An entrepreneur and strategist, Dr. Egbe Osifo-Dawodu is a partner at Anadach based in the US. Trained as a physician, she identified early the importance of utilizing technology to improve health outcomes for populations and co-organized the first m-health conference in Africa in 2010. She currently leads Anadach’s work in Management Consulting and Health Financing. Her understanding of management, finance, and technology, as well as her ability to identify early health and social trends and risks, has enabled her to be an effective board member of MedAccessUK and a member of the Healthcare Advisory Council of British International Investment. She was previously an advisory board member of Sproxil (recognized by Fast Company as one of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies) and the Mayo Clinic Center for social media.

Egbe also led Anadach to co-organize with the International Finance Corporation (the private sector arm of the World Bank Group) a series linking International Venture Capital to Tech Start-Ups in Africa, and a quick COVID status assessment of 6 countries for a major US pharmaceutical manufacturer. She also co-authored an article published in Lancet Microbe.

With her30+ year professional experience including 16 years at the World Bank Group, working both with senior public and private sector leaders across Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the USA, Egbe has an effective wide global network. Recognized as a leader, she is often invited to speak at conferences, strategic discussions, and board retreats, and is regularly interviewed on various health, pharmaceutical, and technology issues.

An expert in US-government eHealth policies, regulations, and priorities, as well as in the design of open-source ICT4D platforms for national-scale interventions, Anthony brings over 10 years of experience to DHP. He has designed eHealth interventions at the community, state, and national level as part of larger USAID projects in Tajikistan, Cambodia, Nepal, Madagascar, South Africa, Eswatini, Mozambique, Malawi, Ethiopia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Somalia, and Sudan. Collectively, these projects have leveraged over $25 million in foreign-aid resources to improve last-mile community health, diagnostics, lab systems, supply-chain systems, and improved data analytics and usage among government stakeholders.

Anthony is the founder of Reach Far Relief, a Washington D.C. based organization dedicated to ensuring innovative partners in international development can maximize their impact, scaling and mainstreaming their interventions. Anthony’s current clients are leading social enterprises in the ICT4D, humanitarian, and agriculture spaces. 

Prior to founding Reach Far Relief, Anthony established the Washington office of Dimagi, a leading social enterprise.

A specialist in the development of policies and strategies to support the use of ICT in delivering improved health systems, particularly in Africa and Southeast Asia, Peter Drury brings to DHP over 18 years of experience in consulting on digital health issues in developing countries and 25 years of information-related work as both consultant and employee at all levels of the UK National Health Service. He has worked in the private sector with Cisco Systems on digital health in Emerging Markets, and with major Development Partners, such as WHO, ADB, and UNICEF, on digital health issues in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific. 

Peter is currently working with the African Union on a Digital Health Strategy for Africa, and on Digital Pandemic Preparedness Assessments in West Africa, and has been supporting a One Health project in Vietnam as well as the Better Health Programme in Vietnam and the Philippines.

Peter holds a PhD and MSc from the University of Surrey and a BA from Cambridge University.

Philippe Lepère is an independent consultant specializing in global health and AIDS response, bringing to DHP over 25 years of experience with civil society, bilateral and multilateral cooperation, and research institutions, mainly in Sub-Saharan Africa.

A serving member of The Global Fund’s Technical Review Panel, Philippe is an expert in resilient and sustainable systems for health. He strongly believes that digital health can help overcome barriers to quality care, a conviction that led him to partner with network operator Orange to design and implement a mobile health platform in Côte d’Ivoire.

Philippe’s background in molecular biology and epidemiology, along with his experience in global health and project management, makes him a frequent lecturer at the Bordeaux School of Public Health (ISPED). He is currently a PhD candidate in biomedical science in the Global Health program at the University of Geneva.

Patrick Veron is an entrepreneurial business consultant who has been a key actor in the development of digital infrastructures and businesses for more than two decades.

A strong believer in “technology with a purpose”, Patrick helped launch innovative health-tech and digital health solutions in Asia, with a focus on building relevant business models to achieve growth in rapidly changing environments. He has also supported various e-health initiatives and organized forums for start-ups interested in bringing their tech innovations to Asia.

Patrick has also advised several digital health companies and incubators on their strategy to enter Asian markets.

Nils is an adviser for Digital Development and ICT4D based in Dakar, Senegal. As founder of kaikai.dev, he leads a team of local and regional advisers that provides strategic, program design and technical consulting to organizations like GIZ, Facebook, PATH, and the private sector. His work focuses on West Africa, and he believes in strengthening local ownership, open solutions, and partnerships with the private sector.

He has gained significant experience in the domain of digital health. In 2014, he was the technical lead of the National Call Center for the Ebola response in Guinea and subsequently led national-level digital programs for disease surveillance in Sierra Leone. He has worked for USAID’s innovation lab in building local ecosystems for digital health and in partnering with mobile operators, and advised Digital Square on Global Good investments. His current work focuses on leveraging technical capacity on the African continent and building data-exchange partnerships based on standards.

On top of his passion and 15+ years of experience in IT, he has a background in Public Administration and Political Science, a M.Sc. in Information Systems from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Dr. Richard Gakuba has served as an international digital health consultant for over 16 years, with experience in 10 countries in Africa. He has a medical degree and a master’s degree in e-Health/Digital Health from Brunel University in London, and a medical degree from the National University of Rwanda.

Dr. Gakuba served as the national e-Health coordinator for Rwanda’s Ministry of Health for nine years, where he led the development of the first National eHealth Strategic plan and policy in 2006 and the creation of the digital health unit in the Ministry of Health.

He was awarded the Holly Ladd mHealth Pioneer Award. Dr. Gakuba is also an Eisenhower Fellow.

Ather Saeed is an experienced business consultant who works at the intersection of healthcare, technology, and health equity.

With seats on multiple digital health boards, Ather has a keen interest in Program Management and helps organizations increase their market share by keeping portfolios profitable. He was the CEO of two digital health organizations, leading them to successful exits. He has worked across a multitude of domains including Digital Health, Public Health, Diagnostics, Aged Care, and Telecommunications. Ather has lived and worked in Australia, Singapore, Uganda, China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and with the World Health Organization and national governments of Nepal, Pakistan, and East Timor.

Ather also advises digital diagnostic companies on their strategies to enter new markets.

An entrepreneurial business strategist and fundraising expert, Femke Smeets brings over 15 years of experience in innovative healthcare financing and delivery projects as well as blended finance and public-private partnerships for development. Since early 2020, Femke co-leads an impact investment advisory and management venture, called Total Impact Capital (TIC) Europe. As partner at TIC EU, Femke leads the healthcare advisory and thought leadership projects. In this position, she is currently advising several companies and organizations, including Philips, the Health Finance Coalition, and AMREF amongst other, on developing, fundraising, and building supportive local ecosystems for high-impact partnership projects and ventures. She has moreover set up a catalytic debt fund for emerging local investments funds in Africa.

Femke has experience in healthcare investing, health insurance, digital health, healthcare PPPs, NCD service and finance models and capacity building of healthcare entrepreneurs. In her previous position as head of Business Development for the PharmAccess Group, she headed a team responsible for raising EUR 20 million a year in grant funding for innovative health finance projects. At the Medical Credit Fund, she set up the Capacity Building Facility in partnership with African business schools. Prior to this, Femke worked as health investment consultant, and as policy advisor for the Dutch Ministries of Economic and Foreign Affairs. Femke holds degrees in Business Administration (BSc) and Political Science (MSc) and finished an executive INSEAD leadership/business program in 2018. She is also a board member of FRES, an energy social business that advances rural electrification in vulnerable settings, such as Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea-Bissau.