TechEmerge Health
East Africa
Innovation Summit

"Elena Sterlin is IFC’s Senior Manager for Global Health and Education, managing a $2.7 billion portfolio of investments.
Prior to joining IFC, Elena worked for Salomon Brothers. She holds an MBA from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in Applied Mathematics from Moscow State University."

Kevin Gandhi is the Director of Zenysis technologies, an innovative platform developer that helps governments and international organizations strengthen vital health systems, respond to humanitarian emergencies, and tackle complex challenges with greater precision and speed. Kevin has deep experience in international development, trade, and data analytics, along with a master’s in public health from Yale University and both a BS in Economics and BA in Business Administration from Drexel University.

Abhinav Girdhar is a co-founder of Bodhi Health, an award-winning company based in Singapore and India, that helps healthcare providers transform their clinical workforce through technology-based education, training, and assessments. Abhinav is also an executive board member at VisionSpring India which works to create access to affordable eyewear for everyone, everywhere. With an MBA from the National University of Singapore, Abhinav has a strong interest in public health, startups, and mergers and acquisitions.

Stella Kivila is the head of corporate partnerships and business development for Baobab Circle, a multi-award-winning healthtech company that uses mobile technology to provide personalized support for people with chronic health conditions across Africa, as well as telemedicine and live primary care consultations. Stella is also a founder and lead coach at the training consultancy group, Performance Point International, and mentors woman and girls in entrepreneurism and leadership skills.

Saul Kornik is co-founder and CEO of Healthforce, an augmentation of technology and doctors that turns nurse-led clinics into specialist health centres. Healthforce has provided over 50,000 telemedicine doctor consultations since inception. Prior to Healthforce, in 2006, Saul co-founded Africa Health Placements, working to get doctors to where they are needed most. AHP has placed over 4,200 doctors who have served over 34 million people. He currently serves as chairman.

Michael is an Associate Director and a member of the global healthcare investment team at LeapFrog Investments, an emerging market private equity firm focused on Africa and Asia. Michael leads the evaluation, due diligence, and execution of new investment opportunities, and supports value-creation initiatives that unlock growth.

Prior to LeapFrog, Michael was a Principal with Open Capital Advisors, a leading management consulting and financial advisory firm operating across Africa. In this role, Michael led numerous project engagements, supporting businesses across sectors to grow and expand into new markets. Earlier, Michael was a private equity investor with RoundTable Healthcare Partners, an operationally-oriented investment firm with more than $3 billion under management. There he invested over $100 million in capital and worked with portfolio company managers to streamline operations and improve profitability. Michael began his career in healthcare investment banking at Oppenheimer & Co. in New York where his experience included M&A, leveraged buyouts, and financings across the healthcare spectrum.

He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

Jenny is currently a Managing Partner at Adjuvant Capital, a life sciences investment fund dedicated to mid- to late-stage research and development of products addressing significant global health challenges affecting lower- and middle-income countries. Adjuvant’s portfolio spans across drugs, vaccines, medical devices and diagnostics for high-burden infectious disease, sexual and reproductive health. Jenny currently serves on the boards of 54gene (Nigeria) and ChromaCode (US).

Prior to Adjuvant, Jenny was a Partner at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Strategic Investment Fund where she led transactions across the foundation’s focus areas in global health, agriculture, nutrition, and education. She has always been passionate about improving the health and lives of those living in low-resourced settings and spent time working in Kenya and China. In Kenya, Jenny was as a volunteer consultant for Technoserve, a non-profit business consultancy for small-holder farmers and small to medium businesses.

Jenny has worked in finance for over 17 years, beginning as an investment banker advising corporate clients in mergers and acquisitions and debt and equity financings at Goldman Sachs’ Hong Kong, New York, and San Francisco offices. She also serves on the Investment Advisory Committee at the Reproductive Health Investors’ Alliance (US).

Jenny graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with an AB in History of Science. She lives her husband and two children in San Francisco.

Monique Mrazek is a Senior Healthtech Industry Specialist at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-sector arm of the World Bank Group. Monique lead’s health care within the IFC Venture Capital practice which has invested almost $1 billion in venture capital since 2004. IFC’s Health VC practice focuses on investments in venture/early growth companies that offer innovative health technologies or business models with high impact potential in emerging markets. Previously, Monique worked globally in IFC’s mainstream investment operations overseeing debt and equity transactions, primarily focused on health care and life sciences in emerging markets. She has experience working in Asia, Latin America, Middle East, Eastern Europe and Africa. IFC is the world’s largest multilateral financier of the private sector in emerging markets with an active portfolio of over $60 billion, comprising investments in some 1,800 companies located in more than 100 countries.

Charit Bhograj is an interventional cardiologist who saw there was a significant gap in the delivery of health care leading to millions of lives lost, and so founded Tricog Health in 2014 with the goal to save lives through accurate and instant diagnosis of cardiac incidents. Headquartered in India, Tricog Health is one of the world’s largest health AI companies that uses modern technology enabling rapid diagnosis and management of heart disease.

José Luis Nuño is the CEO and co-founder of Unima. With headquarters in Mexico and offices in Chile and Spain, Unima designs patient-centered technologies to achieve rapid diagnostics and infectious disease surveillance at the lowest possible cost and outside of the laboratory, even in the most remote settings in the world. His prior experience includes serving as the director of biotechnology engineering at the private university Tecnológico de Monterrey and developing innovations in vaccination.

