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.