Aranka Anema

Aranka has 20 years of experience in data analytics, business strategy and growth specific to global health. Aranka guides digital health companies, international governments and multilateral institutions in strategic growth and implementation of emerging technologies. Aranka advises health companies in strategic growth, partnerships and data commercialization. She is a subject matter expert in pandemic infectious diseases including (e.g. HIV, TB, Ebola, COVID-19) and non-communicable diseases. She has designed and led program evaluations for major bilateral and multilateral agencies such as Global Affairs Canada, USAID, the World Bank, the World Health Organization (WHO) and European Commission, spanning operations across 50 countries and representing >US $400M in foreign aid investments. Aranka has led the scientific strategy and implementation of novel artificial intelligence technologies in U.S. Federal Agencies (FDA, CDC, DoD, USAID). She has published >100 manuscripts and abstracts in scientific journals and conferences, and is a peer-reviewer for Lancet, JAMA and PLOS Medicine. Aranka was a three-year appointed academic advisor for the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Infectious Diseases and Food Security (2015-2018) and on the Leadership Team of the American Public Health Association’s International Health Group (2013-2019). Aranka led the design and launch of KPMG Canada’s first Ignition Centre—an innovation, analytics and technology hub that uses human-centered design, business model transformation and exponential technologies to help clients seize market opportunities. Aranka holds an MSc in medical anthropology (UCL), PhD in epidemiology (UBC) and a post-doc in computational informatics (Harvard Medical School). She is a Singularity University Alumni and is passionate about open innovation, healthcare in outer space and humanitarianism.