Global Health 2030 Innovation Task Force
Co-Chairs
Denis Gilhooly – Founder & CEO, Global He@lth 2030 Innovation Task & Co-Chair, Global Digital He@lth Initiative 2030
Denis Gilhooly has over three decades of experience working in the field of global health and information and communication technology for development (ICT4D). He is currently Founder & CEO of the Global He@lth 2030 Innovation Task Force (2015-present) and Global Digital He@lth Initiative – successors to the UN Digital He@lth Initiative (2008-2015) – and multi-sector and inter-disciplinary partnerships dedicated to catalytic collaboration for data-driven innovation and investment in Universal Health Coverage (UHC) 2030 and the UN Global Goals.
Denis has served in the public sector as Executive Director, UN Digital He@lth Initiative and Executive Secretary and Lead Author, UN Broadband Commission for Digital Development. He was previously Principal Adviser, Innovation & Information Infrastructure, World Bank Group (WBG), Principal Adviser to the Administrator & Director, Information & Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D), UN Development Programme (UNDP), and Principal Adviser & Executive Coordinator, World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
He was a member and lead author of An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s two Advisory Committees on Telecommunications and ICT for the Government of Ireland, a founding Commissioner of the Global Information Infrastructure Commission (GIIC), and Executive Secretary and Lead Author of the G8 Digital Opportunity Task Force (G8 DOT-Force) and Director of the G8 Digital Opportunity Initiative. He was a founding member and lead author for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's UN ICT Task Force.
He has also worked extensively in the private sector as Vice President, Business Development, Teledesic LLC (the Broadband Internet-in-the-Sky venture of Bill Gates and Craig McCaw), Media & Technology Director, The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones & Co., and founding Editorial & Publishing Director, Communications Week International, The Networked Economy and Global Mobile. Denis holds advanced degrees in Politics, Philosophy and Economics and Shakespearean Studies.
James Hospedales – Executive Director, Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and Chairman of the Board, NCD Alliance
Dr. C. James Hospedales, a citizen of Trinidad & Tobago, is the Executive Director of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) since February 2013, and Chairman of the Board of the NCD Alliance. From 2006-2012, Dr. Hospedales was responsible for the PAHO program for prevention and control of chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). He played a key role in increasing priority and resources for NCDs, including helping organize the CARICOM and UN Summits on NCDs. He pioneered the Pan American Forum for Action on NCDs, which brings together governments, civil society, academia & business. He has also been a champion for civil society involvement in efforts to improve health, helping to catalyze the formation of the Healthy Caribbean Coalition.
From 1998–2006, Dr. Hospedales was Director of the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre. He was instrumental in developing donor partnerships for HIV/AIDS prevention, and a partnership with the Caribbean tourism industry to improve health, safety and environment conditions. Dr. Hospedales was a member of the Caribbean Commission on Health and Development, which made policy recommendations in 2005 to the Heads of Government and named chronic diseases as a super-priority for the Region. Dr. Hospedales’ career has included service as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer with the US Centers for Disease Control, as an epidemiologist at CAREC, and several years working in public health for the UK National Health Service.
Dr. Hospedales graduated with honors in medicine from the University of the West Indies. He has a Master of Science degree in community medicine from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, is a Fellow of UK Faculty of Public Health, and an accredited partnership broker with the Partnering Institute of the UK. He has published more than 60 papers and reports.
Sam Pitroda – Founder & Chairman, Pitroda Group
Dr. Sam Pitroda is an internationally recognized telecom inventor, entrepreneur, development thinker, and policy maker who has spent 50 years in information and communications technology (ICT) and related global and national developments.
Credited with having laid the foundation for India’s telecommunications and technology revolution of the 1980s, Mr. Pitroda has been a leading campaigner to help bridge the global digital divide. During his tenure as Advisor to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Mr. Pitroda led six technology missions related to telecommunications, water, literacy, immunization, dairy production, and oil seeds. He was also the founder and first Chairman of India’s Telecom Commission. In these plural roles, Mr. Pitroda helped revolutionize India's development philosophies and policies with a focus on access to technology as the key to social change.
As a way to induce the second phase of India’s technology revolution, in 2005 Mr. Pitroda headed India’s National Knowledge Commission (2005-2009), to provide a blueprint of reform for the knowledge-related institutions and infrastructure for the 21st century in the country. Recently, Sam served as Advisor to the Prime Minister of India on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovation, with the rank of Cabinet Minister. He served as the Chairman of the Smart Grid Task Force, as well as the committees to reform public broadcasting, modernize railways, deliver e-governance, and other developmental activities.
Sam is a founding Commissioner of the United Nations Broadband Commission for Digital Development and Chairman of the International Telecommunication Union’s m-Powering Development Board that looks to empower developing countries with the use of mobile technology. In addition, he is a serial entrepreneur having started several companies in the United States. He holds over 15 honorary PhD’s, close to 100 worldwide patents, and has published and lectured widely in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia. He lives in Chicago with his wife.