accessible to people who can benefit from its micro-learning content created with world-renowned experts in their fields. The Growth Markets team will focus on ways to expand LifeSpeak’s footprint with people and organizations such as: Students and schools, especially university and college campuses, Small business owners and their employees, Industries with high self-employment, including artistic and creative sectors, agriculture, professional services, and real estate, Community health providers and practitioners, Seniors and professional caregivers, and Marginalized communities and populations that often struggle with unemployment or under-employment, such as minorities, recent immigrants, and refugees. Paul Estey is an experienced strategy and marketing executive, entrepreneur, and social impact expert. Before joining LifeSpeak, Estey was Chief Innovation Officer at Public Inc., which he co-founded in 2008 to help leading companies leverage more strategic and business-oriented investments in social and community impact to drive profit with purpose. He also spent four years as VP of Strategy and Business Development at global SaaS fundraising software leader FrontStream (formerly Artez Interactive). He started his career as a business consultant at Monitor Group (now Monitor Deloitte). Estey will lead the new Growth Markets team with support from Erin Dixon. Prior to LifeSpeak, Dixon spent more than a decade at Morneau Shepell (now LifeWorks) in senior roles across a number of program and product lines, including Employee and Family Assistance, Student Support, and Internet Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (iCBT). For several years in this role, Erin partnered with LifeSpeak, to enhance the wellness offering of many of her clients by integrating the LifeSpeak platform into solutions for her client base.