Fast-growing Australian telehealth and online prescription service InstantScripts has achieved first and second rankings in two prestigious business lists and an executive leadership appointment in the last two weeks – topping off a year that has brought the company more than 1000 per cent in revenue growth.
InstantScripts ranked #2 on the AFR Fast Starters List in late November and #1 in last week’s SmartCompany Smart50 Awards. Now, the company is thrilled to announce the appointment of Richard Skimin to the newly created role of Chief Operating Officer. Richard will move over from the role of Managing Director at news.com.au and eCommerce, commencing the new role in early 2022.
InstantScripts has provided primary healthcare services to more than 300,000 Australians and experienced a 1441 per cent growth between FY19 and FY21. Combined with its three recent achievements, InstantScripts is promising to be one of Australia’s fastest growing healthcare startups.
The appointment of Richard Skimin will help deliver on InstantScripts’ growth objectives and build upon its talented team. Richard’s extensive experience in executive leadership, strategy, marketing, product, M&A and corporate finance, and a passion for building high-performance teams and solving customer problems.
Under Richard’s leadership, news.com.au became Australia’s number one digital news site and the eCommerce business enjoyed phenomenal growth. Prior to his tenure at News Corp, Richard held the roles of Non-Executive Director at RevTech Media, Chairman at Scaleup Mediafund, General Manager of Global Strategy and M&A at Telstra, where he led a three-year M&A program that established the foundation for its Enterprise Services business, and Director of Investment Banking at Citi. His professional career started in strategy consulting with Kearney and BCG.
At InstantScripts, Richard will be responsible for accelerating growth. This will include expanding the business’s strategic growth agenda into new sectors and through strategic partnerships, and ensuring the InstantScripts marketing, product and technology are aligned with the evolving needs of customers.
Richard says: “The healthcare sector has been part of my career journey. My first job was delivering prescription medication on my bike from my mother’s pharmacy to her customers. As an investment banker, I led Citi’s healthcare franchise and experienced firsthand Australia’s global leadership in healthcare by working with clients like Ramsay Health Care and Sonic Healthcare. We have an opportunity to lead the world in the way we deliver healthcare solutions at scale both here and internationally.
“I am particularly looking forward to working with InstantScripts co-founder Dr Asher Freilich, a natural entrepreneur and healthcare thought leader. This is the third time Asher and I have worked together: we were colleagues at strategy consulting firm Kearney and investment bankers at Citi.”
Dr Asher Freilich, Co-Founder and Clinical Director at InstantScripts, says: “We are thrilled to welcome Richard to the InstantScripts leadership team. With Richard at the helm leading all areas of our operations, InstantScripts will accelerate its path of fast and sustained growth. Richard’s plethora of executive leadership experience will prove invaluable in helping us achieve our goal of becoming Australia’s number one telehealth service. I look forward to working collaboratively with Richard to guide our innovation, expand our team and bring our service to new markets.”