Executive Leadership · Research · Policy · Advisory
Connecting innovation, markets and public purpose
Padmashree Gehl Sampath’s work sits at the intersection of innovation, market access, geopolitics and industrial transformation. She brings deep expertise in designing initiatives for businesses and governments that translate innovations into commercially viable and scalable global solutions. She has vast experience in senior leadership positions, in both the global private and public sectors, working to bring together capital, market and execution strategies in complex policy environments. She has worked in over fifty emerging markets in different regions, helping companies and governments to negotiate influence and create value.
She has worked extensively in the biopharmaceutical industry, but her particular expertise at the intersection of technology, investment and industrial policy, spans pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, AI and the digital economy, and energy. In her work, she combines this with extensive knowledge of African and emerging markets, regional integration and the political economy of private-sector development. She has authored six books and over a hundred white papers, book chapters and journal articles. Her work has appeared in the Harvard International Review, the Harvard Public Health Review, Michigan Journal of International Law among others. She has three more books that are expected to be published in 2027.
Leadership
Over 25 years of senior executive and advisory experience at the intersection of private-sector development, investment, technology, industrial transformation and public policy, with particular depth in Africa and other emerging markets as a CEO, programme director and senior strategic adviser with a track record of leading complex initiatives.
Investment
Extensive experience working with development finance institutions, international financiers, donors, governments and private investors to develop investment strategies, mobilise resources and de-risk investments in emerging economies.
Industry
Deep expertise in industrial transformation and productive capacity, competitiveness and resilient supply chains and enable emerging economies to move into higher-value activities. Particular expertise in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, AI and the digital economy, and energy.
Institutions
Proven record of conceptualising, establishing and scaling new institutions, platforms and programmes designed to address market failures and enable investment and economic transformation, including the creation and establishment of the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation for the African Development Bank.
Governance
Board and high-level advisory experience spanning trade, industrialisation, technology, health and global economic governance, including roles in the African Continental Free Trade Area, World Health Organization, and other international institutions.
Padmashree works with industry leaders, public policy agencies and governments to assess opportunities and risks for competitiveness, and means to address them.
Senior Fellow
Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School
Current
Vice President for Business Development and Partnerships
Global companies (on retainership, reporting directly to CEOs)
Current
Visiting Professor of Practice
London School of Economics and Political Science
Current
Chief Executive Officer
African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation
2023 – 2025
Senior Advisor to the President on Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare
African Development Bank Group
2021 – 2025
Board Member, Trade and Industrialization Advisory Council
African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA)
Current
Chairperson, Technology Advisory Group
COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP), World Health Organisation
2021 – 2024
Senior Special Advisor
Africa Centres for Disease Control — Market Shaping for Africa’s Pooled Procurement Mechanism Design
2023 – 2024
Program Director
Accelerating Vaccine Production in Africa: A Centers of Excellence Initiative
2022 – 2024
Senior Strategic Advisor
German Government Program on Local Production of Vaccines in Africa
2021 – 2023
Expert, Informal and Focused Consultations on Pandemic Preparedness
WHO International Negotiating Body (INB) on Pandemic Preparedness and Response
2023 – 2023
Advisory Board Member
Global Public Investment for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
2021 – 2021
Fellow
Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University
2018 – 2023
Padmashree has conceptualised and led the creation of the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation, a new regional agency dedicated to change the technology environment in the pharmaceutical sector for Africa.
This project financed by the German government is one of the first efforts to create a centre of excellence initiative in Africa.
This project generated a working paper for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) published in December 2022.
This programme generated new data analysis on industrial transformation in Africa.
Funded project by the German international agency.
Project on industry development.
Featured · Opinion · 2026
Padmashree Gehl Sampath
Unlike earlier industrializers such as Japan and South Korea, China did not vacate lower-tech manufacturing for other developing economies. Facing tariffs and geopolitical competition, it is now exporting subsidised industrial overcapacity to late-industrializing countries — distorting competition for nations still trying to industrialize.
Edited e-book · University of Johannesburg · 2022
Edited by Padmashree Gehl Sampath & Fiona Tregenna
This collected volume contains a range of contributions on digital sovereignty in Africa from emerging research scholars and policy experts. They tackle diverse issues of policy relevance and provide fresh insights into digital transformation and data access and governance in Africa.
View book
Edited volume · Palgrave Macmillan · 2015
Edited by Padmashree Gehl Sampath & Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka
“This book not only deepens our understanding of the sustainable development goals but it is also persuasive in its argument for redirecting our collective efforts in Africa to the central role of industrialization as an engine of economic development.” — Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, Former Vice President, Federal Republic of Nigeria
View book
Monograph · Routledge · 2010
Padmashree Gehl Sampath
Reconfiguring Global Health Innovation, appreciated widely to be the first book of its kind, presents the findings of multi-year research, contrasting experiences of different low- and middle-income countries in building health innovation systems that cater to local needs.
View book
Co-authored · Routledge · 2009
Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka & Padmashree Gehl Sampath
“This book points to the heterogeneity of knowledge and capabilities accumulation that distinguish latecomers and, in turn, suggests a new way of understanding low- and middle-income economies.” — Prof. Alice Amsden, MIT
View book
Co-authored · Palgrave Macmillan · 2009
Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka & Padmashree Gehl Sampath
This book analyses the complex dynamics of building agricultural systems of biotechnology in Asia and Africa. The findings of the book are highly relevant to understanding agricultural transformation of economies through novel technologies to achieve food security.
View book
Monograph · United Nations University Press · 2005
Padmashree Gehl Sampath
This book analyses the complex economic issues in bioprospecting and drug discovery and development processes. In doing so, it contributes to fairer and more effective global and national regulatory frameworks on the topic.
View bookForthcoming book · Cambridge University Press · 2027
With Öner Tulum and William Lazonick
Cambridge University Press · Elements in Reinventing Capitalism
This book shows how affordable medicines remain out of reach for millions because biopharmaceutical innovation is increasingly organized around value extraction. By examining how shareholder-driven governance and fragmented global health financing reinforce inequity, the book proposes structural reforms to remedy the situation.
From Substack
Technology, Innovation, Geopolitics and our common global future.
Subscribe on Substack
