Presence Appoints Former Nielsen Exec Sara Gubins as New Chief Financial Officer

Bringing 25 years of experience, Gubins shifts the Presence executive leadership team to majority female

NEW YORK, July 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Presence, a premier solution for PreK–12 remote evaluation and teletherapy services, today announced the appointment of Sara Gubins as the company's new Chief Financial Officer.

Gubins brings to Presence 25 years of leadership experience and expertise in finance planning and operations, capital markets, investor relations, mergers and acquisitions, and IPOs. As the Chief Financial Officer, Gubins oversees financial planning, data and analytics, accounting and reporting, treasury, and corporate strategy.

"Presence has established itself as the leader in telepractice, supporting therapists, schools, and students across the country," said Gubins. "I'm thrilled to be joining an incredible team as we scale our business to serve more schools and children with diverse needs. As both a professional and a parent, I believe that expanding access to the services Presence offers is critical to students' overall success in school."

Since 2009, Presence has been raising the bar for the PreK–12 teletherapy model for schools and providers through comprehensive, clinically-led services and technologies. As the first to bring remote evaluations to districts across the U.S., Presence is changing how schools identify and manage the diverse needs of students. 

At the heart of the company is a purpose-built therapy platform, designed by clinicians for clinicians, that allows school teams to serve children both in and out of school. It also enables schools to expand their teams with highly-skilled, licensed clinicians from Presence's national network of more than 2,000 speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, and behavioral and mental health professionals. To date, Presence has expanded access to critical services to help students succeed, delivering more than 5 million therapy sessions to schools in every region of the U.S.

Prior to joining Presence, Gubins was Senior Vice President, Investor Relations and Treasury for Nielsen and was responsible for strategic finance initiatives, including being actively engaged in Nielsen's $16 billion take-private sale to a private equity consortium. Previously a Managing Director with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, she was an Institutional Investor-ranked equity analyst, where she covered various sectors including education, business, professional, and information services. Gubins began her career in strategy consulting at global management consultancy firm Bain & Company. She received her Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and her Bachelor of Arts from Amherst College.

With the addition of Gubins, Presence reaches a significant milestone in achieving majority-female leadership positions across its executive team. This accomplishment reflects Presence's commitment to serve its majority-female employee base, majority-female provider network and majority-female educator community.

According to Harvard Business Review, companies with more women in senior positions are more profitable, more socially responsible, and provide safer, higher-quality customer experiences.

"We're thrilled to welcome Sara to the Presence team. Her financial leadership will help unlock the next phase of growth and scale for Presence," said Kate Eberle Walker, Chief Executive Officer of Presence. "This is a major milestone as we shift the representation in our leadership team to majority female with the addition of Sara to our C-Suite. We've worked purposefully to build a company that represents and reflects the majority female clinical network and K-12 clients who we serve, and we can now proudly say that we have achieved this at every level of our organization, with 80% of our corporate employees and 70% of our leadership team identifying as female."

Advancing career opportunities for women and access to special education and mental health support for marginalized communities remains core to the Presence mission. The organization strives to create a culture of acceptance and belonging. By celebrating the diversity of race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, and other diverse backgrounds throughout the organization, Presence is able to better understand and serve the diverse needs of students, parents and schools.

About Presence
Presence is unlocking the unlimited potential of students, educators and clinicians by removing traditional barriers to care through an elevated approach to teletherapy. Presence is committed to equipping the largest network of teletherapy providers with continuing education, innovative technology, and end-to-end clinical support to meet the needs of students today—wherever they are. With over 5 million remote evaluation and teletherapy sessions conducted since 2009, schools trust the experience and expertise of Presence, a leader in school-based teletherapy. 

Presence is supported by Spectrum Equity, TPG's The Rise Fund, Bain Capital Double Impact, and Catalyst Investors. For more information, visit www.presence.com.

SOURCE Presence