Our Mentors

Aris Angelis

Dr Aris Angelis is Secretary General of Strategic Planning, Ministry of Health of Greece. He also holds roles as a Visiting Associate Professor in Health Economics with the Department of Health Services Research and Policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), and a Visiting Fellow with the Department of Health Policy at LSE. Prior joining LSHTM, Aris worked for 10 years with the Medical Technologies Research Group at LSE Health.

Aris’ academic interests are in the areas of pharmaceutical policy, health technology assessment (HTA), and drug regulation, with a lot of his work focusing on methodological research around the evaluation of new medical technologies. At LSHTM, Aris is leading the development of a research programme for assessing the value of new oncology products at an early stage by applying decision analytic modelling techniques, while collaborating with the Center for Health Policy & Outcomes at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. At LSE Aris is involved with the EU funded project IMPACT-HTA, co-leading the research activities of WP7 on multi-criteria value methods where he is working towards a new value framework for medicines in collaboration with different HTA bodies. He is also involved in a project initiative with the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), co-leading research activities towards the development of a new value framework for cancer medicines, involving large-scale preference elicitation studies with different stakeholders. Aris has undertaken contracted research, training and advisory work for the European Commission, the World Health Organisation, national health ministries and various biopharmaceutical organisations.

Aris received his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Pharmaceutical Policy and Economics from the Department of Social Policy (LSE Health) at LSE. His PhD investigated the development and application of a methodological framework based on Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) for assessing the value of new medical technologies in the context of HTA, to inform resource allocation decisions and incentivise socially desirable R&D investments. He also holds an MSc in International Health Policy from the LSE, an MSc in Biopharmacy from King’s College London and a BSc in Biochemistry from Imperial College London.

Nadia Baig

Nadia is a Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Manager at AbbVie where she leads UK HTA submissions for assets in the company’s portfolio.

Nadia previously worked as a Health Economics Associate in consulting, building health economic models and payer tools across several indications for global submissions. She completed her MSc International Health Policy (Health Economics) degree in 2020. Prior to this, her background was in commercial and corporate strategy where she worked as a mergers and acquisitions analyst in investment banking, developing financial models, forecasts and corporate strategy

Prithwiraj Das

Prithwiraj is a pluripotent people leader in life sciences industry (access, commercial, medical) and management consulting (strategy and operational).

He builds, takes pride in being part of, and leads award-winning high-performing teams; recruiting, growing, and retaining excellent individuals in direct teams, and getting the best out of teams in matrix structures.

He has led population-health, primary care, secondary, and tertiary care, as well as rare disease portfolio and pipeline responsibilities across pharma product lifecycles - from 5+ years pre-launch to 10+ years post-loss-of-exclusivity. He continues to serve as a Technology Appraisal Committee member with NICE since 2016.

Prithwiraj brings a breadth of global experience with deep local expertise in UK and Ireland markets – spanning over nearly 20 years of industry, consulting, and clinical experience – with proven industry-side credibility, consulting-side execution agility, and patient and health system focus.

He qualified as a medical doctor in 2005, completed his Masters in International Health Policy at the LSE in 2008, and has taken on executive education at CJBS in 2019.

Adria Haimann

Adria graduated from the International Health Policy (Health Economics) MSc in 2014. Following this, she worked in the health division at Accenture focusing on implementation of a digital health collaboration platform across the NHS.  After working with a large consulting firm, she decided she wanted to switch gears and join a health technology start up. Adria currently work for Health Navigator, an organization focused on the provision of innovative health care services to deliver better outcomes for high-risk patient groups. Their key service, Proactive Health Coaching, aims to reduce unplanned hospital admissions to improve patient quality of life and deliver savings to the health economy. Adria have a wide variety of research, consulting, business and digital health experience and is looking forward to helping LSE students determine how they want to progress their career. Aside from work, Adria is a keen runner and a scuba diver.

Jennifer Hinkel 

Jennifer Hinkel is VP for Strategic Collaborations at Caris Life Sciences, a molecular diagnostics company offering whole exome and whole transcriptome sequencing for cancer as well as developing predictive and prognostic molecular signatures and blood-based assays. She is also a Board Director for Lydion, a company researching and commercializing data economics science and technology with applications in health care, climate change, and finance. Ms. Hinkel also is a part-time DPhil student at the University of Oxford in Evidence Based Health Care focused on lung cancer outcomes. Previously, she was a Senior Partner in a boutique market access consultancy specializing in health policy, oncology value, and the development of financial models to understand policy and payer impact to biopharmaceutical products. Ms. Hinkel has also held positions at Roche and Genentech, where she led financial impact assessment efforts to understand the Affordable Care Act and Medicare reimbursement changes in the US, and also worked in pricing and contracting strategy (United States), oncology marketing (Latin America), and hospital system sales (United Kingdom). Ms. Hinkel has also held roles at National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) and Association for State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) in the US and was a health policy legislative assistant intern in the UK House of Lords. She has lectured in Health Systems and Health Economics at Penn State University and Arcadia University in Pennsylvania and holds a MSc from the London School of Economics in International Health Policy. Current research interests include the definition and measurement of health outcomes within data economic frameworks, the application of novel financial instruments to shape behavioral economics and incentives in health care, and the propagation of inaccurate health information on the internet and social media.

Natalia Jimenez

Natalia Jimenez is a Manager at Executive Insight, a specialized healthcare consulting firm supporting biopharmaceutical companies to successfully prepare, launch and commercialize their products. She oversees strategic projects in the market access, commercial, governmental affairs and healthcare improvement space.

Previously, Natalia worked at Ipsos MORI, a market research firm, within the market access team, supporting in gaining payers and HCP’s perspectives and insights on drug launches, access, and loss of exclusivity to develop impactful pricing and access strategies.

During 2017-18, Natalia studied the MSc Global Health Policy at the LSE. Natalia graduated from Imperial College London in 2017 with a BSc in Biomedical Sciences. Natalia resides in London.

