User:SharecareAD/Jeff Arnold

Jeff Arnold is an American entrepreneur who currently serves as chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Sharecare, as well as chairman of Forbes Travel Guide. In addition to co-founding Sharecare, he previously founded WebMD, was the chairman and CEO of HowStuffWorks, and served as chief of global digital strategy of Discovery Communications. Arnold is a trustee of the Committee for Economic Development and an honorary member of Sigma Theta Tau.

Education
Arnold is from the U.S. state of Georgia. He attended the University of Georgia, where he studied communications before withdrawing in 1993. He graduated from the university at a later date.

Career
Arnold worked in pharmaceutical sales early in his career. Described by Atlanta magazine as a "serial" entrepreneur, he has founded multiple health care companies, including cardiac monitoring business Quality Diagnostic Services (QDS), medical website WebMD, and Atlanta-based Sharecare, for which he serves as chairman and chief executive officer (CEO). Arnold was also the chairman and CEO of HowStuffWorks.

Arnold and his wife founded QDS in 1994, and later sold the company in 1998 for $25 million. In October 1998, he launched WebMD at the age of 28, and became a billionaire before the age of 30 after selling the business during 1999–2000. Arnold continued to serve as CEO until he left WebMD in 2000 to start the venture fund Convex Group, for which he also served as chairman and CEO. He has been credited with the growth of HowStuffWorks, which Convex purchased in 2003 for $2 million and sold to Discovery Communications in 2007 for $250 million. He has also been credited with helping Convex acquire Flexplay and LidRock.

Arnold was Discovery Communications' chief of global digital strategy as of 2009–2010. During 2010–2012, he co-founded Sharecare with Mehmet Oz. Arnold has been credited with finding investors for both WebMD and Sharecare in Nashville.

Board service and recognition
In addition to Sharecare, Arnold is the chairman of Forbes Travel Guide. He is also a trustee of the Committee for Economic Development, a board member of Endeavor Atlanta, and a board council member of the Center for Global Health Innovation.

Arnold was named Entrepreneur of the Year in the Southeast by Ernst & Young (EY) twice, in 2000 for WebMD and for Sharecare in 2019. He became an honorary member of the nursing organization Sigma Theta Tau in 2011, and was inducted into the Technology Hall of Fame of Georgia in 2013. He also received a Phoenix Award, which recognizes Atlanta's "most outstanding health IT industry leaders", from the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce in 2013.

In 2016, Arnold received the Atlanta Business Chronicle Health-Care Heroes Award in the health care innovation category, and the journal's Tonya Layman described him as "an innovator in the digital health field for as long as the industry has existed". Atlanta magazine presented him with a Groundbreaker Award in 2018 and included Arnold in the annual Atlanta 500 list in 2021. He was named one of the city's "most admired" CEOs by the Atlanta Business Chronicle in 2021. In 2022, Michael Jacobs included Arnold in Simply Buckhead overview of successful entrepreneurs in the Buckhead area, and Georgia Trend included him in its annual "Georgia 500" list of the state's most influential leaders.

Personal life
Arnold and his wife have four children. In 1999, the couple purchased the Nunnally mansion (1937) on Blackland Road in Buckhead. The house caught fire in 2000. The couple have also lived on Peachtree Battle Road in Atlanta.