Global Health Labs, Inc (GH Labs) today announced it has appointed global development expert, scientist, entrepreneur, and business strategist Dr. Shashi Buluswar as its chief executive officer. Dr. Buluswar has spent more than 25 years helping develop innovative solutions and breakthrough technologies to combat global poverty, and address disparities in health, water security, environmental protection, and energy access.
Dr. Buluswar is the founder of the Institute for Transformative Technologies (ITT), where he also served as CEO. He was the chief architect of the largest electrification and natural sanitation initiatives in the world, in India. He is also the principal author of the “50 Breakthroughs” study, which examines technologies across nine categories—including global health, agricultural development, and digital inclusion—needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The study was called the “first-of-its-kind blueprint for sustainable development” by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and has been recognized by the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development as a technology roadmap for the SDGs.
“Dr. Buluswar’s proven expertise in leading research innovation, bringing groundbreaking technologies to low-resource settings, and forging public-private partnerships that advance global health and development make him the perfect leader for this exciting phase of GH Labs’ development,” said Niranjan Bose, GH Labs board member and managing director of Health & Life Sciences at Gates Ventures. “He’s well equipped to lead a multidisciplinary team of scientists, researchers, global health experts, and operations specialists to respond to the pressing challenges making life less safe for so many and deliver the tools and technologies to help turn that around,” Bose added.
Dr. Buluswar will join GH Labs on June 14. He will help drive the organization’s pipeline of projects addressing critical technology gaps in low-resource environments with a focus on diagnostics, tools for maternal, newborn, and child health, primary healthcare centers, and last mile delivery. GH Labs works as an independent lab supporting the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s goals and strategic priorities, creating life-changing solutions for communities in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Among the team’s most recent achievements are a COVID-19 assay, enabling effective and inexpensive COVID-19 testing; a novel ultrasound technology that allows for improved disease detection via cell phones; and a vaccine cold chain container, that allows electricity-free ultra-cold chain vaccine transport and delivery.
“I’m humbled and honored to join GH Labs and lead an extraordinary group of professionals driven by the urgency of a single mission: delivering healthcare solutions to communities that need them most,” said Buluswar. “I very much look forward to working with the team in support of the Gates Foundation’s priorities, to bring innovative ideas to life, and in doing so, create disruptive, game-changing technologies that help make a real difference in people’s lives.”
Prior to ITT, Dr. Buluswar was a partner at the consulting firm Dalberg Global Development Advisors, serving multilaterals, international NGOs, foundations, governments, and social entrepreneurs. He was also Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company, and a Computer Science lecturer at Northwestern University. Today, he is Business and Social Impact lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.
Dr. Buluswar holds a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Massachusetts, an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and a BA from Goshen College. A native of India, Dr. Buluswar grew up in Kolkata and spent a decade competing on the Indian national rowing team. He also produced and directed the documentary film “Leg Before Wicket,” about the India-Pakistan conflict and cricket diplomacy, showcasing how the sport has been symbolic of the countries’ various attempts at war and peace.
About GH Labs
Global Health Labs, Inc (GH Labs) is a nonprofit organization created in 2020 by Gates Ventures (the private office of Bill Gates) and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with an inspiring and ambitious mission to develop innovative solutions to address unmet needs in primary healthcare and the last mile. Driven by a team of nearly 100 scientists, researchers, global health experts, and operations specialists, GH Labs develops innovative solutions to address critical technology gaps in low-resource environments.