Alex Kiefer

Alex Kiefer has been working in health policy and public affairs for the past 8 years. Currently, he is a Senior Corporate Affairs Manager for Central Eastern Europe, Turkey, Israel, and India at Bristol Myers Squibb. Specifically, Alex leads the development and implementation of the Corporate Affairs strategy across 8 international markets with a focus on corporate reputation, patient advocacy and communications. Prior to this, Alex was a Policy and Public Affairs Manager for Pfizer. At Pfizer, he provided senior executives with strategic intelligence and analysis on health policy developments in order to inform operational planning. Before Pfizer, Alex gained insight in national health policy development and implementation as a member of NHS England's Strategy Group.

 During his time at LSE, Alex spent his dissertation placement at the World Health Organization in Geneva working on the WHO's finance and resource allocation strategy. Alex graduated from Bucknell University with an undergraduate degree in Neuroscience, from the University of Michigan with a Masters in Public Health, and from the LSE with a Masters in International Health Policy.

Catalina Marica

Catalina is currently Business Unit Head Oncology at Gilead Sciences, Italy. Catalina has 18 years of experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry, and has held leadership positions in Strategy, Commercial & Market Access across all major markets and regions across the globe. She has overseen 10 pharmaceutical launches across multiple therapy areas. Notably, Catalina led the pricing and reimbursement negotiations of Hepatitis C drugs Sovaldi, Harvoni and Epclusa, qualified as the most successful drug launches in the history of the pharmaceutical industry. She established best-in-class launches & market access functions focused on the provision of relevant value to international organisations and governments. This includes lobbying for policy generation and adoption, as well as leading negotiations that deliver fair value for payers and ensure access to patients. Catalina received her double bachelor degree in Economical Engineering from Politehnica University of Bucharest and Technical University of Braunschweig where she was a research fellow in Molecular Biology and Biotechnology. She also holds an MSc in International Health Policy at the London School of Economics, a Diploma in Negotiation and Leadership from the Harvard Law School and certification in Digital Marketing from the University of Oxford.

Adil Merchant

Adil is a Health Outcomes Manager at GSK where he leads UK HTA submissions for cancer drugs and technologies. He is passionate about generating and communicating robust and relevant evidence to inform decision-making, optimising patient access, and demonstrating value of innovative medicines.

Adil was previously a Senior Health Economist at HEOR Consulting, where he led and supported global HTA and reimbursement submissions across a range of disease areas including oncology, rheumatology, immunology and rare diseases. Within this role he constructed a variety of health economic models and payer communication tools, providing integrated strategic support to biopharmaceutical companies. He has a background in biomedical sciences, and completed his MSc International Health Policy degree in 2020.

Martina Orlovic

Martina's interests lie between biotech, healthcare innovation and academia. Currently, she is a Senior Global HEOR manager in Chiesi Farmaceutici where she oversees global pipeline and leads healtheconomic and evidence generation projects. Also, she is a Honorary Research Associate at Imperial College London (ICL) and Honorary Reasearch Fellow at London School of Economics and Politician Science (LSE). Martina’s academic interests focus on ageing and end-of-life care, medtech, innovation diffusion, healthcare delivery and health policy. She is particularly interested in determinants of end-of-life care, and in the use of risk-adjustments schemes and predictive modelling techniques as means to improve quality of care at the end-of-life and health system performance. Martina has previously worked in Biogen, served as an advisor to the World Health Organization, the Government of Qatar, and several health insurance and consultancy companies. Martina holds a Bachelor and Master of Science degree in Business Economics (Finance) from the University of Zagreb, a Master’s in International Health Policy – Health Economics from LSE and a PhD in Clinical Medicine Research from ICL.

Victoria Simpkin

Victoria is a physician with specialty training in cardiology. She is currently Head of R&D Strategy and Transformation at Sobi, a biopharmaceutical company focused on rare diseases. Prior to this Victoria worked at GSK where she held roles across the medical life cycle, including R&D strategy, experimental medicine, clinical development, medical affairs and commercial operations. She joined GSK on the Esprit R&D leadership Programme. Her first role was in Global Medical Affairs within the Immuno-Inflammation and Future Pipeline Franchise. She also worked as Asia-Pacific Commercial Director at ViiV Healthcare based in Singapore and then as Chief of Staff to the Head of Global Development at GSK based in the UK.

Victoria holds an MSc in Health Policy, Planning and Financing, joint between LSE and LSHTM, having completed her dissertation at the OECD in Paris. Following her Master's, Victoria remained as a research officer at the LSE working predominantly in the field of antibiotic resistance. She also undertook work at the LSE commissioned by the Wellcome Trust and NIH to understand how to incentivise investment in health research on the African continent.

Victoria has 8 years of experience at the frontline of the NHS, and has also spent time working in India and Australia, giving her the opportunity to see a range of healthcare systems first-hand. Victoria has always been actively involved in research - in basic science, clinical science, and health policy. She has published in peer-reviewed journals and has presented nationally and internationally.

Aayush Solanki

Aayush is a Global Development and Strategy Officer at Biolytical Laboratories, a medical diagnostics company based in Vancouver, Canada. Formerly he worked as Market Adviser for HIV testing program with Washington D.C. based NGO known as Population Services International (PSI), and has over ten years of work experience across global health and management consulting. Aayush has previous experience working in Malawi with the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) as Program Manager for drug access and HIV prevention programs.

Aayush completed his masters in Health Policy Planning and Finance (HPPF) at LSE and LSHTM, and also holds Master of Business Administration (M.B.A), and Bachelor of Physiotherapy (BPT). He Previously worked with organisations such as GlaxoSmithKline, Deloitte and Ernst Young. In his current role, Aayush is managing HIV Testing program across thirteen countries and working very closely with consortium partners which includes World Health Organization, Ministry of Health across multiple countries and other leading NGOs. Aayush also runs his YouTube channel known as Health Gossip & Beyond.

