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LiveWorld Appoints Seasoned Healthcare and Venture Capital Professionals to Board of Directors

LiveWorld, Inc. (OTC Markets: LVWD), the leading social customer experience company announced today the addition of Arthur A. Ushijima, CEO and President of The Queen’s Health Systems (Queen’s), Michael A. Gold, former CEO and President of Hawaii Medical Service Association (HMSA), and Barry Weinman, Co-founder and former Managing Director of Allegis Capital and AVI Group, to its Board of Directors.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180425006300/en/

Arthur A. Ushijima (Photo: Business Wire)

Arthur A. Ushijima (Photo: Business Wire)

The newest members of LiveWorld’s Board of Directors bolster the company’s expanding business of consulting services (strategy, adverse events management, moderation, engagement), and conversation management software in the healthcare and pharma markets. LiveWorld’s pharma and healthcare business grew 20%/year over 2016 and 2017. LiveWorld will further expand its suite of marketing, customer service, and operational solutions to help healthcare providers improve the patient experience by having a more engaging presence in social media, messaging apps, and on mobile devices.

“We welcome the insights and experience from Arthur, Michael, and Barry, as LiveWorld sharpens our focus on using 1to1 real-time conversations to improve the patient journey,” said Peter Friedman, Chairman and CEO, LiveWorld. “Their deep expertise in strategic business management, health services, and technology will strengthen our ability to innovate new solutions, enter new markets, and increase revenue.”

Ushijima is a healthcare executive with more than 40 years of experience managing and leading hospitals and health systems in five different states. For the past 28 years, he has been with The Queen's Medical Center, which is the parent corporation for more than 10 healthcare and real estate companies.

In addition to serving as a member of Queen’s internal boards, he serves on a start-up board, Kineticor, which is commercializing a novel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) motion-correction technology developed by the University of Hawaii and Queen’s. Ushijima also established a novel position emission tomography (PET) joint venture with Hamamatsu Photonics of Japan, which brought the first PET scanner to Hawaii twenty years ago. He serves on the joint venture management committee.

His past corporate board service includes Vizient, Inc. (formerly VHA, Inc.), which is the nation’s largest group purchasing organization with more than 60 billion dollars in medical supply and equipment spend, representing more than 2,000 hospitals. He has served on the boards of numerous charitable organizations and trade associations.

Also, Ushijima was recognized as Pacific Business News Leader of the Year in 2013 and Hawaii Business Magazine’s CEO of the Year in 2014.

“It’s an honor to work with LiveWorld to deploy conversation engagement programs that will maximize the efficiency of communication in hospitals,” says Ushijima. “Hospitals utilizing an effective messaging channel that integrates human agents and automation provides an invaluable resource that will greatly enrich the patient experience.”

Michael A. Gold was the CEO and President of HMSA until he retired at the conclusion of 2017. During his 43-year career at HMSA, he also served at the Chief Operating Officer and its Executive Vice President and Assistant Treasurer. Throughout his illustrious career working for HMSA, he gained extensive knowledge in underwriting, marketing, provider services, customer relations, account services, community relations, and corporate planning.

Gold is recognized as a visionary whose new ideas and practices have improved the health and well-being of Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association members and everyone in Hawaii. Those accomplishments during his tenure include: creating HMSA’s Online Care®, the first telehealth system in the nation offered by a health insurer, introducing Blue Zones Project® to Hawaii, a communitywide initiative to help make the healthy choice the easy choice for everyone in the state, partnering with digital health care leaders to put all of a person’s health on a single digital platform, and establishing HMSA Centers, state-of-the-art spaces that bring HMSA into communities and closer to members for servicing, sales, and educational programs.

Further, Gold formed strategic partnerships with Hawaii Pacific Health and The Queen’s Health Systems to improve the health of HMSA members and all patients. Also, he was integral in leading the forward-thinking implementation of payment transformation, which worked with Hawaii doctors and national health care leaders to transform insurance payments, reimbursing doctors for improving their patients’ overall physical, mental, and emotional health. HMSA grew to more than 732,000 members under the leadership of Gold as CEO, and was named Hawaii’s top company in 2015 and 2016 by Hawaii Business magazine.

“I’m excited to be a part of LiveWorld’s board and work with a company that’s developing health care solutions that will enhance the patient experience,” stated Gold. “As a company specializing in conversational engagement programs, their platform will modernize the way payers can support and scale healthcare delivery to consumers and how businesses communicate with individuals.”

Weinman joins LiveWorld as a Silicon Valley staple for venture capital investments. He serves as a board member and is Chairman of the 2.2-billion-dollar endowment of The Queen’s Health System. He is also a board member for TruTags, a company focused on brand-protection and fraud detection. Since 1980, he has led and participated in investments resulting in more than 35 billion dollars in market value. Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, he held management positions with AT&T, IBM, and Fairchild Semiconductor. He also co-founded Interactive Applications Inc., the first online manufacturing software and services company.

Weinman is currently Chairman of Kineticor. Further, he joined the University of Hawaii Foundation Board, serving first as Chair of the Endowment Committee and then Chairman of the Board. He was Co-chair of the University of Hawaii Centennial. He previously served on LiveWorld’s Board from 1997 through 2014.

“I’ve always respected the accomplishments LiveWorld has achieved for many of the most recognizable brands,” stated Weinman. “It’s an exciting time to rejoin LiveWorld’s board and provide healthcare companies with innovative solutions for social media and messaging apps that can transform how patients engage with caregivers.”

As leader in social media for over 20 years, and with more than 10 years of experience servicing leading healthcare companies, LiveWorld is committed to expanding conversation management solutions for healthcare and pharma brands with the appointment of its latest board members.

For more information, visit www.liveworld.com or schedule a demo by contacting us at hello@liveworld.com.

About LiveWorld

LiveWorld provides enterprise-class software and services for managing customer conversations in social media and messaging apps, on the web and mobile devices. By blending human engagement and automation, we help companies get closer to their customers to bolster relationships, loyalty, and lifetime value. Our clients include Bank of America, Pfizer, Wells Fargo, and Zoetis, among others. Visit www.liveworld.com to learn more or contact us at @LiveWorld.

Contacts:

LiveWorld
IR Contact:
David Houston, 408-615-8496
dhouston@liveworld.com
or
PR Contact:
Jason Kapler, 917-722-8281
jkapler@liveworld.com

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