Organizers

Alfons is the acting head of Supply Chain at the Global Fund in Geneva, he has been seconded from Unilever. He has a strong professional background in consumer good, retail and pharmaceutical supply chain management, with 19 years of experience across Europe, Asia and Africa. He is an expert in the areas of Supply Chain Transformation through people and process leadership, applied across both private-private and public-private sector engagements. He has been with the Global Fund since late 2016 and has been enabling the Perfect Clinic focus, where the measurement of On Shelf Availability of health products & diagnostics at the Health facility are the only true measure of Supply Chain performance. 
 
His current focus is on facilitating skill and talent development in supply chain management both at Global Level and in country to deliver high performing, performance based supply chains.

Before his appointment as the Vice Chancellor of the University of Rwanda (UR), Phil Cotton was the Principal of one of UR’s Colleges – Medicine and Health Sciences.

Prior to this he was at Glasgow medical School where he is still Professor of Learning and Teaching. After completing a science degree at St Andrews he studied medicine at Glasgow where he also completed his Masters and Doctoral degrees. For many years he worked as a GP in Glasgow, and was a Council member and International Committee member, and Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners.

He is a Methodist Preacher and is the founding chair of a Scottish fair trade organisation, and Board member of several development charities working in Africa.

Joseph Ndagijimana leads the Rwanda team at Zipline, a technological and logistics company that delivers medical products to hospitals in remote areas using autonomous drones. He holds a master’s degree in global health delivery from the University of Global Health Equity and a degree in pharmacy from National University of Rwanda. Prior to Zipline, he received the prestigious Global Health Corps fellowship and worked on implementing international procurement processes for pharmaceuticals and medical equipment to hospitals in rural districts of Rwanda. Ndagijimana has extensive experience in medical supply chains in both government, private, and nonprofit institutions, including the Medical Procurement and Production Division of the Rwanda Biomedical Center, and the non-profit, Partners In Health.

Mohamed Said Abdilahi is currently serving as Deputy Minister of Health & Human services for The Federal Government of Somalia. He has been a member of the Federal Parliament since 2017. Prior to that, he was National consultant on the National Development plan (2017-2020) and an Advisor on Development & Humanitarian programs. He coordinated and participated in Peace and State Building Goals under the Somali New Deal Compact (2014-2016), He has been actively engaged in Somali geopolitics for the past 22 years with a knowledge of components of Somali federal government and challenges facing the creation of functional regional states.

James provides supply chain design expertise to The UPS Foundation and its humanitarian partners, leveraging 30 years of UPS experience as the former Global President of UPS Customer Solutions. Upon retiring from UPS, James became a Supply Chain Expert on Mission for The UPS Foundation to fulfill his passion to engage the humanitarian sector, providing support for supply chain strengthening and capacity building efforts of leading humanitarian agencies.

James initially became a loaned executive to the international aid agency, The Global Fund.  This agency is based in Geneva, Switzerland and its mission is to eradicate the disease burdens of HIV, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. After his 12 month assignment with The Global Fund, in Geneva, James has become an advisor to the following strategic partners of The UPS Foundation: GAVI, International Federation of the Red Cross, World Bank- Global Financing Facility, and the American Red Cross.

During his distinguished UPS career, James held responsibilities in Operations, Industrial Engineering, Network Planning, Special Projects, and Solutions.   The last 20 years were mostly in the Customer Solutions/Professional Services arena.  As a Regional Customer Solutions Director, James managed a teams of resources in support of strategic UPS customers in the High Tech & Retail industry verticals.  As the Customer Solutions Vice President, he helped design and deploy the Global Accounts model for UPS’s most complex and international clients. 

From 2007-2010, he was involved in the design and development of a new strategic approach for the UPS Foundation.  That strategy was an integrated approach that combined UPS logistics expertise with strategic philanthropy to strengthen public health systems and the supply chain competencies of leading Humanitarian Supply chain partners of the UPS Foundation including the American Red Cross, UNICEF, CARE, and the World Food Programme.

Dr. Peter Okebukola is the leader of McKinsey & Company’s Healthcare Practice in West Africa as well as a global expert in healthcare supply chains. Dr. Okebukola’s breadth of experience is far reaching, having worked as an advisor to governments of nations and CEOs of some of the largest global corporations in several African countries, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas.

Peter currently leads McKinsey’s global supply chain management efforts in Africa and has developed as suite of supply chain management tools which have been used by many clients including large global pharmaceuticals and numerous African countries like Nigeria, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Zambia, etc. These tools include the SC360 - a proprietary supply chain diagnostic toolkit, a comprehensive digital Logistics Information Management System as well as a Supply Chain Capability Management Leaders Development Program Platform which offers customized modules on core logistics topics including inventory management, forecasting, just-in-time resourcing, supplier management, etc.

Peter has worked extensively with international donor organizations including USAID, DFID, Global Fund, Gates Foundation, UNFPA and UNICEF, in integrating vertical supply chains and implementing country-level healthcare transformation efforts in many developing countries. Further to that, he led a team of global logisticians, donors and their local implementing partners in developing an end-to-end cold chain strategy and architecture for the vaccines supply chain system for some GAVI-supported countries.