Annie Syntosi

Annie is the Global Real World Evidence (RWE) Assistant Director for Novartis Pharma. She graduated from the LSE Global Health Policy MSc in 2017 and has a background in life sciences (BSc with honors in Nutrition). During her MSc, she authored sections of a WHO report titled “Monetizing informal care: methodological approaches”, to inform policy for active ageing. Following her graduation she worked in a health economics consulting firm developing Global Value Dossiers, Systematic Literature Reviews and value messages for products across a variety of indications. Her next step was to join the Novartis Pharma global organization in Basel, Switzerland, where she has been and is still leading the RWE strategy for most of the global ophthalmology portfolio and supporting product launches globally, working with global, regional and local teams. She is passionate about innovative access models and currently focusing, through her one-year internal rotation in the Region Europe Value & Access team, on working with countries on designing and implementing the population health and early healthcare system engagement strategies to achieve broader and long-term access to medicines for patients for assets in cardiovascular disease.

David Tordrup

David is a health economist with a background in life sciences. He graduated from the MSc in Health Policy, Planning and Financing (HPPF) in 2011, and is now managing director of Triangulate Health Ltd, a health economics consulting firm he set up after leaving his post as associate director at HCD Economics. He currently works with a range of multilateral, private and 3rd sector clients on diverse research and consulting projects. Recent examples include costing of the roll-out of viral hepatitis management globally (WHO HQ), the economic burden of female genital mutilation (WHO HQ), medicines pricing in Bangladesh (World Bank), systematic reviews for the update of the WHO Pharmaceutical Policy Guidelines (WHO HQ) and evidence generation for the biopharma industry to support Health Technology Assessment submissions. Prior to this, David worked at the World Health Organization in Brussels, where he managed and implemented the Research Agenda for Health Economic Evaluation project, and the LSE where he contributed to several FP7 projects on Health Technology Assessment with Dr. Panos Kanavos. He is undertaking a PhD at the WHO Collaborating Centre for Pharmaceutical Policy and Regulation at the University of Utrecht, Netherlands, and is on the International Advisory Board for the Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice, focusing on pharmaceutical policies in low/middle income countries. He is an External Expert at the European Commission, and frequent guest lecturer at the Copenhagen Center for Regulatory Science in health economics and pharmaceutical policy.

Stelios Tsintzos

Stelios is leading the Reimbursement and Market Access function for EMEA & APAC at Abiomed – a member of the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies.

He began his career within the Government and Public Sector service line of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP based out of London. Following several engagements with UK Government and NHS Hospital Trusts, Stelios transitioned to Medtronic where he led Health Economics, Reimbursement and Outcomes Research projects supporting multiple portfolios in the fields of Cardiac Electrophysiology and Heart Failure. His current work focuses on enabling patient access for Abiomed products, services and solutions and ensuring that all indicated patients can benefit from heart recovery.

Stelios holds a Medical Degree from the University of Ioannina and an MSc in International Health Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science

Christoph Zielke

Christoph holds an MSc in International Health Policy and graduated in 2017. After his studies he joined the Future Leaders graduate programme at GlaxoSmithKline. As part of the programme, he has rotated through different departments such as market access, marketing and field sales. Today, Christoph works as a Regional Healthcare Manager at ViiV Healthcare. Christoph decided to work in pharma in order to apply business, medical and health economic skills to the corporate world as well as to make new and innovative medicines available to patients. Today's challenges in healthcare, whether from a corporate business, governmental or NGO perspective, are diverse, exciting and often require a change of perspective. Christoph can provide mentees with insight about market access and health policy from the corporate point of view and all the different aspects this diverse job brings with it.

Erica Barbazza

Erica Barbazza is a fellow of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network for Healthcare Performance Intelligence Professionals and PhD candidate at the University of Amsterdam on the transferability of actionable healthcare performance indicators. She obtained her first degree in health sciences and global studies and completed an MSc in 2012 from the London School of Economics in International Health Policy.

Since 2012, Erica has worked for the World Health Organization in various roles. She first worked as a technical officer at the WHO European Regional Office for Europe in Copenhagen, Denmark, on topics related to health systems governance and services delivery. Most recently, she worked as a technical officer at the WHO European Centre for Primary Health Care in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on topics related to integrated health services delivery, quality of care and primary health care performance.

In these roles, Erica has provided technical assistance in more than 10 countries across central Asia and Europe including Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Tajikistan and Ukraine. Erica has contributed to a number of WHO publications including technical reports, policy briefs, book chapters, as well as peer-reviewed articles on health services delivery, health system governance and integrated health services. Erica continues to work on international projects for WHO and the European Commission together with her ongoing research.

Charles Birungi 

Charles Birungi is an experienced economist working at the intersections of macroeconomics, public finance, and global health in low- and middle-income countries. Over the past 20 years, he has been at the forefront of developing and applying state-of-the-art economic tools to the analysis and implementation of health interventions and policies, especially regarding health financing. As the global lead for macroeconomic and fiscal policy at UNAIDS, his policy and research work focuses on influencing global and domestic health financing policies (and politics). He has expert-level understanding of when and how economic analysis and advice lands well and translates into real-word change and action. He is a Ugandan national and holds a B.A (Economics) of Makerere University, a MSc in Health Economics, Policy and Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Ph.D. in Health Economics from University College London.

Guillaume Dedet

Guillaume is a senior economist at the OECD Health Division, leading projects on health systems performance assessment. Additionally, he teaches global health diplomacy at the Paris School of International Affairs, a part of SciencesPo Paris. Guillaume is both a public health physician and a trained economist, holding an MD in Public Health from the Greater Paris Academic Hospital and three additional post-graduate degrees (MSc in statistics, MSc in Health Policy Planning and Financing, and an MA in Global Diplomacy). Before joining the OECD, he served as a senior advisor in the Health Financing Division of the French Ministry of Health, and later as a technical officer in the Division of Health Systems and Public Health at the WHO Regional Office for Europe. In 2022-23, he was selected as a Harkness fellow in health-care policy and practice, posted at Stanford University.

