Program

Prashant Yadav is a globally recognized expert in healthcare supply chains, with extensive scientific contributions and publications on health product manufacturing, procurement and distribution. His work has appeared in major media outlets like The Economist, Financial Times, Nature, New York Times, WSJ, CNN, NPR, and BBC. Yadav's research has earned him best paper awards from prominent scientific bodies. He has held professorships at INSEAD, the MIT-Zaragoza Logistics Program, the University of Michigan, and has been a lecturer at Harvard Medical School. In previous roles, he served as the Strategy Leader for Supply Chain at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and was Vice President of Healthcare Research at the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan. He currently sits on the boards of various global organizations and social enterprises and has provided expert testimony on medicine supply chains before the U.S. Congress and other international legislative bodies.

With over 10 years of experience in the health tech sector, he is passionate about transforming community pharmacies into primary healthcare providers in Africa. As the co-founder and CEO of mPharma, he leads a team of dedicated professionals who share a vision of improving access, affordability, and quality of medicines and health services for millions of people across the continent.
Since launching mPharma in 2014, he has overseen its growth and expansion to 10 African countries, serving over 200,000 patients monthly. He has also led the acquisition and integration of leading pharmacy chains in Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda, strengthening our position as a market leader in pharmacy innovation. He has leveraged his skills in community relations, new business development, and public policy to forge strategic partnerships with governments, regulators, insurers, and manufacturers, creating a win-win scenario for all stakeholders.

Richard is currently the Director of International Business Development at the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC). He is now heavily involved in building capacity in Africa as well as funder alignments through the innovative African Health Research and Innovation Funders Forum initiative. He was previously the Executive Director of the Grants, Innovation and Product Development groups at the SAMRC which oversaw the majority of the SAMRC’s international partnerships.
Richard has held a number of international and local representative positions which includes: The Ministerial Advisory Committee for Anti Microbial Resistance, The National Health Research Committee, Director of the Technology Innovation Agency API cluster program, South African representative on the EU led JPIAMR, leader on the WHO mRNA Lipid consortium as well as Chair of the PAVM talent development taskforce. Prior to joining the SAMRC Richard was head of Global Business Development for a UK based Contract research company called BioFocus.
Richard completed his PhD at the University of Cape Town and his post doctoral fellowship at the University of Cambridge.

He has worked for over 15 years in the technology industry in Africa, as an entrepreneur, consultant and senior executive. He then spent 7 years at Google, where he led activities in Africa, before launching Google's French-speaking Africa office in Dakar, where he led ecosystem efforts in over 15 countries, and launched YouTube in 6 markets. Before joining Google, he founded and managed CommonSys, a company deploying e-government solutions in West Africa. He also co-founded an e-reputation platform in Europe. I began my career working with Cap Gemini in France before joining Cosine Communications, a Silicon Valley start-up developing network virtualization technology for operators. He grew up in Senegal, then moved to France to study at École Polytechnique (master's degree in physics), where he took part in an exchange program at Imperial College London and studied at Ensta-Paritech (telecommunications and information technology engineering).

Mouhamed Ndoye is the co-founder and CEO of Tanél, a digital health insurance company based in Senegal. Born and raised in New York City, he moved to Senegal in 2020 to launch an in-home primary care service designed to support family members of the African diaspora. At Tanél, Mouhamed is on a mission to enable broad and convenient access to healthcare across Africa.

A repeat founder and former technology consultant in the US, he brings a unique blend of business acumen and technical expertise to his work. Mouhamed studied business and engineering at The University of Texas at Austin and Xavier University, equipping him to drive innovation at the intersection of healthcare and technology.

Youssef Travaly is CEO and co-founder of EDPU Africa, the first platform for early detection and preventive screening of chronic non-communicable diseases in Africa, based in Rwanda and using Artificial Intelligence (AI) emerging technologies combines a non-invasive medical technologies. He is also CEO and founder of AllSightsAfrica, a think tank specializing in helping government bodies adopt policies related to AI and advanced technologies. He is also Strategic Advisor for Digital and Innovation at the Africa-Europe Foundation. D. in Physics, he has also carried out numerous research projects, notably in the fields of semiconductors and cancer research.