Dr. Okebukola holds a Ph.D. in Health Economics, Policy and Finance from Johns Hopkins University, for which he was conferred the National Delta Omega Honors Award. He also holds an M.P.H./ M.B.A from Johns Hopkins University and Harvard University as well as a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Lagos. He is proficient in English and French.

Prosper Ndayiragije is the Country Manager of Africa Improved Foods Rwanda Ltd (AIF), a Public Private Partnership that addresses malnutrition and stunting across East Africa Region through business solutions. AIF is a joint venture between DSM, IFC, CDC, FMO and Government of Rwanda. Prosper has cross-cutting experience combining Corporate Finance, Strategy, Business Planning, geo-politics, advocacy & government/public relations and has a broad understanding of commodities value chain, local and international procurement. He holds a Master degree in Business Administration and in Humanitarian Assistance, lived and worked in several countries (Africa, Europe, Asia) for multinational companies/organizations for more than 15 years.

Francis Nah Kateh, MD, MHA, MPS/HSL, FLCP is one of Liberia's leading health professionals and the Deputy Minister for Health Services, Chief Medical Officer for The Republic of Liberia. He is a surgeon with decades of experience both working in the United States and Liberia. With his education and experience, he has formulated and contributed to several health care policies in and out of Liberia. He has passionately provided leadership and management to a wide range of health policies and strategies. He has proven skills in running cost-effective patient care and establishing monitoring measures to ensure excellence in clinical care.

Dr. Kateh was most recently awarded an Honorary Doctor of Public Service Degree from his Alma Mater, MacMurray College, based on his role in the cessation of the Ebola Virus Disease in Liberia. Dr. Kateh served as Deputy Incident Manager for Medical Response and Planning. He developed strategies to mitigate the Trend of Ebola in Liberia. Paramount among those was the Community Care Center Strategy and the RITE Strategy (Rapid Isolation and Treatment of Ebola) which was recognize as the most efficient and effective strategy in fighting EVD. 

Dr. Kateh is a Fellow at the Liberia College of Physician & Surgeon; President, Liberia Public Health Association; Member, Liberian Medical and Dental Association; Regional Representative, North Carolina Association of Local Health Directors; Member, North Carolina Public Health Association; Member, American College of Healthcare Executives; Member, American Public Health Association National Association of County and City Health Official (NACCHO).

Sam Clark is a transport, access and community development specialist with over 20 years of experience working on projects in rural and urban sub-Saharan Africa. Sam’s practical experience has been built on a foundation provided by an MA in Environment and International Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, UK.  Prior to joining Transaid, Sam’s worked and lived in Southern and East Africa where he implementing community based development programmes for a number of NGOs and progressed quickly from roles such as Community Development Worker and Project Evaluation Specialist, to becoming a Country Coordinator and then Programme Manager.

Sam joined Transaid in 2013 as Programme Support Manager before advancing to Head of Programmes. In this position, Sam provides support to a number of Transaid’s programmes which includes extensive technical assistance, quality assurance and backstopping support. During his time with Transaid, Sam has led several interventions as part of Transaid’s Road Safety Programme in countries including Ghana, Malawi, as well as supporting linked initiatives in Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Zambia. Sam also leads on Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) activities on a three year GIZ funded road safety programme, specifically attempting to demonstrate a link between improved driver training and reduced road traffic fatalities/injuries. Sam is the chair of Transaid’s MEL Working Group and is responsible for safeguarding.

Henry Bosa joined ARC as a Senior Public Health Specialist for Outbreak  & Epidemics in February 2017, bringing with him a 10 years’ experience in disease outbreak response and emerging infectious surveillance in various African countries. He started his career as a medical doctor in 2001, rising to a level of a medical superintendent of a general hospital in Uganda. Since 2007, Henry has been involved in the management of several disease outbreaks across Africa: the Ebola outbreak in Bundibugyo in Uganda (2007), the dengue fever outbreak in Mogadishu Somalia (2011), the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone (2014 and 2015), and the mysterious disease outbreak in Aweil, South Sudan (2016). Between 2011 and 2012, Henry acted as the Ministry of Health Clinical Lead during the viral haemorrhagic fever outbreaks in Uganda for both Ebola (2011, 2012) and Marburg (2012). In addition, Henry has extensively worked on different outbreaks including Yellow Fever, Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever, meningitis and human Rift Valley Fever.

In 2015, Henry worked as an Ebola Response Preparedness Officer with World Health Organization Country office in Ghana. Prior to joining ARC, Henry was an Epidemiology Research Fellow at Uganda Virus Research Institute, where his work focused mainly on arbovirus and emerging infectious diseases surveillance systems, outbreak response, and clinical epidemiology.