Beth Kreling 

Beth Kreling is a Senior Policy Fellow in the Department of Health Policy. She is currently co-PI of the newly established African Health Observatory Platform on Health Systems and Policies (AHOP) and Deputy Chair of the LSE’s Global Health Initiative (GHI), an interdepartmental research unit.

Beth has a background in international development and consultancy, with a regional focus on Africa and India. She has always worked at the nexus of research and policy, coordinating numerous multi-country research, development and consultancy projects both at LSE and previously. Whilst at LSE she has worked across the Department’s global health portfolio, establishing and managing the GHI and supporting a range of projects including leading a multi-partner, EU funded, public-private initiative Big Data for Better Outcomes.

Before joining LSE, Beth worked for the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Health and Education Unit, engaging with stakeholders across Commonwealth governments, inter-governmental organisations and NGOs on education policy priorities. She continues to write occasionally on Commonwealth education topics. Prior to this she was Chief Operating Officer of education NGO Link Community Development International, where she oversaw operations and programme development in the UK and across five sub-Saharan African offices.

Cassandra Nemzoff 

Cassie Nemzoff is a senior policy analyst for the international Decision Support Initiative (iDSI) at the Center for Global Development. She is a health economist with over a decade of experience working across Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States. Her current work is focused on improving priority setting for health in low- and middle- income countries, including health benefits package design and economic evaluation. She is a specialist in "adaptive" health technology assessment, which seeks to expedite evidence-informed policy making and improve the overall efficiency of priority setting systems. This is often done by leveraging evidence from other contexts where it is appropriate, and adjusting assessment methods for time, data, and capacity needs.

Prior to joining CGD, Nemzoff worked for the Clinton Health Access Initiative in Malawi where she provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Health to improve resource allocation, harmonize nationwide strategic planning, and design the essential health benefits package. Before her work in development, Nemzoff was a private sector consultant at PwC where she worked with clients to adjust to new US health reforms.

Cassie is currently a PhD Candidate at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She also holds an MSc in International Health Economics from the London School of Economics, and a BA in Finance and International Business from New York University.

Adrian Rabe

Professor Adrian Rabe is a Filipino physician trained in General Internal Medicine with more than 10 years in clinical practice. He completed his BSc in Basic Medical Sciences, Doctor of Medicine, and PgDip in Health Professions Education at the University of the Philippines. He also did an MSc in Health Policy Planning and Financing (HPPF) at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).

Overlapping with his clinical career is 20 years of experience in medical affairs, global health, clinical development, market access, health policy, health economics and outcomes research, and real world evidence. His varied expertise has brought him around the world, working as an independent consultant, within recognised names among research organisations, the life sciences industry, as well as government and non-government organisations. 

Some of these roles include: Director of Global Health Focus, Head of Research at Health iQ (now ThermoFisher), Global Director of Epidemiology and Global Medical Affairs Lead at AstraZeneca. A dedicated mentor and teacher throughout his career, Adrian maintains his academic ties as Visiting Professor of Primary Care and Public Health (Faculty of Medicine) at Imperial College London. Dr Rabe currently sits as the Head of Real World Evidence (Centre of Excellence) at Boehringer Ingelheim.

On the side, Adrian is an avid fan of badminton, and is a founder of Broken Strings, one of London's biggest advanced badminton clubs.

Ekaterina Rykovanova

Ekaterina is a Programme Officer at the Surveillance, Prevention and Control Department of the Antimicrobial Resistance Division at World Health Organization. She coordinates the work of the Department and oversees its financial, operational, and HR deliverables. Previously, we worked as a Programme Manager at Unitaid, an international funding agency that brings the power of new medical discoveries to the people who most need them and helps set the stage for the large-scale introduction of new health products by collaborating with governments and partners such as PEPFAR, the Global Fund, and WHO. Ekaterina has over ten years of experience in health programmes and development assistance management. Before her current role, she worked as Senior Country Manager at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and held programme management positions at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Working with these leading global health funding agencies, she has planned, developed, managed, and implemented a large and complex portfolio of proposals and grants focusing on HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and intellectual property. Her core responsibilities include due diligence, grant negotiation, grant implementation, and the development and management of effective partnerships. She holds a Bachelor's in Economics and French Literature and Master's degrees in Health Economics, Policy and Management and in European Studies.

Dr Guitelle Bagdadi-Sabeti 

Dr. Guitelle Sabeti has over 30 years’ experience in global health, with a focus on international pharmaceutical policies, good governance and strategic engagement with health partners. She negotiated and provided support to over 60 Ministries of Health, Political Forums, Civil Society Organizations and development partners. She holds a Doctorate in Pharmacy from the University of Grenoble and a Masters in Public Health from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. She started her carrier in 1991 in Romania with Pharmaciens Sans Frontières and joined the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1994 where she served in different countries and capacities. One of her achievements includes the initiation and development of the first global programme aimed at promoting good governance and preventing corruption in public pharmaceutical systems, by increasing transparency, accountability and promoting ethical practices. Guitelle currently manages WHO’s engagement in multilateral forums such as the G20, Francophonie and Paris Peace Forum, ensuring global health receives high-level political attention. 

Tijana Stanic

Tijana is a Consultant in Strategic Market Access at IQVIA, based in London, where she works on supporting clients in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sector across various therapeutic areas and healthcare challenges. She has several years of experience working in pharmaceutical companies across the US and Europe, primarily in health technology assessment (HTA), digital health solutions and commercial strategy for innovative therapies in oncology and immunology. 