Natalie is the Executive Director of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders in the UK.
A British emergency doctor, she has worked for MSF since 2012 in conflict zones, crises and disease outbreaks around the world. Before returning to the UK in 2022, Natalie was Director of Studies at Crash, a thinktank based within the MSF Foundation in Paris, where she reflected on MSF’s practices and innovation related to infectious disease epidemics. From there, she oversaw various projects including a collaboration with Diatropix at IPD, sponsoring the development of two new RDTs for measles and meningitis. Prior to that Natalie was Head of Emergency Operations for MSF in Paris, during which time she contributed to the study of a new Ebola vaccine during the 2018-20 outbreak in the DRC.
Natalie holds a medical degree from Cambridge University and Imperial College London, a master’s degree in the political economy of violence and conflict from SOAS, and a diploma in tropical medicine from Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

Mark Gladwell is President & CEO of Sapphiros, and member of the Board. Previously, Mark was President, Global Operations and Global Business Services at Smith & Nephew with responsibility for Global Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Procurement, Engineering, New Product Transfers, Operational Excellence, Business Services, Facilities, Sustainability, and all Operational Strategy Programs. Prior to Smith & Nephew, he was Senior Vice President of Global Operations at QIAGEN N.V., a provider of sample and assay technologies for molecular diagnostics, applied testing, academic and pharmaceutical research and from 2005 to 2016 Mark held various Operational roles with increasing responsibility at Alere Inc, a global developer and manufacturer of rapid point of care diagnostics.
Mark has a track record in delivering value creative transformation programs and holds a BSc (Hons) in Quality and Operations Management from the University of Salford and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School General Management Program.

Dr Cheikh Tidiane Diagne trained at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and at the University of Toulouse (France) where he graduated in 2013 with a PhD in Structural and Functional Biology. His PhD research was focused on the dynamic analysis and assembly of site-specific DNA recombination machineries using single molecule techniques. From 2014 to 2016, he worked at the Electronics Department (LETI) of the French Commission for Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies (CEA) in Grenoble (France) as a postdoctoral researcher. There, his research efforts were focused on bio-inspired technologies for molecular electronics. Dr Diagne joined the virology department of the Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD) in 2016 as a researcher in innovation in diagnostics. His primary interests were centered on innovation for Global Health, particularly on the development and evaluation of point-of-care diagnostics tools, digital health for biosample transportation and banking and rapid extraction method for nucleic acid amplification. Since March 2020, he has been leading the DIATROPIX laboratory, a social venture established by IPD, the Merieux Foundation (France), the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (Geneva) and the Institut de Recherche et de Développement (France). DIATROPIX focuses on development and manufacturing of rapid diagnostics tests for neglected and epidemic diseases in Africa.

Madji Sock is the Managing Director of Haskè Group. She has over 26 years of experience in the implementation and management of projects in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and the United States. She brings expertise in the direction of projects and the implementation of initiatives, with a solid foundation in strategic design and planning. Madji has been engaged in the health sector throughout her career. This experience started in 1999 working on identifying innovations in health insurance coverage in Ghana and Senegal. She is currently leading the partnership between Haskè Group and Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD) to launch health ventures. One such venture is around the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for triage in health institutions in partnership with Grand Challenges Canada, and another in nutrition focused on fortified foods using local grains and innovations around Vitamin A. She was also the project director on an engagement to develop Senegal’s Research and Innovation strategy in 2022-2023, working with the Ministry of Higher Education. Madji also manages Haskè’s partnership with Canada’s International Development Research Center (IDRC) to provide R&D grants to startups, including in the health sector. She has now been invited by IDRC to help shape a global engagement on innovation agencies in Africa.
Madji holds an MBA in International Management from Thunderbird, The School of Global Management in the United States.

David is an Applied Psychologist who has taken on many roles during his time at the University of Cambridge. Apart from his own research and teaching duties, he has devoted much time to helping the University lead itself by serving on its senior Governing Bodies. Much of this service has been focussed on the conduct of its teaching programmes and how they enable students to graduate with the skills necessary to be successful entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs. From 2000 to 2008 he was Education Director of the Cambridge MIT Institute funding research and development programmes into the development of entrepreneurial skills and mindsets, and from 2011 to 2016 he was Director of Education for the University’s School of Biological Sciences where his focus was on the education of Medical and Veterinary Students and Biological Scientists. In 2016 he raised funding for the establishment of a Strategic Research Network which was designed to support collaborations between Cambridge researchers and colleagues in countries in receipt of Official Development Assistance. A key feature underlying the success of this network was a focus on successfully sourcing innovation challenges and research questions in the countries who are our partners. It has now been adopted by the University and has the status of an Interdisciplinary Research Centre see https://www.gci.cam.ac.uk
He is a Life Fellow at King’s College, Cambridge and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Art in London.