Henry is a member of the Scientific Panel of Experts on the Joint Mobile Emerging Disease Intervention Clinical Capacity (JMEDICC), a clinical trial on medical counter-measures to test candidate molecules in treatment of Ebola or Marburg. He holds a Masters of Science degree (Disease Control and Epidemiology Concentration) from the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, and a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery from Makerere University in Uganda. He also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Control of Tropical Infectious Diseases from the University of Ancona, Italy.

Mr Paul Molinaro currently serves in WHO Health Emergency Programme, heading the Operations Support and Logistics team. A national of Kenya, he holds a master’s degree in Defence Logistics Management, from Cranfield University in the UK.  Prior to joining WHO last year, Paul was the Supply and Logistics Chief in the UNICEF Regional Office for the Middle East and North Africa. His professional experience also includes other assignments within the UNICEF Supply Division, first within the emergency department, and subsequently with the Change Management Unit, as project lead to transform the global supply function. Paul has extensive experience in managing emergency supply and logistics operations around the world, starting on the Kenya-Somalia border in 1993. Between 1993 and 1999, he performed multiple logistics roles with UNHCR and CARE International.

Vanessa Adams, Vice President Country Delivery and Partnerships at AGRA, is a proven leader with strong private sector, investment facilitation and project management experience. Ms. Adams has 25 years of progressive experience working in 42 countries, integrating over twelve agricultural and consumer goods value chains into regional and global markets. Previously, she served as Director of Strategic Partnerships for DAI. Prior to that, she worked in West Africa as the regional Export Business Development Director, Trade and Investment Director, and ultimately the Chief of Party (Regional Director) on the USAID West Africa Trade Hub program, Chief of Party in Ethiopia on the USAID flagship Agricultural Growth Program–Agribusiness and Market Development Program, and COP of the USAID Southern Africa Trade and Investment Hub, managing large multi-cultural teams and budgets. She contributed to founding three pan-African nongovernmental organizations, including the African Cashew Alliance, Borderless Alliance, and Global Shea Alliance, as well as initiating the Women in Agribusiness Leadership Network in Ethiopia and has brokered numerous partnerships with African small and mid-size companies as well as Fortune 500 companies in win-win sustainable frameworks resulting in over half a billion dollars in exports from and investments in in Africa. Vanessa holds an executive MBA from INSEAD.

Dr. Diane Gashumba is the Minister of Health in the Republic of Rwanda and has been since October 4, 2016. Prior to this position, she served as the Minister of Gender and Family Promotion from March 29, 2016. Minister Gashumba is a pediatrician by profession bringing 17 years’ experience in global maternal, new-born and child health with focus to gender issues. She worked with USAID funded Rwanda Family Health Project as Senior Team leader for quality and as Deputy Chief of Party focusing on improving the quality of and access to services in Maternal, Child and New Born Health, Family Planning, Reproductive Health, HIV, Nutrition, Malaria and Gender Equality.

Dr. Gashumba has a strong background in management and clinical experience especially in managing maternal, new born and child health programs, including 3 years as Director of Hospital. As a strategist at building capacity and improving quality within the Rwandan Health system, she has led the design and implementation of the baseline assessment and midterm evaluation of the quality of Maternal New born and Child Health care in 2015 and participated to various surveys and abstracts, such as the health seeking behaviors of pregnant women, Immunitum study, integration of HIV services into MCH, and assessment of available equipment in health facilities in Rwanda.

Minister Gashumba holds a MD degree from the University of Rwanda and a Master of Medicine specializing in pediatrics.

Dr. Lloyd Matowe currently serves as  the Executive Director and CEO of the organization Pharmaceutical Systems Africa (PSA). PSA is an international organization with multiple offices in Africa and the United States. Our mission is to work with developing countries to build sustainable capacity in pharmaceutical supply system management.

Dr. Matowe has 20 years of experience working in international development, focusing on supply chain & pharmaceutical management. Serving in these areas, he has worked both in full time and consulting positions for a number of organizations. Full-time positions included serving in management positions for Management Sciences for Health in Washington DC and for the Global Fund in Geneva. Notable examples of short-term consultancies included working for UN agencies, USAID, the World Bank Group, and various implementing agencies. In addition to consulting, he has experience in academia, having served in academic positions in universities in the USA, the UK, the Middle East, and Africa.

Dr. Matowe serves as the Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy at Lusaka Apex Medical University, a preeminent private university in Zambia. He currently serve on various international boards including chairing the People that Deliver Initiative, an organization that advocates at the highest level for interventions to improve the demand and supply of a qualified health supply chain professionals in organizations. He also serve on various international committees including serving on the Global Health Supply Chain Summit committee.

Cyril Khamsi is the founder and CEO of Kumwe, a Rwandan company which has organized the fragmented and informal domestic freight sector, and separately, developed and scaled a novel post-harvest processing method for maize that eliminates aflatoxin risk and ensures small-holder farmers can meet the quality standards of premium buyers 100% of the time.

Before Kumwe, Cyril graduated from MIT with a Master's in Supply Chain Management. Prior to this, Cyril worked around the world with the Clinton Health Access Initiative organizing private sector investment and cost reductions in essential global health commodities. He started his career in finance as an investment banker.

