Dr Ola Brown, Founder, Flying Doctors Healthcare Investment Group
The Flying Doctors Healthcare Group invests and operates across the healthcare and wellness value chain in hospital/clinic construction & refurbishment, diagnostics and equipment, health facility management, pharmaceutical retail, drug manufacturing, air ambulance services & logistics and consulting/healthcare technology.
Dr Ola studied medicine and surgery at the Hull York Medical School after which she worked in Acute Medicine in the UK. She then went on to be awarded the Japanese MEXT scholarship which allowed her to further her studies in Tokyo, Japan, the fellowship focused on lab-based research with induced pluripotent stem cells. She is currently completing her Masters degree in Finance and Economic Policy at the University of London. Her post-graduate areas of study also include Pre-hospital Emergency care, Healthcare leadership and Healthcare delivery. She has a certificate in Economic policy making from IE business school, Spain, a certificate in Accounting for decision making from the University of Michigan in the United States and a certificate in Finance & Investing in Infrastructure (Project Finance) from Universita Bocconi in Milan.
Along with two other directors, Dr Ola runs leading a early stage venture capital firm, Greentree investment company which provides growth capital to some of Africa’s most exciting tech start-up’s. Greentree Investment company has invested in start-ups in various sectors including fintech, media, SaaS, Agri-tech, manufacturing, ecommerce, health tech and Edutech making it one of West Africa’s leading venture capital firms. The total value of the Greentree portfolio is almost $80m.
She has published four books ‘EMQ’s in Paediatrics’, ‘Pre-Hospital Care for Africa’ , ‘Fixing Healthcare in Nigeria; a guide to public healthcare policy and Banking, Finance & Economics in Emerging Markets: an essay collection. She has also written articles in the British Medical Journal, the Journal of Emergency Medical Services, the Niger Delta Medical Journal, the New York Times and the Huffington Post.
She is an international speaker who has spoken at the TED global conference, the European Union, the Swiss Economic Forum, the UN, the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, the World Health Organisation, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge University and the Aspen Ideas Festival. Dr Ola and her work have been featured by CNN, the BBC, Forbes and Al-Jazeera.She has also received multiple awards and nominations. These include the Mouldbreaker’s Award, the THIS Day Award, The Future Award as entrepreneur of the year, New Generation Leader for Africa, Ladybrille Personality of the month, Silverbird entrepreneurship award, the Most Influential Person of African descent (MIPAD) recognition, Nigerian Aviation personality of the year award and Vanguard WOW Awards. She is also a TED fellow (see TEDx talk here), a Dangote Fellow, an Aspen Fellow and has been honored by the world economic forum as a Young Global Leader. She is a member of the American College of Emergency Physicians, international editor of the Journal of Emergency Services and a LinkedIn top ten global Healthcare Writer.
Dr Ola Brown (Orekunrin) sits on the board of the professional women's network (Lagos Chapter). She leads the Health as a business group at the Nigerian Economics Summit Group (NESG); a think tank. She also facilitates trade between Nigeria, the United States and the UK through her seats on the committee of the British Business Group (Lagos)and the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce (Healthcare Section) respectively.