Experience

Health insurer/payer (headquartered in South Africa, but with a growing, multi-country presence), best known internationally for its Vitality Program which is very active in South Africa, UK, Asia, Australia and is growing in the US.

Discovery Health

Head of business development: pathology

January 2022 -July 2022

• Defined and executed roadmaps, established industry partnerships, and created go-to-market strategies to disrupt a $700 million (USD) industry.

• Led acquisition discussions and due diligence investigations of startup companies in the pathology environment to acquire expertise/personnel and hasten our entry into the market.

• Reported directly to the Chief Commercial Officer (Dr Ronald Whelan), and delivered critical presentations, organizational processes and go-live strategies to C-level executives (C-suite), technical leaders, and influencers.

Senior manager, project leader and clinical specialist: new program development

March 2021 -December 2021

• Designed scalable clinical interventions supported by the latest clinical evidence, to improve healthcare across multiple indications and disease states.

• Negotiated cost-effective pricing with international suppliers (sometimes reducing costs by as much as 75%).

• Engaged with key opinion leaders, professional medical societies and cross-organizational teams (fund managers, analysts, physicians, nurses, dietitians, and patients) to build consensus, streamline operational flows, and improve customer experiences.

• Developed marketing strategies to increase product utilization by medical professionals and patients, including negotiating discounts to facilitate rapid adoption by customers.

Principal analyst for new technologies

September 2020 -March 2021

• Identified gaps in clinical evidence and shortcomings of clinical trials relating to AI systems for the assessment of diabetic retinopathy, and obtained unpublished data from digital companies where required.

• Led the health technology assessments of published and unpublished clinical evidence to validate AI health products for the local population, ensuring that these technologies demonstrate satisfactory levels of effectiveness, safety, and economic viability.

• Developed (from concept to launch) convenient, clinically-appropriate and cost-effective referral and triage strategies for patients' visiting allied health professionals, primary care doctors, and clinical specialists.

• Optimized data-collection protocols and analytics with data scientists, clinical coding specialists, and regulatory departments, to store and analyze clinical practices within the company and to develop cloud-based, in-house risk prediction and prevention models.

South African non-profit organization aiming to improve health equality by ensuring that public healthcare facilities have reliable electricity, HVAC, lighting, etc.

Outreach Engineering NPC

Chief executive officer and founder

June 2013 - June 2021

• Founded the company with minimal resources and developed a sustainable model for growth whilst achieving maximum impact.

• Created and implemented company strategies, centered around building and conveying compelling value propositions.

• Negotiated the provision of pro bono services from local industry leaders (e.g., Siemens, Werksmans Attorneys, BDO, Energy Cybernetics, Idea Engineers).

• Stabilized healthcare infrastructure at one of the world's largest hospitals by delivering pro bono engineering services.

• Donated an outdoor gym (valued at 150,000 ZAR) to the Johannesburg Children’s Home, to improve residents' psychological health and ensure that neglected, orphaned, and disabled inhabitants could remain active and healthy despite COVID-19 restrictions.

• Built strong client relationships and led client engagements with a diverse group of internal stakeholders and external partners, including government officials and executives in the healthcare industry.

University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)

Visiting scholar - Department of Surgical Innovations

April 2018 - July 2018

• Designed next generation surgical devices, surgical techniques, and electromechanical systems for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.

• Performed bench assessments, preclinical design validations, and cadaver studies to validate hypotheses, test design feasibility, and advance clinical product development.

• Identified key collaborators and technology partners within the technology industry.

• Supported business development and fundraising preparations, thinking strategically and analytically about business, product, and technical challenges.

Johns Hopkins University

Visiting scholar - Center for Systems Science and Engineering

February 2018 - April 2018

• Articulated content and communicated concepts to build consensus and overcome communication barriers between cross- disciplinary project managers, multi-functional engineering teams, academic physicians and their clinical counterparts, and technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Identified components and relationships in the system dynamics models for various public health phenomena.

• Provided medical expertise for collaborative research involving healthy food ordinances, autonomous vehicle testing regulations, and optimizing interventions to reduce hospital-acquired infections.

• Co-authored multiple published papers that describe novel environmental interventions to reduce and control transmission of pathogenic bacteria in healthcare facilities, and collaborated to build a computational tool that was selected as a finalist in the Johns Hopkins Healthcare Design Competition.