Jarrod Goentzel is founder and director of the MIT Humanitarian Supply Chain Lab in the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics. His research focuses on meeting human needs in resource-constrained settings through better supply chain management, information systems, and decision support technology. Dr. Goentzel leads fieldwork in a range of contexts to develop insights that improve response efforts during emergencies and strengthen supply chains in vulnerable communities. Research involves direct engagement with the private sector, government agencies, humanitarian, international development, and community organizations on several continents. Dr. Goentzel has created residential and online courses and in humanitarian logistics, international operations, and supply chain finance, and has extensive experience using simulation games to build intuition and leadership skills.

Previously, Dr. Goentzel was Executive Director of the MIT Supply Chain Management (SCM) Program, a nine-month master’s degree program. He joined MIT in 2003 to establish the Zaragoza Logistics Center in Spain, which was the first node in the MIT Global SCALE Network. He received a Ph.D. from the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Malyse Uwase is the Regional Health & Impact Manager at Kasha. She leads Kasha's health and impact strategy overseeing its implementation and execution across Rwanda and Kenya. Prior to joining Kasha, she worked for various non-profits that focus on gender empowerment and women’s health and has extensive experience working with women and young people in low-income communities focusing on health issues and economic empowerment.

Paul Lalvani is the Director and Founder of Empower School of Health with offices in Delhi, Geneva, Johannesburg and New York. He has over 25 years of experience in shaping organizational leadership, building capacity in procurement and supply chain, scaling access to medicines and leveraging private sector for promoting public health.

Paul has worked in developed and developing countries with health and humanitarian organizations in the dusty roads and last-mile clinics of Kabul, Port Moresby and Sana’a; and he has advised board members, ministers of health and heads of state on strategy, vision, advocacy and impact.

Some organizations and countries he has supported include Ministries of Health of more than 30 countries, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, President Kufuor’s Foundation in Ghana, The Global Fund, World Health Organization, Roll Back Malaria Partnership, UNICEF, Global Fund, Asia Pacific Leaders’ Malaria Alliance, UNAIDS, and others.

His focus areas include Leadership, Strategy, Procurement & Supply Chain, and Public-Private Partnerships.

Dr. Rosemary Kumwenda is the current Regional Team Leader HIV Health and Development Eastern Europe and Central Asia and Coordinator of the UN SPHS initiative. She is a Medical Doctor with Master’s degree in Public Health from the London school of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). She joined UNDP 19 years ago. She worked as Assistant Resident Representative in UNDP Zambia 2000 to 2011 on  Poverty, Health and HIV. She worked for UNDP Malawi as Policy Advisor 2012 to 2014, She served UNDP Regional Service Centre for Africa as Senior Policy Advisor for Sustainable Responses 2014 to 2016. Before UNDP, she worked for ten years under the Ministry of Health in clinical medicine and primary Health care as Lusaka Zambia’s District Director of Health.

Kevin Mbundu graduated from the University of Tampa with the Class of 2015, with a Bachelors degree of Business Management with a minor in Finance. 

He currently works for MFK Group Ltd based in Kigali, Rwanda. MFK Group is a holding company for a group of businesses involved in different sectors ranging from consultancy services, agriculture, real estate, transport and logistics. 

Kevin is the Managing Director for Garden Fresh Ltd, a horticulture production and export company, which specialize in Fruits and Vegetables to the UK and European markets. Garden Fresh is the leading exporter in Rwanda, and works with more than 600 farmers. 

Kevin is also the co-founder of Kivu Noir Coffee, the world’s freshest coffee. By taking a family owned business for over 20 years and modernizing it to fit today's e-commerce market. Kivu noir was recently featured on Forbes magazine for its innovative business model and it’s social impact. 

Rob Addison is a Sourcing & Supply Chain Specialist at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.  Founded in 2002, the Global Fund is a 21st century partnership organization that is the leading contributor of resources in the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. It mobilizes and invests nearly US$4 billion a year to support countries and communities most in need; with an active portfolio of over 430 active grants in over 100 countries, implemented by local experts.

Prior to the Global Fund, Rob studied at Cranfield University and was an Officer in the Royal Logistics Corps of the British Army.  He then left the British Army and began working in Europe and Asia in numerous logistics, procurement & leadership roles in global Fast Moving Consumer Goods companies (Mars & Unilever), a UK procurement consultancy (Proxima) and a global pharmaceutical, biologics/vaccines & consumer healthcare company (GlaxoSmithKline). 

Prashant Yadav is Strategy Leader-Supply Chain at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Lecturer at Harvard Medical School. Yadav’s research and policy advisory work focuses on health care supply chains in developing countries. He also works on role of new technology in pharmaceutical supply chains, globally. He is the author of many peer reviewed scientific publications and his work has been featured in prominent print and broadcast media including The Economist, The Financial Times, Nature, and BBC.

Before his current role, Yadav was Vice President of Healthcare at the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan and a faculty member at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Before that he was Professor of Supply Chain Management at the MIT-Zaragoza International Logistics Program and a Research Affiliate at the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics.

