Over the past 40 years, economic reforms and global trends have pushed Vietnam’s economy from one of the poorest in the world to a middle-income economy, according to the World Bank. In line with its continual and steady development, the country expects 5.5% growth in 2024, up from 5% in 2023. This expansion has put Vietnam well on its way to achieving its goal of becoming a high-income country by 2045.
WDI has managed programs in Vietnam for the last 20 years, as part of the Institute’s mission in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In 2004, the Institute hosted a six-week management education program for executives from Vinacomin, Vietnam’s national mining country. In 2017, MBA students from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan worked with Vietnam Partners LLC to develop a Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and a venture capital fund focused on start-ups. Another group of MBA students joined Solagron, a high-tech agricultural company that relies on solar energy to cultivate and process microalgae, in 2024 to build a market entry strategy.
“Vietnam has all the characteristics of a market perfect for WDI’s involvement,” said Amy Gillett, WDI Vice President of Education “Its economy is an innovative one. Its players want to diversify, support start-ups, and strengthen managerial skills, so it’s the ideal time for us to be there. There is massive potential.”
Over the last three years, WDI has been elevating Vietnamese business leaders’ skills through its Advanced Mini-MBA Program at the FPT School of Business & Technology (FSB). This partnership brings together educators and business leaders to expand participants’ management skills, bolster business education opportunities and encourage economic growth in the country.
“Helping countries transition from centrally planned economies to market economies is WDI to its essence,” Gillett said. “When you make that transition, you need to cultivate and rely on a new level of management skills. WDI is perfectly equipped to train business leaders in these important skills, whether it’s in Eastern Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa or Southeast Asia.”
Not only has the government supported economic growth in the country through improved infrastructure and healthcare, but the nation’s businesses have pushed for inventive ways to accelerate their industries. The country is experiencing a steady increase in GDP per capita and improved infrastructure access.
“Vietnam is an interesting setting for management training because of the unique characteristics of the business environment. The high degree of government participation in the economy, for example, means that a company’s go-to-market strategy must respect this government — or, even better, leverage the government participation for competitive advantage,” said John Branch, clinical associate professor of business administration at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. He teaches in the Mini MBA Program in both Vietnam and in Riga, Latvia.
The certificate program was co-developed by Gillett and David Estrada, WDI Education program administrator, specifically for the Vietnamese market. It digs into how to leverage these government relationships and requirements, and it also covers critical lessons on foundational business skills. WDI-affiliated faculty and FSB instructors teach executive students about strategy, sales management, marketing, finance, operations, entrepreneurship, leadership, negotiations, human resources and more. Through a combination of in-person and online sessions, the program pushes participants to focus on digital transformation, leadership expansion, practical decision-making and organizational-level thinking.
“The program is mutually beneficial,” said Nguyen Viet Thang, Dean of FSB. “WDI has brought us new values and perspectives, and having top WDI professors participate in teaching is a great benefit for Vietnamese students and faculty. Conversely, we hope WDI gains significant value in understanding the corporate management culture of Eastern countries in general and Southeast Asia in particular.”
Pictured from left to right: Dr. Nguyen Viet Thang, Dean of FPT School of Business & Technology of FPT University; Paul Clyde, Former President of WDI; Dr. Truong Gia Binh, Chairman and CEO of FPT Corporation; Bradley Lalonde, Co-founder and Chairman of Vietnam Partners LLC; Ha Nguyen, Academics Head of FPT School of Business.
WDI has brought us new values and perspectives, and having top WDI professors participate in teaching is a great benefit for Vietnamese students and faculty. Conversely, we hope WDI gains significant value in understanding the corporate management culture of Eastern countries in general and Southeast Asia in particular.
This year’s program will run from July through October 2024, and each module is deeply connected to real-world dilemmas and solutions. At the end of the program, participants complete a final group project around current management challenges they face in their own businesses. Participants are asked to consider a specific issue, analyze it, and formulate a practical solution. Groups then present their project, which includes market analysis, implementation plans and feasibility decisions, to the class. At the program’s culmination, participants receive a co-branded WDI-FSB certificate — emphasizing the deep value of these global relationships and cross-cultural educational opportunities.
“The WDI and FSB partnership is a win-win situation. It fosters knowledge exchange, expands access to valuable educational programs, and ultimately contributes to the development of a strong and globally competitive business community in Vietnam,” noted Bradley Lalonde, co-founder and chairman of Vietnam Partners LLC, in a recent business newsletter. Lalonde, a private equity and fund management expert who served as the first CEO of Citibank Vietnam, played an essential role in the development of the partnership program.
