Vajira Dissanayake

Commonwealth Health Professionals and Partners Alliance

Prof. Dissanayake is the Chair Professor of Anatomy Genetics and Biomedical Informatics at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. He was one of the founders of the Health Informatics Society of Sri Lanka (HISSL) in 1998 and its President since 2009. He founded the Biomedical and Health Informatics Programme in the University of Colombo in 2008.

This programme offers a MSc in Biomedical Informatics and a MD in Health Informatics leading to specialist board citification in Health Informatics making Sri Lanka the only country in the world to recognise Health Informatics as a medical specialization. As of April 2018 the programme had produced 127 MSc graduates. There are 61 MSc and 39 MD students in training. In 2016 he founded the Commonwealth Digital Health Initiative as the flagship project of his Presidency of the Commonwealth Medical Association that resulted in the establishment of the Commonwealth Centre for Digital Health in London in 2018.

He is a Working Council Member of the Asia eHealth Information Network, the President Elect of the Asia Pacific Association for Medical Informatics, HISSL’s representative to the International Medical Informatics Association and a member of the Guidelines Development Group for Digital Health of the World Health Organization. Professor Dissanayake was elected a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences of Sri Lanka in 2013.

Brian O’Connor

Global Health Connector Partnership

Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Brian developed his career as a consultant, manager and investor. He has worked in the UK, US and Hong Kong and has significant experience as a company director in a variety of industries.

He has acted as a Corporate Recovery Advisor to companies, who have had financial, regulatory or strategic challenges, he enjoys taking on what are described as “hopeless cases” and proving the doubters wrong.

He is currently concentrating on the opportunities in the health and care sector, especially when it involves Digital Health Solutions and often acts is an investor, board director in companies to assist on strategy, fundraising etc.

Around ten years ago, he created, with others, the European Connected Health Alliance (ECHAlliance), as a collaborative way of breaking down the many silos that hold back innovation and better healthcare for citizens.

ECHAlliance, a not-for-profit organisation connects Governments, Industry, Research Institutions, Health Services, Patient Groups etc through a Global Network of Ecosystems.
Brian dedicates a considerable amount of his time to connecting people and organisations, who should already know each other.

In recent years, partly driven by the needs and learnings from the Covid-19 Pandemic, he also now leads the Global Health Connector Partnership (GHCP) which connects existing organisations to accelerate positive change globally.

The GHCP brings together like minded individuals and organisations, working together in a trusting, respectful and non-bureaucratic partnership and is having a powerful impact globally.

Prof. Rajendra Pratap Gupta

Health Parliament

Rajendra Pratap Gupta (Rajendra) is a public policy expert who has been contributing to policy making for over a decade.
Rajendra has worked with some of the largest organisations across the world and was nominated to the Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum for 2012-2014 in recognition of his work.

He has served at senior-most levels at fortune 20 & fortune 500 companies in India. Besides, he has been invited by global organizations like the United Nations, UNESCO, World Bank, Asian Development Bank, World Health Organization, World Economic Forum, ITU ( oldest UN body), United States of America, Govt. of Japan, Algeria, Finland & Bangladesh, and also by the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Human Resource Development , Ministry of Labour and Employment & The Planning Commission – Government of India, for his views on diverse range of topics.

He played an important role in drafting public policies and became the youngest person to draft the election manifesto of BJP . He also played a key role in drafting the BJP’s Lok Sabha Election Manifesto in 2014. He has played an important role in drafting the National Health Policy 2017, National Education Policy, the policy ( schemes ) for Building & other Construction Workers (BOCW) – Ministry of Labour & Employment & the State Health Policy for Uttar Pradesh. He is the founder of HIMSS India , Disease Management Association of India , Continua India , PCHA India and the Government Industry Dialogue Initiative.