Yadav received his undergraduate training in Chemical Engineering, his MBA in Operations and Finance and his PhD in Management Science. Before academia he has worked in pharmaceutical strategy, management consulting and supply chain technology companies.

Dr. Ones Karuho is a certified project management professional with more than 20 years of experience in managing agribusiness and rural development projects. He works for the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) as Senior Program Officer in charge of agricultural market systems development in East, Southern, and West Africa. He works with partners to design and implement projects that support private sector agribusiness companies to build inclusive supply chains, reduce post-harvest losses, and build an ecosystem for agricultural transformation.

Prior to joining AGRA, he was Regional Program Manager for a BMGF-funded soy value chain programs from 2011 to 2014. He worked with agribusiness companies to improve market access and increase yields for farmers in Southern Africa with a major focus on Zambia and Mozambique. 

Before moving to Southern African countries, Dr. Karuho worked as Deputy Country Director, Director of Agricultural Value Chains, and Senior Business Manager for TechnoServe in Tanzania from 2008 to 2011.  From 2007 to 2008, he was a management consultant for MCC-funded projects in Tanzania including public procurement reform and legal sector reform.  Before moving to Tanzania, he held senior project management and leadership positions at Food for the Hungry Rwanda and Mozambique between 1995 and 2007.

Dr. Karuho holds a PhD degree in Public Policy and Administration from Walden University (Minneapolis, USA), and an MBA degree in International Business from Hult International Business School (Boston, Massachusetts, USA). He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) since 2006. He is fluent in English, Kiswahili, French, and Kinyarwanda.

Paulo Gonçalves is Professor of Management at the Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI) and Founder and Director of the Master of Humanitarian Logistics and Management (MASHLM). He is also a research affiliate at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He holds a Ph.D. in Management Science from MIT Sloan and an M.Sc. from MIT. Paulo received an Intel Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Award in 2003. For his dissertation, he has won the 2004 Doctoral dissertation award given annually by the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP). His research combines experiments, simulation, optimization, and econometrics to understand and improve procurement, pre-positioning, inventory, and resource allocation decisions in humanitarian settings.

Dr. Robert Kimbui is the Senior Supply chain manager, Sub Saharan Africa, Johnson and Johnson, Global Public Health (GPH) program.  He is a member of the GPH Supply chain leadership team and supports the implementation of GPH supply chain strategies across sub Saharan Africa.  He is a licensed Kenyan pharmacist and supply chain professional.

Prior to Johnson and Johnson, Robert was the Supply chain director / Chief pharmacist for Goodlife pharmacy limited, the largest retail pharmacy chain in East Africa and has supported the implementation of public health supply chain processes in his prior roles in Management Sciences for Health (MSH), Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and Laborex Kenya ltd.

He holds a Bachelor of Pharmacy, Msc. Operations and Supply chain and is currently finalizing a Msc. Health Economics and policy. 
 

Simon Conesa started his career as a scientist, pursuing a PhD in analytical chemistry & designing innovative quality control systems. After pursuing an international MBA at the Instituto de Empresa business school, he focused his career in international development when joined Dr. Prashant Yadav at the MIT-Zaragoza Logistics Center mapping pharmaceutical supply chains in Africa & the Middle-East. Consultancy work followed for UNICEF’s Supply Division to improve supply chains by using mobile technologies in the field. This work inspired him to create the Global Health Consortium, a collaborative LinkedIn group with over five hundred leading professionals. Furthermore, this work was key in becoming an Advisor for the Best Practices and Innovation working group at the UN Commission on Life-Saving Commodities for Woman and Children in 2012.

As an independent consultant, he served as project manager for a USTDA-funded project to improve the pharmaceutical supply chain for the Ministry of Health in Egypt from 2011 to 2014. Concurrently during 2013, he worked as a supply chain consultant for a World Bank-funded project to improve access in underserved areas in the Republic of Moldova. After joining MSH in 2014, he worked as the lead technical advisor for health systems strengthening in Ukraine, including the high-level design of the pharmaceutical reimbursement policy, and synergistic-specific interventions, such as enabling the use of framework agreement contracts and establishing price monitoring and price referencing mechanisms. Additionally, he designed an intervention to improve access to medicines for non-communicable diseases in Kenya in a partnership with Novartis. His current position as Global Logistics Advisor focuses on the digitalization of their entire Supply Chain.

