Padmashree Gehl Sampath is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation, a new regional Agency in Africa dedicated to support technology transitions in African countries to enable the growth of the pharmaceutical sector. She is also the Senior Advisor to the President of the African Development Bank on Pharmaceuticals and Health, a Visiting Professor in Practice at the London School of Economics, UK and a Honorary Professor at the University of Rwanda in Kigali, Rwanda and Professorial Fellow, United Nations University-MERIT.
Until recently, she served as a Director at the Global Access in Action Program, Harvard University, and was also as a Senior Strategic Advisor to Africa Centres for Disease Control (CDC); and the Chair Person of the Technical Advisory Group of the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (CTAP) of the World Health Organisation. A well-respected thought leader in the field of technology, Professor Gehl Sampath’s expertise is in technology transactions, intellectual property and licensing, joint ventures, along with issue of competition, and management of risk at various levels for companies, sectors and economies. Her past work, spanning over twenty five years on these topics, has focused on analysing and assisting industry leaders globally and governments assess industry prospects and competitiveness risks and addressing them. She has worked to design company level as well as governmental strategies for competition, portfolio management, market shaping and market design, industrial performance and transformations, innovation support and resilient growth in several industries notably pharma and biotech, data economy and energy. She also has an extensive background in policy management and policy reform.
She writes and speaks widely on these topics, having authored six books and over a hundred articles and reports, and serves on several international boards, including the Trade and Industrialisation Advisory Council of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). She has three books forthcoming: one focused on digital competition, one on global health diplomacy and one on economic strategies for successful transformation.
She is also on the editorial board of the Journal of Competition and Change and is the recipient of many international awards (including one from Rockefeller Foundation) for her work.