 Prior to joining IQVIA, Tijana graduated from LSE with a MSc in International Health Policy (Health Economics stream), as part of which she conducted a research project in HTA at Pfizer, identifying clinical and economic uncertainties that are key decision drivers in NICE health technology appraisals of therapies for multiple myeloma. Tijana also has academic background in health economic modelling, having worked at Harvard Medical School/Massachusets General Hospital and at LSE Health in research groups that developed decision analytic models for assessing cost-effectiveness of treatments and preventive measures for HIV, other infections diseases as well as non-communicable diseases. 

 Before entering the pharmaceutical industry and consulting, Tijana completed two Bachelor of Science degrees in Molecular Biology and in Economics at Yale University in the US, where she gained various work experiences in translational biomedical research and health economics. 

Nertila Tavanxhi

Nertila is a Senior Health Financing Expert and Manager for High Impact Africa at the  Health Financing Department of the Global Fund against AIDS, TB and Malaria. Her role is to support access to funding and effective and efficient financing for the three diseases in the highest burdened countries in Sub Saharan Africa where GFATM is currently providing around 7 bill USD in grants. Before joining the Global Fund, Nertila was Senior Technical Advisor to the Deputy Executive Director for Programmes, and Technical Lead for Transitions and Health Systems Strengtening at UNAIDS Headquarters. As a Senior Health Economist, she was in charge of developing strategies and assisting countries to transition from external aid and integrate financing for HIV into financing for Universal Health Coverage. Prior to joining UNAIDS, she worked for WHO Regional Office for Europe as an adviser on health financing and health systems reform. During her 20 years of experience in global health financing and policy she has interacted and served in different expert groups of major stakeholders in health like the WHO, World Bank, The Global Fund, and the Gates Foundation.  She completed her MSc in Health Policy, Planning and Financing, awarded jointly by the LSE and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2003.

Sarah Thomson 

Sarah Thomson works as a Senior Health Financing Specialist at the WHO Barcelona Office for Health Systems Financing, where she leads a multi-country study looking at whether people in Europe can afford to pay for health care. She has recently led studies focusing on the history, politics and performance of private health insurance globally and the impact of the 2008 global financial crisis on health systems in Europe. Before moving to Barcelona in 2013, Sarah was Associate Professor in Health Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Deputy Director of LSE Health, Head of the LSE Hub of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and, from 2013 to 2016, a member of the European Commission’s Expert Panel on Effective Ways of Investing in Health. Sarah has a PhD in social policy from the LSE.

Vittoria Varadanega

Vittoria is a Consultant Health Economist at Costello Medical, a healthcare agency. In her role she leads the development of a wide range of economic models, such as cost-effectiveness, budget impact, cost of illness and return of investment models. She delivers projects for clients in the private and public healthcare sector in the UK and abroad, and across several disease areas, with a focus on public and global health. Vittoria enjoys training and line managing junior health economists, as well as meeting with students and young professionals to talk about her experience.

Prior to graduating in International Health Policy (Health Economics) at LSE in 2019, she worked for the UN and the European Commission in drug policy and statistics. Currently, Vittoria also collaborates as health and data journalist with Italian media.

David Xu

David Xu joined the National Audit Office (NAO) in 2008 and currently works as a senior analyst on its Value for Money Health Team. Since joining the NAO, David has worked on a range of value-for-money reports for Parliament on the performance of NHS services in England. These reports covered the management of services for specific conditions, for example, mental health, cancer, autism and rheumatoid arthritis and the delivery of some key NHS policy initiatives including QIPP, the Vanguard programme and cancer drugs fund. Other reports David has led included a number of studies on the financial sustainability of NHS trusts, management of emergency admissions, elective waiting list and clinical negligence claims against the NHS. During the COVID-19 pandemic, David led four studies which examined the UK government's COVID response in real time, including two reports on NHS Test and Trace and one on the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines. David has extensive experience with HES data and other NHS statistics as well as the application of cost effective and regression models.

Before joining the NAO, David studied Health Economics and International Health Policy during 2007-2008 at LSE and was awarded the Brian Abel-Smith Prize for Best Dissertation. David studied medicine in China before moving to live in the UK in the late 1990s.

Siren Borge

Siren Borge is an advisor at the Norwegian Directorate of Health. She works in the section for global health, mainly with coordinating Norway’s participation in the EU4Health programme, as well as managing a primary healthcare project in Romania funded by the EEA grants. She has also been part of Norway’s delegation to the WHO’s World Health Assembly and Executive Board Meeting, responsible for coordinating inputs from the Directorate.

Previously, Siren was a trainee at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and at the Norwegian Embassy in Bangkok. She graduated with an MSc in Global Health Policy in 2020.

Mary Bowman

Mary Bowman is Senior Advisor and Director of Principal Operations to U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy. She leads coordination of the Office’s global health strategy, serves as congressional liaison, and oversees the Principal Operations team, which includes scheduling, advance, and correspondence.

Previously, Mary worked for U.S. Senator Michael Bennet (D – CO). From 2015-18, she served as Staff Assistant, Internship Coordinator, and Assistant to the Chief of Staff.

During 2018-19, Mary studied at LSE.  After graduating from LSE’s Global Health Policy program, Mary joined Senator Bennet’s 2020 presidential campaign as Director of Scheduling and Advance, advising on strategic travel & stakeholder engagement. Post-campaign, she rejoined Bennet’s senate office as a Public Health Fellow, helping draft legislation in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and working with public health experts to inform and educate Colorado constituents.

Mary graduated from Colorado College in 2015 and currently resides in Denver, Colorado. 

Emma Casey

Emma is a Parliamentary and Legislation Officer at the UK Government Cabinet Office, working with a variety of government departments to deliver priority legislation. Prior to this Emma worked as a Policy Advisor in the Department of Health and Social Care working on access to social care, social care market stability as well as emergency COVID vaccination legislation.