Alexis Strader has over eight years of experience in project management and strategic communications for global health programs, primarily in health supply chain management. In her current role as the Project Officer for the People that Deliver Initiative, Alexis advocates for sustainable workforce development through advocacy, communications, and research. She supports the Executive Manager in the day-to-day management of the PtD Secretariat and is responsible for partnership building and coordination between donors, board members, and PtD’s host organization, UNICEF. Before joining PtD, Alexis was based in Dakar, Senegal, where she worked at Dimagi managing mobile health projects for clients across the region. Of note, she provided capacity building support to the National Pharmacy Association in Senegal as they revamped their supply chain management mobile technology. Prior to Dimagi, Alexis worked with several public health non-governmental organizations, including Population Services International (PSI), and John Snow, Inc. (JSI). It was at JSI where Alexis first realized her passion for health supply chain programs. Alexis earned a Master’s in Business Administration and a Master’s in International Development from American University in Washington, DC. She is based at UNICEF Supply Division in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Inès Buki is the Country Director for the USAID Global Health Supply Chain Program - Procurement and Supply Management (GHSC-PSM) project in Rwanda since 2016. With about 16 years of professional experience working under USAID funded projects, Inès served as Country Director for Rwanda and Cameroon for both the USAID Strengthening Pharmaceutical System (SPS) project and USAID Systems for Improved Access to Pharmaceuticals and Services (SIAPS) project. Also, she had supported through several technical assistance assignments countries such as Senegal, Benin, Burundi, Gabon, respectively on behalf of the USAID Grant Management Solutions project to improve the management of Global Fund grant, for national forecasting and supply plan exercises for antimalarial and HIV/AIDs products, for the design and implementation of a Coordinated Procurement and Distribution System for pharmaceuticals, and for designing and implementing  supply chain management system assessment for pharmaceuticals.

Inès also served at a regional position as Principal Technical Advisor for the UNITAID funded Achieving Catalytic Expansion of Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention in the Sahel (ACCESS-SMC) project supporting countries’ such as Mali, Chad and Burkina Faso, National Malaria Control program to assess regulatory systems and supply chain system readiness to support the implementation of a malaria prevention program which provided Sulfoxide-Pyrimethamine/Amodiaquine to the under five children. Inès hold a Bachelor degree in Pharmacy science and a Master in Health Economy & Pharmacoeconomic. 
 

Joe oversees The UPS Foundation’s Humanitarian Relief & Resilience Program, directing The UPS Foundation’s work in Disaster Resilience, Response and Recovery, combining philanthropic investments, technical expertise, skilled volunteerism, thought leadership collaboration, and global logistical support.

In this role, Joe leads the award-winning Medical Drone Network initiative launched in 2016 in Rwanda. He also oversees UPS supply chain logisticians deployed around the world including: The UPS Humanitarian Expert on Mission Program that embeds skilled volunteers with UN and other non-governmental organizations to strengthen public health supply chains; The Logistics Emergency Team (LET) loaned manager program that deploys supply chain experts to assist the U.N. Global Logistics Cluster response to natural disasters and complex crises to develop last mile supply chain solutions.

Joe has been with UPS for 31 years and has held district, region and corporate positions before joining The UPS Foundation in 2007. Joe currently serves on non-profit boards as the Vice-Chairman for The Center for Disaster Philanthropy. He also serves on The Salvation Army National Advisory Board and The Good360 Corporate Advisory Council. He is a former member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Risk & Resilience and also served on the Association of Corporate Citizenship Professionals (ACCP) Executive Committee.

Dr. Akhlaghi’s career ranges from working as a pharmacist in a retail pharmacy chain in the United States to providing technical assistance in pharmaceutical and supply chain management in low and middle income countries, giving her a unique and multisectoral perspective. She is an APICS certified supply chain professional with 18 years of experience working to strengthen the pharmaceutical sector, public health supply chains, and project management.

Working with organizations like USAID, UNFPA, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, she is known for her ability to synthesize information and clearly communicate complex subjects to facilitate decision-making. She joined JSI over eight years ago and now serves as the Senior Technical Advisor managing the Family Planning Access Programs, which includes the Jadelle Access Program, Implanon Access Initiative, and the Sayana Press Introduction activities. In her role, she constantly liaises with the pharmaceutical industry, donor organizations, and in-country partners to design and implement strategic initiatives that improve product introduction, registration, sourcing, production, and delivery, and ultimately bring supply closer to demand to serve varied markets in a broad range of countries throughout the world. Most recently, Laila provided technical assistance to UNFPA in Cox's Bazar as they transition their supply chain to more stable conditions.

Previously, with Management Sciences for Health’s RPM Plus Program, she oversaw the development of Quantimed a pharmaceutical forecasting tool; with the Department of Health and Human Services, she administered the 340B Prime Vendor program, an indigent care discount pooled procurement program with over US$100 million in annual sales; and began her career as an Executive Resident in Association Management. She has worked in over 20 countries across Africa and Asia to provide pharmaceutical system strengthening and forecasting and supply planning technical assistance. Dr. Akhlaghi received her Doctor of Pharmacy and Masters in Public Administration from the University of Kentucky, her MicroMasters in Supply Chain Management from MIT and is licensed to practice in the state of Virginia.

Mr. Fitzsimmons’ public health career in the expanded program of immunizations includes periods of service through PAHO/WHO (1981-94, 2001-07 and 2016 to present) through SEARO/WHO in New Delhi (1997-2001) and through CDC in Atlanta (2007-16).  In a variety of technical, operational, and vaccine supply chain positions he supported achievements by national immunization programs in regional and global public health goals for polio eradication, measles and rubella elimination and the control of vaccine preventable diseases.  Mr. Fitzsimmons holds a Master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh and his published work focuses on the sustainability of national immunization programs and vaccine supply chains.