Joachim Delventhal is Chief Responsibility Officer at iSTOC and a PhD fellow at Copenhagen Business School. Joachim works with iSTOC to integrate Point of Care diagnostics, machine vision, mobile technology, and cloud computing into a one platform, enabling faster, easier, more accurate, and less costly diagnostics.

Mihir Shah is an entrepreneur and computer engineer with 15+ years of experience bringing disruptive science from academia to the clinic, and the founder and CEO of UE Lifesciences. At UE Lifesciences, Mihir leads a team of 70+ engineers, clinicians, public health workers, and technicians in the USA, India, and Malaysia, working to bring early detection of breast cancer to the developing world where the incidence is rising and western models of screening are unworkable.

Eisuke Shimzu is an ophthalmologist, a researcher at Keio University in Japan, and one of the co-founders of Oui Inc. At Oui Inc, Eisuke and his partners developed the Smart Eye Camera, a low-cost, portable device manufactured by 3D printing that attaches to any smart phone and eliminates the need for bulky and expensive slit-lamp microscopes. It easily captures highly accurate video images of the eye, including the anterior segment, and transmits them remotely to ophthalmologists

Charles Dalton is Senior Health Specialist at the International Finance Corporation (IFC). He has 30 years of public and private health sector experience, including at the UK National Health Service and KPMG South Africa, where he completed over 100 public and private advisory projects. He joined IFC in 2013 where he works globally evaluating IFC health service investments.

Amar Jain is a radiologist by training and Head of Clinical Solutions at MphRx, a health-tech company headquartered in New York City, with offices in Australia, UK, India, Singapore, and Brazil. Amar is responsible for product design, scope definition, market research, and leading implementation and business case development for healthcare services, software, and products, including for MphRx’s flagship product - an enterprise-level SMART on FHIR digital healthcare platform that aggregates data from disparate IT systems to build a unified patient health record.

Mika Pyyhtiä is Chairman and CEO of the Finnish healthtech company Megical. Mika used his extensive background in aviation safety to help his team at Megical develop an easy to use platform that combines intelligent checklists, integrated reporting, and real-time analytics to improve patient outcomes, operational efficiency, and a safe, sustainable ecosystem for healthcare providers.

Roni Shiloh is the founder and CEO of Seegnal eHealth. Roni is a psychiatrist who developed a platform to meet the need for an effective clinical decision support system to address and resolve Drug Related Problems (DRP) at the point of care, while treating patients. He is the author of over 40 manuscripts and textbooks on polypharmacy and drug interactions, and also served as a senior lecturer at Tel Aviv University.

William Sommer an independent healthcare consultant in the fields of quality and patient safety, accreditation, auditing and IT, and founder of QTracer. QTracer is a web-based solution to standardize, automate, and track tracer audit activities. It allows nurses and staff to be proactive and improves the quality and safety of care and patient experiences in real-time, in a practical, efficient, and cost-effective way.

Dr Senait Beyene is Senior Adviser to the Minister, at Ministry of Health- Ethiopia and President of Ethiopian Medical Women Association (EMeWA). Before her current role, she has served as a CEO for the Center for Fertility and Reproductive Medicine and as a principal investigator for center of excellence for reproductive health at St. Paul's Hospital Millennium Medical College in Addis Ababa. Prior to joining St. Paul's, she worked for International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs (ICAP) in Ethiopia as an associate director of the central technical department. She has also served MOH as program coordinator for improving maternal and newborn health, as Regional maternal, newborn, child health and RH (MNCH/RH) adviser for Management Sciences for Health (MSH). Her career began as Lecturer and head of department for the department of Pediatrics and Child Health at Mekelle University College of Health Sciences. Senait is passionate about women empowerment and reproductive health rights and has demonstrated this throughout her career. Senait received her MD and her MPH from University of Gondar.

Dr. Patricia Odero is the Regional Director (Africa) for Duke Global Health Innovation Center (GHIC) and Innovations in Healthcare. She leads multiple initiatives across sub-Saharan Africa and builds partnerships with public sector leaders, corporations, funders and entrepreneurs to strengthen national and regional health systems. At this nexus of research and practice, she works with health systems and entrepreneurs to scale and adapt promising innovations while supporting related policy and financing reforms. Patricia is an accomplished healthcare professional who prior to joining Duke University worked with The Palladium Group, a global health consulting company.Her previous work experience spans the breadth of the health care value chain including in health systems strengthening, health insurance and clinical practice within the private and public sectors. She holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree from the University of Nairobi and an Executive MBA from Strathmore University. Patricia is the inaugural recipient of the St. Edmunds Social Innovation scholarship from the University of Cambridge where she recently completed a Masters in Social Innovation.

Onesmus Kamao is the Director of Health Informatics and Digital Health at the Ministry of Health, Kenya.

Paul Mbaka is the Head of the Health Information at the Ministry of Health in Uganda. He leads and coordinates the implementation of the Uganda eHealth, Health Information as well as Health Knowledge Management policies and strategies in the health sector in Uganda. Including the development of these policies and guidelines, investment in health information in the sector and implementation of these strategies.