Leading UK weight management company Counterweight has promoted current COO Laura Sloman to CEO, effective March 2022. Laura will be taking over from interim CEO Justin Slabbert, who will continue to support the company in a fundraising and advisory capacity, as Executive Chairman.
“We are delighted to be promoting Laura Sloman to the role of Chief Executive Officer, as she has all the strategic and leadership skills to take us through the next stage of the company’s rapid growth,” said Justin. “Her ethics, expertise and motivation to increase access to our programmes will ensure that Counterweight continues to lead the field in delivering type 2 diabetes remission and sustainable weight loss.”
Laura joined Counterweight in 2020, bringing with her a wealth of experience, including seven years at Goldman Sachs, where her last role was Global Chief of Staff for the Regulatory and Control Operations Division. Her experience leading large project teams and organisational strategy implementation, along with the impact she has made since joining Counterweight, meant she was the natural choice for CEO.
In 2018, after learning about the unprecedented results that Counterweight-Plus demonstrated in helping people put diabetes into remission, Justin invested in Counterweight and stepped into the CEO position on an interim basis. With the right candidate now in place to lead Counterweight into the future, he can move into the Executive Chairman role. The transition will enable him to fully engage with potential investors who have expressed interest in supporting the company. His background in private equity and growth finance, as well as management experience within high growth companies, equips him perfectly for this role.
Speaking of the future of Counterweight, Laura said the next phase is about controlled growth, and positioning the company to achieve its mission of becoming the most accessible and effective, evidence-based weight management and wellness programme in the UK and beyond.
“We are growing quickly and will keep listening to our customers so that we can continuously improve our offering,” she said. “We will maintain a strong focus on remission of type 2 diabetes through our key relationships with the NHS, but will also look to further expand our direct-to-consumer offering and position our company in the wellness space. This will include the roll-out of our less intensive weight loss approaches, such as Counterweight-Lite, which complements the well-known Counterweight-Plus.”
In particular, Laura has a strong interest in physical exercise and is looking forward to incorporating this further into the Counterweight offering. The company is also investing heavily in its technology, continuing the success of Counterweight’s App, so that the programme can be accessed around the world.
“I’m excited about being at the helm of this growing company,” Laura said. “It’s an honour to be leading such a talented team who are literally changing lives, and helping people reach their health and weight goals,” she continued.” We are all passionate about building on the tremendous results achieved by Counterweight so far.”