Geoff Speck is the Senior Vice President of Logenix International. Geoff has 27 years’ experience managing global supply chains into the developing world. One of Geoff's management roles is oversight of Logenix' operational control tower for global health supply chain contractors on PEPFAR & PMI’s Global Health Supply Chain (GHSC) and Rapid Test Kits (RTK) contracts. Travelling throughout the developing world, he has overseen operations on complex distributions of medical supplies throughout countries to include Tanzania, Egypt, Nigeria and Afghanistan. Geoff manages Logenix' international regulatory compliance and is certified in GDP Compliant Pharmaceutical Cargo Handling. Starting his career with Matrix International in 1993, Geoff has hands-on experience operating global supply chains to and throughout every region of the world. Since 2001, Geoff has played a key part of the international and in-country supply chain success Logenix has achieved to become the preeminent logistics supply chain provider across the developing world.

Professor Agnes Binagwaho, MD, M(Ped), PhD, is the Vice Chancellor of the University of Global Health Equity, an initiative of Partners In Health focused on changing the way health care is delivered around the world by training the next generation of global health professionals who strive to deliver more equitable, quality health services for all. She is a Rwandan pediatrician who completed her MD at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles and her MA in Pediatrics MA at the Universite de Bretagne Occidentale. She was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science from Dartmouth College and earned a Doctorate of Philosophy from the University of Rwanda College of Business and Economics. She worked for 20 years in the public health sector in Rwanda. From 2002 to 2016, she served the Rwandan Health Sector in high-level government positions, first as the Executive Secretary of Rwanda's National AIDS Control Commission, then as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, and then for five years as Minister of Health. She is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, an Adjunct Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, and a ​Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Global Health Equity​. ​Professor Binagwaho serves as Senior Advisor to the Director General of the World Health Organization ​and, since 2016, she has been a member of the United States National Academy of Medicine and, since 2017, a fellow of the African Academy of Sciences. Professor Binagwaho has published more than 150 peer-reviewed articles.  

Ugochi (Ugo) Daniels has championed one of the world’s most neglected issues: women’s health needs in humanitarian emergencies. As the former chief of UNFPA’s Humanitarian and Fragile Contexts Branch, Ugochi (Ugo) Daniels pushed for greater attention and resources to help more girls and women get the care they need and deserve: medical services for safe pregnancies, counseling for survivors of sexual violence, contraception, and basic dignity kits with items like sanitary napkins and soap.

For Daniels, her work is about more than statistics; it’s about people. She has met with Syrian refugees; pregnant women facing the perils of drought in Somalia; and survivors of sexual abuse in the Philippines.

She now serves as the UN Resident Coordinator in Iran, where she leads the UN country team in sustainable development and humanitarian efforts. Originally from Nigeria, she has also worked for the UN in Nepal and the Philippines.

In her words:

“[These girls and women] are more than statistics. They are more than survey results, they are more than debates… and therefore the time is now to make a real difference in their lives.”

Follow her on Twitter at @daniels_ugochi

Dr. Özlem Ergun is currently a Professor in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at Northeastern University in Boston. Prior to beginning at Northeastern, Dr. Ergun was the Coca-Cola Associate Professor in the Stewart School of Industrial & Systems Engineering at Georgia Tech where she co-founded the Center for Health & Humanitarian Systems (CHHS). Dr. Ergun’s research focuses on the design and management of large-scale networks. She has applied her work on network design, management and collaboration to problems arising in the airline, ocean cargo and trucking industries. Recently, her work has been focused on the use of systems thinking and mathematical modeling in applications with societal impact, such as applying new algorithmic and analytical tools to important real world problems. She has worked with organizations that respond to humanitarian crisis around the world, including: UN WFP, IFRC, CARE USA, FEMA, USACE, CDC, AFCEMA, and MedShare International. Dr. Ergun received a B.S. in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University in 1996 and a Ph.D. in Operations Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2001, and she was awarded the NSF Career Award in 2003.

David Sarley has worked for 15 years in public health supply chain management, 10 years with JSI and five at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He is currently part of the Foundation’s Vaccine Delivery's new Strategy and Innovation team and manages several investments including work with Zipline, PATH, WHO and the African Resource Center for supply chain in SA and Nigeria. He is researching innovation platforms and partners including African based incubators. At JSI he held several positions in the USAID | DELIVER PROJECT including Director of Public Health Supply chain work and led work on supply chain costing. Prior to JSI he worked in economics consultancy for 16 years in trade, transport, finance and health economics. He was also a volunteer with VSO in the Caribbean teaching economics and started his career with Ford in inventory management. He has a degree in Econometrics from Hull University and a Post Graduate Diploma from Southampton University. He was born in Cornwall, has also lived in West Ham, Baghdad, Hull, Southampton, Grenada, Bethesda Maryland and now Seattle. He has worked in over 80 countries doing short term economics and public health consulting and management assignments. He wore a West Ham shirt in the Foundation’s got talent show and tries to tell at least one bad joke in every meeting. He is encouraging Foundation staff to fill whiteboard space with art graffiti and recently drew Black Panther and Warren Buffett inspired cartoons. He has a terrible sense of humor and more confidence than talent. 

