Melissa Menke, Founder, Board CHair
Melissa started Access Afya in 2012, convinced that smart technology and human centered design could bring a drastically better health system to people who lacked access to quality healthcare. She has a background in urban economic development and finance, and studied public service at NYU. LinkedIn; https://www.melissamenke.com/
Daphne ngunjiri, CEO
Having worked as a doctor in public and private hospitals, and at a healthtech startup, Daphne brings a decade of healthcare experience across the health ecosystem to Access Afya. Daphne studied medicine at University of Nairobi and holds an executive MBA in Healthcare Management from Strathmore Business School. https://www.linkedin.com/in/daphne-ngunjiri-a7655089/
Ruth Kimama, chief of Staff
Ruth started her career in social enterprise maintaining franchise standards at Sanergy. She now leads the execution of Access Afya franchise strategy in Kenya. An outgoing people person, Ruth helps live and celebrate the Access Afya values.
Board, Observers, and Advisors
Nadeem Shaikh, Director
Nadeem has 25 years of experience working in Finance and Technology. He is currently Co-Founder of Neem Exponential, where he provides strategic support to entrepreneurs based in Pakistan. His past experience as a co-founder of Anthemis in London led him to multiple Board positions with fintech start-ups around the world. Nadeem has served as President of Global Digital Financial Services for Veon, a global telecommunications and technology firm. Nadeem holds degrees in Finance and Computer Science, and an MBA from the London Business School.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nrshaikh/
Farahnaz Karim, Observer
Farahnaz is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Insaan Group, a boutique impact investment entity that allocates philanthropic capital to tackle poverty. Farahnaz is a social entrepreneur, political scientist and humanist. She has worked with the OSCE, the United Nations, the World Bank and non-profits, in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine, India, Kenya and Tanzania.
Farahnaz holds an MPA from Harvard University (USA), a Diplôme d’Etudes Supérieures from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Switzerland) and a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University (Canada). She is currently a doctoral candidate in Politics at the University of Exeter (UK).
https://www.linkedin.com/in/farahnaz-karim-2885827/
Grand Challenges Canada, Observer
Grand Challenges Canada supports innovators around the world to improve health in their communities. They connect innovators to funding, networks and resources to develop bold ideas, test them, and transition to scale innovations that make a profound difference. Grand Challenges Canada awarded Access Afya a Rising Stars grant, is an investor through their Transition to Scale program, and observes the Access Afya Board.
https://www.grandchallenges.ca/programs/global-health/
Oswald Jumira, Advisor
Oswald is passionate about technology for Africa. He leads Innovation and Partnerships for Liquid Telcom. Prior to Liquid, he was an active advisor to social innovation initiatives and startups including Mercy Corps’ AgriFinMobile Program, Cumii International and Muzinda Hub. Oswald launched his career working with Strive Masiyiwa on mobile money services (EcoCash), mobile insurance (EcoSure), mobile health (EcoHealth), mobile education (EcoSchool), mobile farming (Ecofarmer) and machine to machine (EcoTracker).
damien engelhardt, Director
Damien has experience across management consulting, technology startups and impact investment. He currently works on growth strategy at a transit tech company based in London. Damien is an active angel investor in impact driven and women led businesses globally. He supports Access Afya with strategy, communications and finance. He holds degrees from INSEAD and Northwestern University.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/damienengelhardt/
Casey van der Stricht, Observer
Casey is Principal of Solve Innovation Future, an innovative mechanism to make investments in the Solver teams. Casey joined MIT Solve from Social Finance, where she was Vice President, Social Investments, responsible for sourcing, structuring, and placing social impact bonds and other impact instruments, as well as advancing firm strategic positioning. Committed to leveraging new tools to make impact, she has experience in management consulting, financial services, and the nonprofit sector. Casey holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in history from Yale University.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/casey-littlefield-van-der-stricht-a57558130/
Joseph Githinji, Advisor
Joseph Githinji trained first as a nurse before returning to school for a Masters in Health Economics and Policy (University of Nairobi) and an Executive Degree in Healthcare Management from Strathmore Business School. He spent 8 years working with the National Hospital Insurance Fund defining benefits, quality assurance strategies and advocating for innovative strategies to improve health access and quality. Currently Githinji supports a number of private sector players in health financing strategy and government relations including PharmAccess Foundation and Access Afya. He serves on various government technical working groups including the Joint Learning Network Collaboration.
With Access Afya, he supports business to government strategy including building relationships with national and local county governments and developing proposals to get Access Afya’s model disseminated through public sector partnership. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ndiang-ui-githinji-b606a42b/