Max Henderson

Co-Founder and Board President of CovidActNow

Max Henderson was in the “right place at the right time,” as he stated, from the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. With a background in technology and healthcare, he was previously employed at Oracle, McKesson, and Google—where he helped found Google Cloud.

When the emerging coronavirus began making headlines, he was in the midst of recertifying his EMS license and started working on various initiatives for biosecurity and public health fundraising. Holding a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in Applied Economics, with a focus on non-linear systems modeling, Henderson became interested in using his background to generate a prototype for tracking the spread of COVID-19. What started as a simple model on a spreadsheet designed by Henderson grew into a project that included team members he sourced through friends and contacts. The volunteers donated their time and expertise to create a robust epidemiological model of the virus. In March 2020, the project fully developed and the team founded CovidActNow, a non-profit that provides modeling and data infrastructure to help track and stop the spread of COVID-19. 

Henderson is the Co-Founder and Board President of CovidActNow, which is primarily focused on providing timely and accurate data on COVID-19 in the United States. Since its inception, CovidActNow has been utilized by millions of American citizens and its API is used by multiple Fortune 500 companies. The coalition of CovidActNow has advised officials and impacted decision-making in 25+ states and the military, in addition to collaborating with the CDC and White House to advance data-driven pandemic responses.

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