Satish Jha

Satish Jha is a leading information technology and healthcare management professional from India. He started his information management career at the pharmaceutical company Roche and led the global information systems development for one of its divisions. He followed it up with co-founding James Martin & Co Pvt Ltd, META Group India and Digital Partners and supported more than 50 large corporations in developing their Information Strategy Plan and creating a digital business strategy. While he consulted across industries, a significant part of his contributions have spanned pharmaceuticals, healthcare, pharmacy benefit management and community health. He also lead global healthcare practice of a large technology firm and has been active in global corporate, executive and management consulting experience in the health care and pharmaceutical industries with a real passion for leveraging technologies to change the way business is done. He also co-chairs World Information Technology Forum and co-edited the proceedings of WITFOR 2007 held in Addis Ababa along with Leon Strous ( http://www.digital-partners.org/Book-WITFOR-2007.pdf). He also leads One Laptop Per Child (OLPC; www.laptop.org) in India as its President and CEO-(http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS194843+06-Aug-2008+BW20080806) (.Biographical details on: http://www.linkedin.com/in/satishjha

Background

Educated at the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University, and the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University he began his executive career as the head of a prestigious national publication in India. He co-founded the first computer created newspaper in India and has since worked at the intersection of technology and management. Satish followed it up with a charter MBA in strategy, innovation and information technology from EDHEC/Theseus (Haute Ecole Commerciale; http://www.theseus.fr/37408116/1/fiche___pagelibre/ ) in France that was created to groom the managers of tomorrow with the joint efforts of MIT Sloan School, INSEAD and large European corporations.

A frequent expert source for CNBC and BBC, Satish is also a featured speaker on health care issues and entrepreneurship at MRI, TEPR, TiECon, Yale University, and George Washington University. He is also a Co-Chair of World IT Forum (WITFOR), based in washington DC Co-Chairs the Alumni Association of The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy and is a Board Member of TiE-DC. He is also a Special Adviser to the Kofi Annan Center for Excellence in Information Technologies, a member of the United Nations Global Alliance for ICTs and Development (UN-GAID), chairs eHealthcare Foundation ( http://www.ehealth-care.net ) and Digital Partners ( http://www.digital-partners.org ). He co-edited with Leon Strous ICT for Development and Prosperity (2008).

Personal History

He started his corporate career with pharmaceutical giant Roche at its headquarters in Switzerland where distinguishing himself early on, he quickly moved into a position as a divisional head of Global Information Systems, a department with an annual budget of $ 100 million and over 1000 employees. He later led Telos Consulting in the US market, chaired James Martin & Co and META Group in India and was subsequently invited to join the Advisory Board of Perot Systems.

Satish has also worked with the leading US Pharmaceutical Benefits Management company, Caremark, where he managed integration of application systems, and with several large US hospitals on assignments to improve information management and establish best practices. In recognition of his enthusiasm and keen insights, he was recently invited onto the boards of Maryland/District of Columbia RHIO and the hospital track of Maryland Health Care Commission.

Satish also advised a large number of Indian hospitals including Apollo, Escorts Heart, SGRH, health ministries of various states and the central government. He pioneered one of the earliest web based patient and hospital management systems which won national and international recognition. He has worked with the CEOs of several Indian pharmaceutical companies to develop their global business strategies.

Satish was one of the youngest editors in the Indian national press, editing the prestigious newsweekly "Dinamaan" of The Times of India Group. This magazine was founded by S H Vatsyayan "Agyeya", one of the tallest figures in Hindi literature of his times and later led by eminent poet Raghuvir Sahay. Satish brought in a new passion and management orientation to double its circulation in less than a year.

However, he was groomed to take up editorial role at The indian Express where he joined to lead the Research Bureau of The Financial Express and was its Leader Writer. He joined hands with Prabhash Joshi, then a resident editor with the Indian Express Group to co-found "Janasatta" and was one of the exceptions to have left the national English press in India to start a Hindi newspaper.

A significant part of Satish's life was spent in social movements. Starting with a coincidence that brought him to live in the vicinity of Gandhian Institute of Studies where he got an opportunity to get to know and work with Jaya Prakash Narayan, the leading opponent of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty who brought the opposition forces together to form the first non-Congress government in independent India. He coordinated Youth Against Famine, worked with landless labourers, founded landless labourers cooperative bank at a village for educational purposes, co-founded PUCL Bulletin along with Arun Jaitley (later day Law Minister of India), Neeraja Chowdhary (later the Political Editor of Indian Express) and Smitu Kothari (later known for being a social activist). He worked with Hari Sharan (formerly the board member for technology of BHEL, also known as India's GE) to found DESI Power and FREND in Switzerland and with Tarahaat.com along with Ashok Khosla (founder of Development Alternatives and Tarahaat) and Baramati Conference ( http://topics.developmentgateway.org/ict/sdm/previewDocument.do?activeDocumentId=359102 ) along with Sharad Pawar (three time Chief Minister of Maharashtra and one of the most powerful cabinet ministers who is seen as a contender for India's future prime ministership.

He co-founded Digital Partners ( http://www.digital-partners.org ) and over the years it supported dozens of information technology initiatives including Tarahaat.com, Drishtee, SKS, eHealth-care foundation among them ( http://www.comminit.com/en/node/212080 ). He also founded the Healthcare Round table in Washington DC and is a Board Member of TiE-DC ( http://www.tie-dc.org ) and was also a co-founder of TiE-Pune.