He was recognised for his contribution in 2012 by the sheriff of Los Angeles; named the ‘Thought Leader of the Year’ three years in a row by ICT Post; Featured amongst the ’25 living Legends of Healthcare in India’ and nominated to World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council. He has authored five best-selling books 1)Healthcare Reforms in India – Making up for the lost decades 2) Your Vote is Not Enough 3) Your Degree is Not Enough 4) Tough Choices & Hard Decisions- Rebuilding India : The Next 25 Years 5) Digital Health – Truly Transformational.
Currently, he divides his time between public policy work and consultancy / advisory roles across geographies.

Julien Venne

Board Director, European Connected Health Alliance and the Digital Health Society, Researcher, United Nations University

Naturally evolving in an international environment (fluent in English, French and Spanish), passionate about digital transformation & social impact, Julien is an experienced C-level executive with track records in large corporates, start-ups, governments & public authorities, hospitals, universities and non-profit organisations.
Highly-skilled in strategic thinking, Julien supports the innovation in public and private organisations, around public policies, services & investments design, business modelling, market access & business development tactics, ecosystems building, customers’ engagement, marketing & communication.
As an entrepreneur or intrapreneur, Julien is designing digital products and services aiming to improve people’s life such as personalised health and wellbeing programmes, behaviours change strategies and solutions, digital platforms and mobile apps, GovTech & CivicTech, smart human cities, etc.
As a researcher, Julien is affiliated to the United Nations University (UNU-MERIT), the University of Maastricht (Netherlands) and the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (India). His researches focus on digital transformation, data governance and digital trustworthiness, digital democracy, behavioural sciences, health and wellbeing, public and international health.
Involved in ECHAlliance almost since its beginning, Julien has been Director of Strategy and Innovation during 5 years and now he’s Board Director in charge of the Digital Health Observatory (DHO) and the scientific content of our activities, as well as of the deployment of partnerships and ecosystems in Latin America. He’s also Board member of the Digital Health Society (DHS) and member of the Council of the Global Health Connector Partnership.
Julien is also regularly speaking at international events.

Jon Warner

US Ambassador

Jon Warner is a respected business and expert in health and healthcare innovation having led several organizations and founded and led 3 startups (with 2 successful exits). Jon’s career started in the corporate world with Air Products and Chemicals, working in the US and across Europe before joining Exxon-Mobil. At Exxon, Jon worked in the UK, the US, Australia, and Nigeria, ending his career there as Deputy CEO.

Following his 15 years in the corporate world Warner founded and grew a management consulting business-The Worldwide Center for Organizational Development, which had 30 people carrying out a range of strategy assignments for large companies such as Kaiser-Permanente, HCA, Glaxo, Johnson and Johnson, The UK NHS, Roche, and United Healthcare. Much of this work focused on strategy, growth planning and building an innovative and agile or entrepreneurial/intrapreneurial culture.

Following his time as a management consultant Warner was CEO of 2 startups- Since his successful exit from the second of these, Warner has been working from a California base to mentor and invest in disruptive startup and early stage companies, especially in the area of technology deployment mainly in the health, healthcare and wellness space. Warner manages the deal flow into a Los Angeles based Healthcare investment fund-Adaptive Health Capital and is CEO of Silver Moonshots-a research organization and ‘virtual incubator’ for startups focused on the digital health needs of the 50+ population.

Warner’s career has included senior executive roles in marketing, business development, operations, logistics, finance, investment, human resources and engineering/technology.

Warner is a noted speaker at businesses and colleges across the world. He is also a prolific author having published several books, all concerning business, management, leadership, innovation and technology.

A native Englishman, Warner moved from the UK to Australia for 15 years before relocating to Los Angeles in 2004. Warner is a graduate of the top 5 Warwick University in the UK, with a double bachelor’s degree in philosophy and politics and an MBA (with a finance specialism). Warner also undertook an uncompleted PhD in Psychology (with a specialism in Neuro-science). He is also an Adjunct professor at Redlands University. He is married to psychologist, management consultant and author Anne Sandberg, and has four grown up children.