This unique FSB partnership program was created to strengthen both individual business skills and the larger economy. To achieve that goal, the curriculum is directed toward those in leadership roles – in many cases, the people driving the evolution of their industries. Participants in the program must have at least five years of management experience, and their expertise and sincerity show in their dedication to the course.
“What I admire in any learner is curiosity, and the Vietnamese learners in this program are especially curious,” Branch said. “They always ask questions. They try to dig deeper into the concept theories, and they want to see direct application to their own situations.”
For students, the program is an opportunity to learn from some of the best business faculty in the world, build a network of global business leaders and transform their own skills. For WDI, the program is a chance to bring its connections and educational prowess to a newly booming nation — an effort that aligns perfectly with its mission of unlocking the power of business to provide lasting economic and social prosperity.
“From my perspective, the partnership between WDI and FSB holds significant value for both institutions and, ultimately, for the business landscape in Vietnam,” said Lalonde.
Solagron is a Vietnamese company producing various types of microalgae using solar power. A team of MBA students identified priority markets and developed marketing recommendations for this company’s new line of human consumption products, based mainly on spirulina production on a large scale.
WDI continues to expand the company’s wind energy artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things (IoT) products to extend operations in other geographic markets. WDI is working with connections in different countries to identify specific opportunities for Vietnam.
This spring, the William Davidson Institute supported 13 partner projects in nine countries involving more than 75 University of Michigan graduate students as part of their MBA degree program.
WDI organized a total of nine multidisciplinary action projects (MAPs) with partners in India, Ethiopia, Ghana, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and Vietnam. The MAP experience at U-M’s Ross School of Business is designed to help part-time, full-time and online students hone their analytical, project management and leadership skills while helping to solve real business challenges at participating companies and nonprofit organizations.
Four other projects as part of the WDI-supported graduate MBA course, BA 685: Healthcare Delivery in Emerging Markets, took place in the Dominican Republic, Ghana, India and Kenya. WDI also supported 12 students traveling to Nigeria and Ghana to conduct due diligence on companies under consideration by the International Investment Fund, as well as an independent study for one student.
Learn more about the projects and their objectives below.
TIP Global Health, Kigali and Ruli, Rwanda.
Objective: Conduct a financial analysis of the current digital health platform used to support healthcare providers in Rwanda, and develop a recommendation for pricing to implement and support the platform for other government health systems.
Boston Medical / Busoga Health Forum, Kampala, Uganda.
Objective: Working with an imaging business in Ethiopia and partners in Uganda, a team conducted market analysis and market entry strategy to extend the imaging services into Uganda.
PowerTrust, Accra, Tamale and Sunyani, Ghana.
Objective: Identify and develop a systematic way to capture, validate and communicate the value of distributed renewable energy credits (DRECs) in Ghana.
International Clinical Laboratories, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Objective: A feasibility study for developing manufacturing and supply hubs for clinical laboratory inputs in Addis Ababa Ethiopia for diagnostics laboratories located throughout Africa.
Distributed Fertilizer New Product Commercialization, Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa; Kampala, Uganda.
Objective: Develop a comprehensive market analysis and market entry strategy for a technology that allows for production of fertilizer at a smaller scale and lower energy cost in South Africa and Rwanda. The technology would significantly reduce the supply chain risks and potentially the costs to farmers and co-ops in these markets.
Poornatha Madurai, India.
Objective: Develop a plan to increase Poornatha’s business-to-consumer model complete with specific offerings tailored to consumers.
Solagron, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Objective: Conduct market analysis and develop a market entry strategy for high-protein, spirulina-based products by Solagron.
Two additional projects at Kisii Eye Hospital and a partner in the Michigan Academy of Development Entrepreneurs in Vietnam are planned for summer 2023.
Clínica de Familia La Romana, Romana, Dominican Republic.
Objective: Develop a financial model for adding GI services to the existing operations at the clinic.
International Center for Rehabilitation, Kumasi, Ghana.
Objective: Develop recommendations for improving the efficiency of the clinic and doubling the capacity of the existing rehabilitation clinic.
Kisii Hospital Vision Center, Kisii, Kenya
Objective: To develop a protocol for establishing vision centers around Kisii and develop recommendations for potential new locations.
Poovanthi (LiveWell): Chennai, India
Poovanthi was established over 10 years ago and has expanded to 100 beds at its original facility outside of Madurai and 30 beds at a recently opened facility in Chennai. This team’s objective was to develop a five-year strategic plan to support Poovanthi’s expansion plans.
