Who Is Sarahjane Sacchetti? CEO Of Cleo Steps Down To Care For Parent

Sarahjane Sacchetti made headlines after she decided to step down as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cleo, a family benefits platform in order to care for her terminally ill parent.

Sacchetti wanted to discuss her experience with the public because of the two decisions she made, the first to take a leave of absence from the work and second to step down from the post of CEO and take up the post of Chief Business Officer (CBO).

As she never saw any example of peers going through something similar in public. She said, “We kind of go along straight lines in our careers, and I’d just never seen it.”

Sacchetti had two children and has taken maternity leave before, but taking a leave of absence to care for her terminally ill stepfather felt completely different to her. Her stepfather was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a neurodegenerative disease that leads to patients losing their ability to speak, move, eat, or sleep.

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Sarahjane Sacchetti’s actions are getting highly appreciated by people around the globe, and netizens took to Twitter to share their reactions to her decision. One user tweeted, “I love that Cleo's CEO is sharing her story so publicly. As someone just entering into an era of caregiving for a parent, it can feel so overwhelming and isolating to do that while balancing your career AND living your own life. Let's talk about this more, please.”

Who Is Sarahjane Sacchetti?

• Sarahjane Sacchetti is the former CEO of Cleo and the current CBO. She made the shift after three years as CEO to accommodate her caregiving responsibilities toward her terminally ill parent.
• The Cleo website described Sarcchetti as passionate about female leadership and the future of work.
• Before joining Cleo, Sacchetti helped building Collective Health as their Chief Marketing Officer where he served for about 5 years, and prior to that helped launch and build several startups in a variety of industries.
• In the early days of her career, she led political campaigns for healthcare and education districts across California.
• Sacchetti was the only child in her family and lived near her mother and stepdad in the Bay Area. She eventually moved her parents even closer to her own family and became the keeper of financial, legal, and home care logistics as they suffered from a neurodegenerative disease.
• In October 2022, her mother's health started to worsen and the paid help they had was no longer enough, so Sacchetti took a leave of absence from the post of Cleo’s CEO to coordinate all the time with home, she devoted her full attention and time to her family. Later her stepdad died in December at the age of 79.
• After the death of her father, she began to think of her own future and announced her decision to step down as the CEO of Cleo. She claimed the responsibilities that come with being a CEO, like frequent travel, long hours, and the emotional stamina to support her staff are not really under her bandwidth for now.
• Once the board of Cleo decided that two executives, chief clinical officer Madhavi Vemireddy and COO Tsion Lencho, would take her place as co-CEOs for the company, they gave the chief business officer position to Sacchetti as that would be more limited in scope.
• Sacchetti  after making the announcement, shared a statement, “Even as the CEO of a caregiving company itself, I had so much trouble navigating through everything, Let’s destigmatize it, let’s talk about it, let’s not have it be shameful that someone has to step aside or step out for a moment.” People from around the globe are showing great support and appreciation towards her decision