Mohini Bhavsar has over a decade of experience scaling innovations in community health, agriculture, and financial inclusion across Africa, Latin America, and India. Since 2020, she has been based in Toronto, Canada, after years in Guatemala, India, and Senegal.
At Grand Challenges Canada, Mohini leads corporate strategy, delivery, and risk, driving impactful innovation to help global innovators achieve lasting change. Her strategic expertise is informed by previous roles at leading social enterprises like Living Goods and Dimagi, where she focused on strengthening health service delivery through innovation.
Mohini holds a B.Sc. in Biochemistry from McMaster University and an Executive MBA from the Rotman School of Management. She also serves on social enterprise boards, help emerging leaders navigate careers in healthcare as a podcast writer, and is a member of the Editorial Board for the Oxford Open Digital Journal.

Marieme Diop is a distinguished leader in venture capital and innovation, currently spearheading direct and fund investments in Africa at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group. As the driving force behind the "Africa MCAP" platform, she oversees a $150 million fund dedicated to empowering tech startups and fostering innovation across the continent. Before joining IFC, Marieme launched and co-led Orange Ventures Africa, a €50 million early-stage fund supporting startups across 10 African countries, including Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, Kenya, Senegal, Tunisia, and Morocco. Under her leadership, the fund invested in over 25 companies at various stages, from Seed to Series B. Marieme is one of the senior female pioneers in Africa’s venture capital ecosystem, actively shaping the francophone startup landscape. She is the founder of Dakar Network Angels (DNA), the first regional angel network in francophone Africa, which supports high-growth pre-seed and seed-stage companies, helping them build scalable and investable foundations. Marieme also serves on the boards of several VC funds and startups, leveraging her deep expertise to advise and mentor the next generation of African entrepreneurs. With over 16 years of experience in technology, innovation, and leadership roles at BearingPoint and Orange, Marieme has a proven track record of fostering entrepreneurship and growth across the continent. Marieme is a Fellow of the Obama Foundation’s Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI), a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, and a Choiseul Africa laureate. She graduated from Telecom ParisTech, one of France’s top engineering schools and holds intensive master’s degrees in information systems management and data analysis and computing.

Dr Joe Fitchett is Senior Adviser for Biotechnology at the Institut Pasteur de Dakar, Senegal. In this role, Joe is responsible for outbreak vaccines and oversees the strategy to design and scale production of medical countermeasures for epidemics as part of a newly established Dakar biotechnology hub. Joe joins Institut Pasteur de Dakar from Mologic, an innovative life science and biotechnology company transformed in 2021 to a not-for-profit Global Access Dx, where he maintains a governance role through the Sapling Foundation.

Ndèye Marie is an agri-food engineer and graduate of the École Supérieure Polytechnique de Dakar. With over 10 years' experience in the cereal production industry, she has acquired in-depth expertise in providing technological support to agri-food SMEs. Her know-how encompasses food formulation and processes, quality control and project management.
Today, Ndèye Marie is Nutrition Initiative Lead at Haskè Ventures, a venture studio committed to developing innovative solutions to the challenges of malnutrition in West Africa. As co-founder of Wellnekh, she pilots a social enterprise dedicated to the production of healthy, nutritious food.
Her work places particular emphasis on creating synergies between public and private players to promote favorable nutritional policies.

Laura Layousse leads the Compagnie Africaine Agroalimentaire (CAA) with proven expertise and a thoughtful approach. With over ten years of experience in the field of communication, Laura has brought a strategic vision to the CAA focused on innovation and sustainability. Under her leadership, the company has successfully developed and marketed pre-cooked fonio, meeting the needs of modern consumers while promoting local agriculture. Pragmatic and committed, she works closely with farming communities to improve value chains and support projects that enhance local capacities. Her leadership is driven by a commitment to sustainable development and a continuous drive to improve the processes and products of the CAA.

Oluwakayode Awe, a dedicated public health professional with extensive experience in managing health programs, operations, and expansions across various regions. Awe heads up rescue.co’s expansion in East and West Africa and is proud to scale and contribute to saving over 40,000 lives and making a meaningful difference.