Learn more about WDI Student Opportunities.
WDI is partnering with the FPT School of Business & Technology’s business school, FPT, on a new general management certificate program: the Advanced MiniMBA program. The program is running in the fall of 2024 and combines online instruction with in-person training in Vietnam. Topics covered are competition, marketing, finance, strategy and leadership.
Students at an FPT classroom in Vietnam.
In continuing its successful track record of collaborating with universities in emerging market countries to provide world-class executive education programs, William Davidson Institute (WDI) is partnering with the FPT School of Business & Technology (FSB) to provide management training in Vietnam.
With over 20 years of experience in training in management and leadership, FSB is ranked among the top two best business schools in Vietnam and in the top 24 best Executive MBA programs in East Asia, according to university ranking firm Eduniversal.
WDI has offered its Strategic Management Program, also known as its Mini-MBA, for more than 25 years. WDI partners with universities and training organizations in low- and middle-income countries to offer open and custom programs on a full range of managerial topics, including strategy, sales management, marketing, finance, operations, entrepreneurship, leadership, negotiations, human resources, and the Institute’s flagship mini-MBA program.
The WDI/FSB partnership adds a new twist with a first-ever joint executive education program, called the Advanced Mini-MBA Program. The certificate program will begin in July 2022 and will combine in-person instruction in Vietnam with online modules. Three WDI Faculty Affiliates and two FSB professors will provide instruction and guidance for the students, who must have more than five years of management experience, such as boards of directors and C-Suite executives.
The program targets participants who have an interest in applying technology, digital transformation and other global trends toward business administration topics in the fields of insurance, banking, real estate, technology, automation, media, business consulting, and aviation, among others.
“The partnership between the world-class William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan and FPT School of Business and Technology is a highlight in our journey in creating a high quality education which responds to the needs of innovation, allowing students access to global training methods and knowledge,” said FSB Dean Nguyen Viet Thang. “The principles and objectives of WDI are in line with the vision of FSB and FPT Education. The joint program will provide the quintessence in executive management to potential leader generation in Vietnam, helping them to seize the opportunities to share the same management perspective with organizations and businesses in the US and around the world.”
Participants completing the course will:
Participants of the WDI/FSB program will receive a co-branded certificate upon successful completion.
“We at WDI are very excited to partner with the prestigious FPT School of Business & Technology FSB to offer joint executive education programs, starting with our Advanced MiniMBA program,” said Amy Gillett, WDI Vice President for Education. “This program brings together world-class professors from both institutions to bring the latest management knowledge to rising leaders in Vietnam and to enable them to build their global perspectives and strengthen their professional networks.”
The partnership with FSB isn’t WDI’s first training program in Vietnam. In 2004, WDI ran a six-week executive education program for executives from Vinacomin, Vietnam’s national mining company. WDI has extensive experience in cross-cultural business education, a subject explored in March by former U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam Ted Osius, whom the Institute recently hosted. (Watch a replay of the discussion here.)
About WDI
At the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan, unlocking the power of business to provide lasting economic and social prosperity in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is in our DNA. We gather the data, develop new models, test concepts and collaborate with partners to find real solutions that lead to new opportunities. This is what we mean by Solving for Business—our calling since the Institute was first founded as an independent nonprofit educational organization in 1992. We believe societies that empower individuals with the tools and skills to excel in business, in turn generate both economic growth and social freedom—or the agency necessary for people to thrive.
About FSB
FPT School of Business & Technology (FSB) has more than 20 years of training experience in corporate and organizational management. Every year, the school has nearly 1,300 students attending master’s programs, more than 2,000 turns of studying short-term programs. FSB and students create a dynamic, creative and experiential research and learning environment; we appreciate the close and harmonious combination in updating new and advanced knowledge in the world, applying it to practice on Vietnamese culture.
Note: A recording of the event is now available.
The William Davidson Institute (WDI) will host a discussion with Ted Osius, former U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam and leader of the US-ASEAN Business Council. He will discuss Vietnam’s economic transformation and the skills necessary to succeed in cross-cultural business. The talk, “Building Trust and Taking Risks,” is set for 2 p.m. March 16, via Zoom. (Register here.)
A diplomat for 30 years, Osius served from 2014 to 2017 as U.S. ambassador to Vietnam during the Obama Administration. Leading a team of 900, Osius devised and implemented strategies to deepen economic, security and cultural ties between the two countries. Only the second openly gay career diplomat in U.S. history to achieve the rank of ambassador, Osius went to Vietnam with his husband and two children.
