Helene Rutledge

As a first time Founder, H-L has been an invaluable asset to both our company and me personally, providing advice, resource recommendations, and contacts that we could have never accessed on our own.

Helene Rutledge, brings a career of experience in the Healthcare industry to UPGRAID, the start-up she co-founded that is dedicated to science-based, safe and effective products for preventative health. She is known as an innovator and change agent and has held senior leadership roles including Global Head of Open Innovation at GlaxoSmithKline, VP R&D at Nature’s Bounty, and Director of Global Clinical Supplies at Pfizer. Most recently, as Chief Innovation Officer of New Avon, she launched the line of Espira nutritional supplements and achieved the No Animal Testing claim for the entire North American portfolio. She has served on the Board of Personal Care Products Council (PCPC) and is an award-winning product developer and subject matter expert on Innovation. Helene earned an Executive MBA from NYU Stern School of Business and a Bachelor of Engineering in Chemical Engineering with a minor in Chemistry from Manhattan College, where she has returned as an adjunct professor and to coach teams of entrepreneurs. She is a native New Yorker and lives in Chelsea where she is family nutritionist to her husband and two teenagers.