 Emma is a graduate of the MSc Global Health Policy at LSE. She also holds an Honours Degree in Physiotherapy, from St. George’s University of London. She has clinical experience in both the UK and South East Asia, and the socioeconomic determinants of healthcare access, delivery and outcome disparities informed her academic interests at LSE. Emma wrote her MSc dissertation on the impact that political strategy may have on UK anti-microbial resistance in the event of a UK-US Trade Deal. 

Amaila De la Torre

Amaila is working currently as a consultant for the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB) regional programme for the strategic management of epidemiological emergencies focused at vector borne diseases in five countries of Latin America (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile). Prior to that she has worked for over 16 years in a variety of roles at Bayer in numerous Latin American settings (Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, and Colombia) as well as in Germany. In her last position at Bayer in Brazil, working as a Public and Governmental Affairs Manager, she led Bayer’s efforts to contribute to enhance community preparedness and response in the context of the Zika virus epidemic through a project implemented in partnership with prominent NGOs aimed at improving Sexual and Reproductive Health and Vector Control in the state of Pernambuco, which was the hardest hit state by the zika epidemic in Brazil. Prior roles with Bayer include Finance Business Partner for the pharmaceutical division at Bayer Health Care Global, country coordinator and business unit manager at the regional Latin American office of the pharmaceutical division, and Andean region head for finance at the pharmaceutical division of Bayer. She holds an MSc from LSE in Health Economics, Policy and Management and is currently completing a Master's in Public Health from Los Andes University in Colombia. She works in the research group that focuses on Sexual and Reproductive Health from the Medical School of Los Andes University.

Sebastián García Saisó

Sebastián is the Director for Evidence and Intelligence at the Pan American Health Organization / World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO). Sebastián qualified as a medical doctor at the Faculty of Medicine of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and is a public health specialist. He also holds an MSc in Health Policy, Planning and Financing, from LSE and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and diploma on quality of healthcare and patient safety from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). In public administration, he has served as Director of Special Medical Projects in the National Commission of Medical Arbitration, and later as Chief of Staff of the Undersecretary for Integration and Development of the Health Sector and Director General for Quality of Healthcare and Education at the Ministry of Health in Mexico. He has lectured at the Faculty of Medicine UNAM and the School of Medicine of the Monterrey Institute of Technology and has participated in the LSHTM Master's programmes in Public Health and Health Systems Administration. Sebastián has various national and international publications focusing on the organisation of health systems and responses to health challenges.

Vishal Khetpal

Vishal Khetpal, M.D., M.Sc. is a resident physician currently training in the Brown University Internal Medicine Program. His writing on medicine and society has appeared in NPR, Slate, Undark, VICE Health, and numerous other publications. In 2018, Vishal provided counsel as a health policy strategist for former State Attorney General Drew Edmondson, the Democratic Party nominee for the gubernatorial election in Oklahoma. He is currently working on a long-form writing project documenting health care rationing practices in Oklahoma. While in medical school, Vishal pursued interests in advocacy and in other creative media as well: this included a collaboration with the Nocturnists – a medical storytelling live show and podcast based in San Francisco, founded by Dr. Emily Silverman – as a core team member behind the COVID-19 Audio Diaries Project.

Vishal earned his medical degree from the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in 2020. Prior to medical school, he graduated with a master’s degree in global health from the London School of Economics, and was the recipient of the Brian Abel-Smith Prize for Best Dissertation in his cohort. He earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Washington University in St. Louis, and graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy. Vishal hails from Durant, Oklahoma, and is currently based in Providence, Rhode Island.

Vlad Mixich

 Vlad Mixich is a health policy advisor at the World Health Organization (WHO), having previously worked on health systems strengthening and pharmaceutical policy for the European Investment Bank, the World Bank and the European Commission. He has had the opportunity to work in eight countries on three continents, which has exposed him to very different cultural backgrounds and taught him that humbleness, curiosity and flexibility are perhaps the most important qualities in this profession. As an independent expert and civil society representative, Vlad Mixich has previously been invited to provide expert testimony at hearings of the European Parliament's special committees on various health policy issues. His current work focuses on evidence-based decision making in both primary health care and pharmaceutical policy. He was previously interim Vice-President of the Romanian National Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices.

A medical doctor by training, Vlad holds a Master's degree in International Health Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science and was a Fulbright Scholar at the Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University (USA). Previously, he was an Eisenhower Fellow for Innovation and a Marshall Memorial Fellow.

In addition to his professional activities, Vlad is a published author and has received several awards for his writings. He is a public speaker on health-related topics and has been quoted by major international media such as Associated Press, BBC, Spiegel or CNN.

Husein Reka

Husein Reka is a senior advisor to Secretary General for Health Financing, Policy and Innovation at the Council of Cooperative Health Insurance, a health insurance regulator in Saudi Arabia, and an Executive Director of Casemix Centre of Excellence in the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health. He is an AsiaGlobal Fellow at the Asia Global Institute in The University of Hong Kong conducting a public policy research on health system challenges and rationale for reforms in the Far East. Earlier he served as Chief Transformation Officer at the Program for Health Assurance and Purchasing, leading Transformation Management Office (TMO) in charge of the overall build up and implementation of the new healthcare financing scheme in Saudi Arabia. Previously he was the Program Manager in the Saudi Arabia health financing transformation project at the Vision Realization Office, Ministry of Health. In the past 11 years he has been involved in several healthcare financing reform projects in the Gulf region, most notably the healthcare financing reform in Qatar where he was the Health Insurance Manager at the Health Financing and Insurance Department at Qatar’s Ministry of Health. His expertise is on developing policies and systems for efficient healthcare financing of health sectors. Prior to this, Reka was director at the Health Insurance Fund of North Macedonia, responsible for international health insurance. Reka also worked as a consultant focusing on health economics at a specialist consultancy in the UK. His main expert areas are international health policy, health financing and insurance, and health economics and he has co-authored several papers on access, utilisation and health system responsiveness, and diabetes risk factors. In addition to his current role, Reka is also active in advising Ministers of Heath in the Balkan region. Reka obtained degrees in Health Economics (University of York) and International Health Policy (London School of Economics) and is a qualified pharmacist. He also holds an MBA from Imperial College, London.