Pinar Keskinocak is the director and co-founder of the Center for Health & Humanitarian Systems (CHHS) at Georgia Tech. She has over 20 years of experience in logistics and supply management. Her work focuses on the applications of operations research and management science with societal impact, particularly health and humanitarian applications. Her recent work has addressed infectious disease modeling (e.g., cholera, pandemic flu), evaluating intervention strategies, and resource allocation; catch-up scheduling for vaccinations; medical decision-making (e.g., disease screening); hospital operations management; disaster preparedness and response (e.g., prepositioning inventory, debris management). Dr. Keskinocak has worked on a variety of projects with companies, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and healthcare providers, including American Red Cross, CARE, CDC, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory University Hospital, Grady Memorial Hospital, Pan-American Health Organization, and the Task Force for Global Health.

George Fenton is an experienced consultant and evaluator, working with both the aid and private sectors, in the fields of emergency preparedness, response and logistics, including digital cash transfers and market-based interventions. He is an expert in humanitarian supply chain management with over 30 years of experience and is a leader in his field, having co-founded: the Humanitarian Logistics Association, a global humanitarian logistics community of practice and professional development body; the global Fleet Forum which promotes aid transport knowledge sharing, road safety and capacity building; and the East Africa Inter-Agency Working Group for disaster preparedness. George has also played an influential role within international fora such as the World Humanitarian Summit and the Humanitarian Response Network. 

George has led and managed emergency operations and logistics teams to ensure successful multi-million dollar responses to a wide range of global humanitarian crises over the past decade. Constantly seeking new challenges, he uses his academic, private and aid sector networks, broad management experience and versatile skills to support improvements to the delivery of aid by influencing practical, innovative changes to ways in which resources are used.

As a senior executive George has worked for the United Nations and several of the world’s largest non-governmental organisations, leading the development of new technologies, such as mobile data solutions to facilitate cash transfers, developing national supply chain capacity, and managing key relationships with a broad range of stakeholders. He has recently been involved in several UN and donor evaluations of emergency preparedness, response and logistics services in East Africa.

Julie Swann is Department Head and the A. Doug Allison Distinguished Professor at the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) at North Carolina State University. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to joining NC State, she was the Harold R. and Mary Anne Nash Professor in the Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she co-founded the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems, one of the first interdisciplinary research centers on the Georgia Tech campus. In 2009, she was on loan as a science advisor for the H1N1 pandemic response at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Swann is a research leader in using mathematical modeling to enable supply chain systems and health care to become more efficient, effective, or equitable. Recent collaborations have been to quantify the return on public investments to improve pediatric asthma, plan for infectious disease outbreaks, analyze administrative claims data from Medicaid patients across the US, and design systems with decentralized decision makers.

Professor Van Wassenhove's research focus is on closed-loop supply chains (product take-back and end-of-life issues) and on disaster management (humanitarian logistics). He is the author of many award-winning teaching cases and regularly consults for major international corporations. He recently co-edited special issues on humanitarian operations for the Journal of Operations Management, the Production and Operations Management Journal and the European Journal of Operational Research.

Elizabeth is an accomplished public health development leader who has more than 15 years of experience in supply chain management of medicines and medical supplies in immunization campaigns, reproductive health, tuberculosis, and malaria as well as maternal and newborn health programs. Elizabeth, a founding member of IAPHL, holds a master’s degree in public health and is based in Abuja, Nigeria. She has worked in the private sector as a co-owner and managing director of a pharmacy, an educator in Nigeria’s public school system  and has held various positions at an international NGO that helps ministries of health develop and improve their public health supply chains. She has presented on public health supply chains at numerous conferences around the world.

Dominique is the Executive Manager of the People that Deliver Initiative (PtD). She is an international development professional with 22 years of experience in managing programs with a focus on health supply chain management, livelihood, food security and nutrition.

Since 2016 Dominique has been responsible for the management and overall performance of PtD, a broad coalition of governments and international, regional and national organizations working together to raise the profile of the health supply chain workforce as a key strategic area of health systems. Prior to PtD she worked for ten years on the HIV/AIDS supply chain for John Snow International (JSI) at the Partnership for Supply Chain Management (PFSCM), which procured and delivered essential lifesaving medicines and related commodities to HIV/AIDS programs around the world.

Dominique also has experience working with multilateral development agencies; the International Food Policy Research Institute, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the International Finance Corporation. She has both an MBA in International Business Administration and a Master's degree in Nutrition. She is fluent in English, Spanish and Dutch. As a native of The Netherlands and having lived in Latin America (Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela) and Washington, DC, she is now based at UNICEF Supply Division in Copenhagen, Denmark.