EW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Arianna Huffington, Founder and CEO of Thrive Global, the behavior change, media and technology company launched in 2016, today announced that the company has hired another leading woman in tech, Cheryl Porro, as Chief Technology Officer. Along with Thrive Chief Product Officer Yardley Pohl, who joined the company in June from Zillow Group, Porro will help grow Thrive’s world-class tech team and focus on building out the technology that will bring Thrive’s behavior change products, media platform and science-based solutions to an even larger global audience.
“I am delighted to welcome Cheryl to Thrive as Chief Technology Officer,” said Huffington, “especially at a time when the need for more female leaders in the space is being recognized. Cheryl’s leadership, engineering expertise and passion for Thrive’s mission will take us to the next level as we build innovative behavior change solutions to help end our epidemic of stress and burnout. And I love that she was a leader not only at Salesforce, but also at Salesforce.org, the company’s nonprofit arm, where she combined her engineering expertise with her passion for education and equal opportunity. It’s a mix that’s perfectly aligned with Thrive’s mission to create products, services and solutions not just for their own sake, but to improve people’s lives. Cheryl has learned from one of the most purpose-driven companies, and I can’t wait to see what she accomplishes at Thrive -- and what she inspires in others.”
“I founded the national non-profit organization Girls Who Code to help close the gender gap in technology,” said Reshma Saujani, Founder and CEO of Girls Who Code. “And I’m so inspired to see a growing company like Thrive Global not only succeeding under its female founder and CEO Arianna Huffington but also making it a priority to put female leaders in technology at the top of the organization.”
Porro, who is based in San Francisco, will help lead Thrive Global’s tech teams in both New York and San Francisco, and has more than two decades of experience building and delivering enterprise and software as a service product. Prior to joining Thrive, Porro was Senior Vice President of Technology & Product Delivery for Salesforce.org, where she grew a team that launched multiple products for the nonprofit and education markets. Prior to that, she spent eight years leading a growing platform engineering team at Salesforce.com. Porro began her career as a chemical process engineer at International Paper and US Filter before transitioning to software engineering at companies including Amazon and DigitalThink Inc. Porro is passionate about providing equal access to educational opportunities and has volunteered and served on many boards for education nonprofits. Cheryl is an active mentor and supporter of women, and girls, gender non-binary, LGBTQI and underrepresented people of color in tech through her work supporting Year Up, First Graduate, and Girls Who Code.
“I am thrilled to be joining Thrive Global as Chief Technology Officer,” said Porro. “This is more than just the next step in my career -- it’s an opportunity to take what I’ve learned and apply it to a mission that deeply resonates with me. Working at the highest levels of tech, I’ve seen firsthand how deeply ingrained this burnout mentality is, both in individuals and in the culture at large. And while our relationship with technology is at the heart of our crisis, it’s also true that we have a tremendous opportunity to use technology to create innovative solutions and build a better world. There’s no better time to take up this challenge, and no one I’d rather tackle it with than the amazing, growing team at Thrive.”
If you are interested in joining the talented Product & Engineering team at Thrive Global, please visit our careers page and apply online.
About Thrive Global
Founded and led by Arianna Huffington, Thrive Global is a behavior change, media and technology company helping individuals, companies and communities improve their well-being and performance. Thrive Global is headquartered in New York and launched in the fall of 2016. For more information, visit www.thriveglobal.com.
