Nikhil Pereira-Kamath, MBA

Nikhil Pereira-Kamath is a healthcare entrepreneur and executive with a track record of building and scaling innovative healthcare delivery platforms across emerging and developed markets. He is the Co-Founder and Chairman of Africa Healthcare Network (AHN), the largest dialysis services provider in sub-Saharan Africa, where he led the company’s growth from inception to over 60 dialysis centers across four countries. Under his leadership, AHN achieved profitability while maintaining industry-leading clinical outcomes, became Africa’s first vertically integrated renal care provider, and secured investments from global institutions including Polaris Partners, U.S. Development Finance Corporation, AAIC, AfricInvest, and Africa50. Recognized three consecutive years by the Financial Times as one of Africa’s fastest-growing companies, AHN has transformed access to life-saving dialysis across the continent and established a benchmark for sustainable, high-quality healthcare in frontier markets.

Prior to founding AHN, Nikhil began his career in investment banking at Morgan Stanley, followed by private equity at Berkshire Partners, focusing on healthcare and consumer investments. He later served as Chief Business Officer at ProKidney (Nasdaq: PROK), overseeing corporate strategy, business development, financing, and investor relations. Today, he is also the Founder and Managing Member of Coastal Infusion Partners, building a network of Vital Care Infusion pharmacies across New England. An Endeavor Entrepreneur, Nikhil is also an investor and advisor to a number of emerging businesses, including Twende / Nairobi City Thunder. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics from Princeton University.

Lia Tadesse Gebremedhin, MD

Lia Tadesse Gebremedhin is currently the Executive Director of the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program and a Professor of the Practice of Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Lia served as the Minister of Health of Ethiopia from March 2020 to February 2024 after serving as State Minister of Health from November 2018. As a Minister, she spearheaded the COVID pandemic response and helped her country navigate the pandemic with resilience. Before that, she served as Program Director at the University of Michigan’s Center for International Reproductive Health Training (CIRHT). She was also the Project Director of USAID’s Maternal and Child Survival Program (MCSP) at Jhpiego-Ethiopia and CEO and Vice Provost of St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College (SPHMMC) in Addis Ababa, where she led hospital service and academic reforms.

Lia is passionate about strengthening and reforming health systems and has received several recognitions for her accomplishments in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, advocating for gender equity, and access to quality health services and training. She has published over 40 articles, commentaries, and papers.

During her tenure as Minister, Lia served as co-chair of the COVAX AMC Engagement Group, co-chair of the Global Financing Facility (GFF) Investors Group, Vice Chair of the Africa CDC, and a member of the Gavi Board and the WHO Executive Board.

She currently serves on the board of Directors of JSI and Resolve to Save Lives, as a Commissioner in the Lancet Commission of Investing in Health, and serves on various Advisory boards including the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, the Center for Global Health Equity at the University of Michigan, the Advisory board for the Lancet Commission on Evidence-Based Implementation in Global Health, and the Global Advisory Board for the QuEST Network at Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health.

She earned her medical degree from Jimma University, specialty training in Obstetrics and Gynecology from Addis Ababa University, and a master’s degree in health care administration from Jimma University.

Padmashree Gehl Sampath

Professor Padmashree Gehl Sampath is an accomplished public policy expert in global development, focused on technology, trade, and industrialization. She is a leading advocate for international mechanisms that better balance public and private returns from new technologies, with a specific focus on pharmaceuticals and healthcare, and the data economy. She is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation, a new regional agency created by the African Development Bank at the request of the African Union Member States to promote pharmaceutical innovation and production. Alongside, she is a Visiting Professor in Practice at the London School of Economics, an Honorary Professor at the University of Rwanda, and a member of the Trade and Industrialization Advisory Council of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) Secretariat.

In a career spanning almost three decades, she has engaged in various high-level capacities, assisting governments, international agencies and the private sector navigate concerns on technology and industry expansion, particularly as they relate to capacity building, finance, intellectual property, technology transfer and licensing, market shaping and competition. During the pandemic, she served as the Chairperson of the Technical Advisory Group of the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (CTAP) of the World Health Organisation advising on technology licensing to secure global public health (2021-2024), was the Senior Scientific Advisor to the Africa Centres for Disease Control (Africa CDC) for market shaping and pooled procurement for vaccines for Africa (2022-2023), and served as Special Advisor to the President of the African Development Bank for Pharmaceuticals and Health (2022-Present). Her past positions include being a Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society (Harvard University), adjunct professorships (such as the University of Aalborg, Denmark) and Professorial Fellow at the United Nations University. She is widely published on related topics.

Giulia Balconi

Giulia is an Investor at Adjuvant Capital. She has a background in business, finance, and public health. She started her career as an investment banker at J.P. Morgan in London (UK). After her experience in investment banking, she completed a Master of Public Health at UC Berkeley, where she concentrated on healthcare innovations, global health policy, maternal and child health, and vaccination campaigns. After her MPH, she worked at Natera (NASDAQ: NTRA), a biotech company focused on cell-free DNA testing for women’s health, oncology, and organ health. She was also involved in projects in the digital health space, with the startup Cornerstone AI, and in health policy and management research, with UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Giulia graduated with honors from Bocconi University (Italy), where she obtained a BSc in Business Administration and Management and a MSc in International Management.