Will Ahmed | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Education | AB, Harvard University, 2012 |
| Title | Founder & CEO of WHOOP |
William Ahmed is an American entrepreneur best known as the CEO of health wearables company WHOOP, which he founded in 2012. [1]
Will Ahmed | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Education | AB, Harvard University, 2012 |
| Title | Founder & CEO of WHOOP |
William Ahmed is an American entrepreneur best known as the CEO of health wearables company WHOOP, which he founded in 2012. [1]
Ahmed grew up in Long Island, New York. He is an only child. As a child, he played multiple sports including soccer, hockey, lacrosse, tennis, swimming, golf, and sailing. [2] He attended high school at St. Paul's School in Concord, NH. [3] He went on to graduate from Harvard College, where he studied government and was the captain of the squash team. [4]
In 2012, while a student at Harvard, Ahmed began developing new wearable technology that would allow athletes to measure recovery and optimize performance. [5] According to Ahmed, he began creating the technology after reading dozens of medical papers. The company's first wearable device launched in 2015. [6] Ahmed pursued a strategy of selling the product to top sports teams and athletes before marketing to the broader consumer base in order to generate a "halo effect" for the brand. [7] Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps and NBA star Lebron James were among the first users of the device. [2]
In 2021, the company was valued at $3.6 billion following SoftBank's investment of $200 million in the company. [8] [9] Under Ahmed's leadership, WHOOP has recruited investors including IVP, Eli Manning, Patrick Mahomes, and Larry Fitzgerald. [10]
In 2022, Ahmed publicly claimed victory over Amazon in the wearable competition after Amazon discontinued its Halo wearable product. He alleged that Amazon's Halo band was a knockoff of the WHOOP device. Amazon publicly denied the allegations. [6]
WHOOP moved into its new headquarters in Kenmore Square neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts in July 2023. Ahmed was joined by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh for the ribbon cutting. [11] [12]
In 2023, Ahmed was appointed to the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows. [13]
In May 2024, Ahmed announced that Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo had invested in WHOOP. [14] Ahmed and Ronaldo made the announcement in an Instagram Live video at Ronaldo's home in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. [15] The same month, Ahmed also announced that WHOOP would be available for sale in India, following reports that cricketers Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav and Shreyas Iyer all wore WHOOP during the ICC Cricket World Cup. [16]
Ahmed is married to Leily Amirsardary, an Iranian fashion designer. They married in 2018 during a three-day wedding in Cannes. [17]
Ahmed is an avid golfer. He has previously played in the Waste Management Phoenix Open Pro-Am. [18]
Ahmed's father is Egyptian. [19] He immigrated to the United States and worked in the financial services industry. [7]
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward for and captains both Saudi Pro League club Al Nassr and the Portugal national team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Ronaldo set numerous records for individual accolades won throughout his professional footballing career, such as five Ballon d'Or awards, a record three UEFA Men's Player of the Year Awards, four European Golden Shoes, and was named five times the world's best player by FIFA, the most by a European player. He has won 33 trophies in his career, including seven league titles, five UEFA Champions Leagues, the UEFA European Championship and the UEFA Nations League. Ronaldo holds the records for most appearances (183), goals (140) and assists (42) in the Champions League, most appearances (30), assists (8), goals in the European Championship (14), international appearances (216) and international goals (133). He is one of the few players to have made over 1,200 professional career appearances, the most by an outfield player, and has scored over 900 official senior career goals for club and country, making him the top goalscorer of all time.
Madeira Airport, informally Funchal Airport, formerly Santa Catarina Airport and officially Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport, is an international airport in the civil parish of Santa Cruz in the Portuguese archipelago and autonomous region of Madeira. The airport is located 13.2 km (8.2 mi) east-northeast of the regional capital, Funchal, after which it is sometimes informally named. It mostly hosts flights to European metropolitan destinations due to Madeira's importance as a leisure destination, and is pivotal in the movement of cargo in and out of the archipelago of Madeira. It is the fourth-busiest airport in Portugal. The airport is named after Madeiran native Cristiano Ronaldo, considered one of the greatest footballers of all time. During its renaming ceremony in 2017, the airport drew media notoriety for an infamous bust of Ronaldo unveiled at the ceremony, now replaced.
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