Smart50 winner InstantScripts hires former News Corp manager as COO

Australian telehealth startup InstantScripts has hired a former managing director of the popular media website news.com.au to the role of chief operating officer.

Last week, InstantScripts took out the top spot at SmartCompany’s 2021 Smart50 Awards, after recording revenue of $7.5 million in the 2020-21 financial year, up 1441% since 2018-19.

The fast-growing startup’s new COO Richard Skimin will take on the role after working as managing director of News Corp Australia’s news.com.au e-commerce, mergers and acquisitions and strategy divisions for more than five years.

Before joining News Corp, Skimin was a non-executive director at RevTech Media, chairman at the scaleup Mediafund and general manager of global strategy and M&A at Telstra.

Commenting on the appointment, InstantScripts co-founder Asher Freilich said he was “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,” he said.

“Richard’s plethora of executive leadership experience will prove invaluable in helping us achieve our goal of becoming Australia’s number one telehealth service.”

Freilich and his co-founder Maxim Shklyar founded InstantScripts in 2017 to streamline the way patients receive repeat prescriptions for common medications, such as those used to treat asthma and high blood pressure.

The business went on to experience significant growth, particularly throughout the pandemic when telehealth services were widely adopted by GP clinics in New South Wales and Victoria.

Skimin, who will begin his new role in early 2022, said the move into the healthcare sector comes after working in his mother’s pharmacy and in Citi’s healthcare franchise.

“My first job was delivering prescription medication on my bike from my mother’s pharmacy to her customers,” Skimin said.

“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.”

Similarly, InstantScripts co-founder Freilich has experience in the healthcare sector, working as a healthcare investment banker at Citi in Sydney prior to becoming a registered general practitioner.