Erika Rogan

Erika is a Senior Associate Director of Policy at the American Hospital Association, where she conducts legislative and regulatory policy analysis and advocacy related to Medicare payment as well as rural hospital issues. Previously, she worked as a consultant implementing evaluations of health and human services in the U.S. public sector. Erika has extensive experience in program evaluation and academic research involving both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Her professional and research interests include health care financing and policy, aging/older adult health, coordination of health and social services, and social determinants of health. Erika is an adjunct Assistant Professor at Georgetown University. She holds a BSc in Health Studies from Georgetown University, an MSc in Health Policy, Planning, and Financing from the London School of Economics and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a PhD in Health Policy and Management from Yale University.

Roy Shubhabrata

Roy is the Chief Executive of Healthinnova, a global healthcare company focused on digital transformation. He is a Non-Executive Director at the University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust and a Board Trustee of Age UK, the nation's largest charity focused on the wellbeing of older people. He is also a member of the Public Health Research funding committee at the NIHR.

Roy’s past experience includes leadership roles in GE Healthcare, Microsoft, the World Health Organisation, Epic and Telstra.

Roy has spent the last two decades focused on digital transformation in healthcare across Europe, North America and Asia. His interest lies is in the collaboration of government, academia, charities and providers in the adoption of innovative technologies in health and care settings.

He completed his MSc in International Health Policy (Health Economics) in 2007.

Zephan Trent

Zephan is a Director of Strategic Transformation and Locality Director for NHS England and NHS Improvement in the East of England. He was previously Assistant Director of Strategic Finance at NHS Improvement. He has worked on a wide range of strategic, transformation, finance and policy issues in the NHS. Zephan is a Chartered Financial Analyst charterholder. He has an undergraduate degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford and a Master’s degree in Health Economics, Policy and Management from the London School of Economics.

Svetla Tzolova

Svetla holds a Master’s degree in Health Policy, Planning and Financing from LSE and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and a postgraduate certificate in health economics from University of Aberdeen. She has experience in working with government and nongovernment organizations in the area of health policy since 1993. She was working in Bulgarian Ministry of Health and National Health Insurance Fund in the 90s. She was a Research fellow in the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels working on topics related to ageing and health care costs. Since 2007 she has been as employee in ECDC, where she is currently Principal Expert in Emergency Preparedness and Response in the Public Health Functions Unit.

Jabali Wells

Jabali is a physician who holds an MSc in Health Policy, Planning and Financing from LSE, as well as an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He has nearly two decades of experience as global business executive, investor, and board member. Jabali currently serves as Founding Managing Partner of Washington, DC-based private equity firm that invests in middle-market healthcare companies located in the U.S. and Latin America.

Hana Xhemajli

Hana Xhemajli is the director of the Saudi office for Flint Culture, a cultural PR and communications company. In this role, she brings extensive experience across the cultural and creative industries, working with public organizations, private businesses, and government agencies. Her work includes supporting international offices at every stage of their communications – from strategic planning and creative direction to the implementation of media, advertising, and social media campaigns.

Previously she worked on the masterplan as part of Saudi Green Initiative, vision 2030 to plant 10bln trees and restore the ecosystem of Saudi Arabia over the next century. Her role was in communications and stakeholder management.

She completed her MSc in Global Health Policy in 2020 and has since worked for the Ministry of Health in Kosovo during the pandemic as a Pandemic Response and Communications Advisor to the Minister. Her responsibilities included conducting training to strengthen the capacity of key MoH staff, Institute of Public Health, and partners in COVID-19 risk communication preparedness and response, as well as providing inputs into the national contingency and preparedness plans for COVID-19.

Later, she joined the cabinet of the Mayor of Prishtina as the Head of Communications. In this role, she provided communications guidance, strategy, and support to the cabinet, directors, and internal departments, alongside offering technical support to leadership in developing comprehensive national Risk Communication and Community Engagement Strategy and implementation plans.

Sara Allin

Sara is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto, Director of Operations with the North American Observatory on Health Systems and Policies (NAO). Sara previously worked as Senior Researcher with the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) in the population health branch. Sara’s research interests include comparative health policy, health system performance and equity, with recent papers published in Health Policy, Health Services Research, and Health Economics Policy & Law. She completed her MSc and PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto.  She is currently Principal Investigator on two major grants that a) compare the impact of primary care reform on medication appropriateness in two Canadian provinces, and b) examine performance of public health systems across Canada with multiple case studies. Sara also leads rapid response projects for healthorganizations and governments to support evidence-informed policymaking in her role at the NAO.

David Brogan

David was an American Marshall Scholar at the London School of Economics, where he studied International Health Policy and graduated with Distinction, earning the Brian Abel Smith Prize for his research dissertation.  After graduation, he attended medical school at Washington University in Saint Louis and went on to subspecialty training in orthopaedic surgery at the Mayo Clinic, followed by fellowship training in Hand, Upper Extremity and Microvascular surgery at Duke University.  His clinical interests include reconstructive microsurgery and upper extremity trauma, while his research interests focus on peripheral nerve regeneration and repair.  He is also Co-Director of the Orthopaedic Nerve Research Lab.  From a health policy prospective, he has studied pharmaceutical pricing and developed a novel incentive plan to stimulate neglected vaccine and antibiotic development based on financial call options.  His work has been featured in numerous peer-reviewed journals and textbooks.

Professor Mélanie Bourassa Forcier

Mélanie completed an M.Sc. in International Health Policy at the LSE in 2002. She also holds a PhD in patent law from McGill. Mélanie is full professor at the University of Sherbrooke, Canada, where she is the Director of both the Health Law & Policy program and the Law & Life Sciences program. She is currently on a one-year sabbatical in order to act as Adjunct Health Commissioner for the government of Quebec. Her mandate consists in evaluating the performance of the healthcare system during the Covid-19 pandemic. Her expertise is in the field of health policy, health governance , ethics, AI, pharmaceutical regulations and technology transfers. She has written many books and articles on the topic of health care policy and pharmaceutical regulations in Canada.

Maria Karagiannidou

Maria is currently a research officer within the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre (CPEC) at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Her research focuses on the area of ageing and dementia. Her main research interests are prevention, inequalities in accessing older-age prevention, and improving healthcare for older people and for people with dementia.

She was previously a visiting academic at the University of Oxford (Oxford Institute of Population Ageing) and also worked as an advisor for Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) and as a researcher at King’s College London (Global Observatory for Ageing and Dementia Care). Maria has also worked as a researcher and project manager at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece) and the Greek National School of Public Health.

Prior to joining CPEC, Maria worked for several years in clinical practice as director of a dementia day care centre (Alzheimer’s Hellas). Her team was nominated by the University of Stirling (The International Excellence Awards 2010) as “highly commended” for developing innovative programmes of non-pharmacological interventions for people with dementia.

She is currently a member of the Emerging Research Board at the International Longevity Centre-UK (ILC-UK) and a member of World Young Leaders in Dementia (WYLD). She also collaborates with the Greek thinktank DIKTYO, a network for reform in Greece and Europe.

Caitríona Ní Choitir

Caitríona Ní Choitir is a Senior Research Fellow at the National Centre for Pharmacoeconomics (NCPE) and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the School of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. A member of the Health Technology Assessment Review Group, Caitríona is also the National Clinical Data Manager for the Irish Hepatitis C Treatment Registry. She holds a Masters in Pharmacy degree from the Robert Gordon University of Aberdeen and an MSc in International Health Policy (Health Economics) from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Prior to joining the NCPE, Caitríona worked as a data analytics and service improvement consultant in the NHS and as a Senior Health Economics and Outcomes Research Consultant in the pharmaceutical industry. Caitríona’s research interests include pharmaceutical pricing and reimbursement strategies, health outcomes research and the use of GIS mapping as a public health tool particularly with regard to drug utilisation research. Caitríona is also a member of the Council of Clinical Information Officers, eHealth Ireland.

Iva Parvanova

Iva is an ESRC-funded PhD candidate in health economics at the LSE. Through her research she studies corruption in the provision of health care services in low- and middle-income settings while utilizing experimental and quasi-experimental techniques. She works at the Imperial College Business School on a project examining the importance of financial incentives linked to quality in the English primary care sector. Iva is also the Coordinator of the Behaviour and Society Working Group at the Young Scholars Initiative – a community of graduate students interested in expanding the applications of behavioural economics situated within the Institute for New Economic Thinking. Iva previously held a position as a Project Manager at the Institute.

Iva holds a MA in Economics from the University of Glasgow and a MSc in International Health Policy (Health Economics) from the LSE. She is the recipient of the Adam Smith Scholar Award of Excellence (University of Glasgow) and the Brian-Abel Smith Award for best performance (LSE). Additionally, she has worked on various projects at the University of Glasgow, University of Aberdeen, and LSE. She also has experience working in the International Projects Directorate at the Bulgarian Ministry of Health.

Anna Jo Smith

Anna Jo Smith, MD, MPH grew up in a small town in the American South where the nearest hospital was over 45 minutes away and nearly everyone smoked. This inspired a lifelong interest in access to care and cancer prevention. Now, as a gynaecologic oncology fellow and health services researcher, she focuses on how insurance design—and access to surgical innovations—can impact women’s cancer outcomes. Her research on the Affordable Care Act’s benefits for women with ovarian and cervical cancer has been featured in the Wall Street Journal and at the American Society for Clinical Oncology. Her current work focuses on interventions in insurance policy to reduce health disparities for women with gynaecologic cancer, including rural women. She is passionate about research mentoring and has guided several medical students and residents through projects, while in clinical training herself.

Dr Smith received her undergraduate degree at Yale and then received Masters in public health and health policy and economics at the London Schools of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and of Economics as a Marshall Scholar. She graduated from Harvard Medical School where she received honors in a special field for her research on Massachusetts health reform. She completed obstetrics and gynaecology residency at Hopkins where she received numerous awards for research and clinical excellence. She is currently a gynaecologic oncology fellow at the University of Pennsylvania where she is a fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics and the Penn Center for Cancer Care Innovation. 

Pierre Villeneuve

Pierre obtained his combined MD and PhD degrees from McGill University and completed his residencies in internal medicine and hematology at the University of Toronto. He then pursued a two years clinical and research fellowship in adoptive therapy and autologous stem cell transplantation at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. He  graduated with an MSc in Health Economics, Policy and Management at the London School of Economics in 2019.

Pierre is an assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa where he is member of the Ottawa Blood Disease Center and Ottawa Health Research Institute. His clinical focus is with myeloproliferative neoplasms, myelodysplasia and acute leukemia. His research interest lies in the economic value of interventions in hematological malignancies, addressed through three key axes of research that enable an active role in the decision of healthcare resource allocation. For one, he is interested in performing pharmacoeconomic evaluations of therapies in malignant hematology. Second, he has a research focus in economic evaluations alongside clinical trials in malignant hematology.

Third, he is interested in analyzing real-world data to provide useful information for provincial funding agencies on the economic value of interventions in hematology. Pierre is a member of the pan Canadian Oncology Drug Review and serves the Economic Committee and Hematology Disease Site of the Canadian Clinical Trial Group.  He is also a member of the Ontario Steering Committee for the Cancer Drug Programs and for the Hematology Disease Site Drug Advisory Committee for Health Ontario, Cancer Care Ontario.