After leaving government, Osius joined Google as its Vice President for Government Affairs and Public Policy at Google Asia-Pacific and currently serves as President of the US-ASEAN Business Council, which represents 170 of the largest American businesses in Southeast Asia through its headquarters in Washington, D.C., and its seven regional offices.
During the talk, Osius will share some of the key insights from his 2021 book “Nothing is Impossible: America’s Reconciliation with Vietnam.” He’ll then discuss his fascinating career, including his time in the foreign service, his transition to Google, and how he landed in his current position at the US-ASEAN Business Council. He’ll talk about the differences in working in the public sector vs. the private sector.
“As a leader in foreign service, private enterprise and nonprofit organizations, Ambassador Osius offers a unique perspective for how building understanding can lead to historic opportunities,” said Amy Gillett, Vice President for Education at WDI who will convene the discussion with Osius.
Participants will have an opportunity to submit questions during the discussion.
Earlier in his career, Osius was a senior advisor at the Albright-Stonebridge Group and Vice President of Fulbright University Vietnam. Osius was associate professor at the National War College and Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
As a diplomat, Osius served as Deputy Chief of Mission in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Political Minister-Counselor in New Delhi, India. Osius also served as deputy director of the Office of Korean Affairs at the State Department, regional environment officer for Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and senior advisor on Asia and trade to Vice President Al Gore.
Osius earned a Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University, a Master’s degree from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, and an Honorary Doctorate from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education.
Although it has been six years since her WDI summer internship in Vietnam and Cambodia, Tae-Hwa Eo still remembers how those three months working for a nonprofit, global health organization made an impression on her. Before she began her MBA studies, she had worked for a for-profit food company in South Korea.
“I got exposed to a totally new work environment in terms of business purpose, backgrounds of colleagues and, above all, the scale of impact of my work,” she said. “Also, I was largely impressed by the passion of people I worked with. They were professionals in each field – biologics, medicines, business – and truly motivated by a greater purpose for mankind.”
Eo is using that mindset for her current role in marketing at Samsung’s credit card division as the company looks to increase its corporate social responsibility efforts in the South Korea nonprofit sector.
“As a marketer, I am committed to developing marketing activities that do good for our customers and thus show that Samsung Card is not all about making profit, but does care about its customers,” she said.
Tae-Hwa Eo
That internship experience with WDI was exactly what Eo was hoping for when she chose to pursue her MBA at the Ross School of Business.
“It didn’t cross my mind, however, that I would be a WDI fellow when I was applying for Ross,” Eo said. “But it definitely was a plus factor for me to decide which MBA program because building experiences beyond the typical business life was one of my goals to achieve while I was enrolled.”
Eo came to Ross after getting her bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in international law from South Korean universities.
When she began searching for a summer internship, a fellow MBA student recommended she look at WDI’s opportunities. When she saw the internship listing to work in Vietnam and Cambodia for the Seattle-based global health nonprofit PATH, she immediately applied.
“I had a strong background in the healthcare industry and also had an extended work experience in Southeast Asia, which was a great combination of candidate requirements for the PATH internship,” Eo said. “I was also confident that I would do a good job once I got it because building a market penetration strategy was something I had been doing for the majority of my professional career.”
Eo spent the first couple of weeks of her internship in Seattle at PATH’s headquarters and then moved to Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi. She would travel often to Ho Chi Minh City and other Vietnam provinces, as well as Cambodia. She conducted research on malaria control, especially in remote areas, where immediate malaria diagnosis is difficult.
“Vietnam and Cambodia were the two target markets for this project because they have poor malaria control compared to the high prevalence of the disease,” Eo said. “Also, there is a high frequency of G6PD deficiency in the ethnic groups in those regions, for which the primary malaria treatment – primaquine – can cause life-threatening side effects.”
G6PD deficiency is a genetic disorder that occurs when the body doesn’t have enough of the enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD). G6PD helps red blood cells work, and protects them from substances in the blood that could harm them.
Eo was tasked with developing methodology for evaluating potential national markets for point-of-care G6PD tests and the implementation requirements for those tests. Eventually, PATH wanted to work towards safe and widespread adoption of malaria treatment in Vietnam and Cambodia.
She said the experience taught her that “nonprofit organizations need not just philanthropy and a good heart, but well-developed business perspectives to satisfy all of the stakeholders involved in a project like this, such as the fund provider, the pharmaceutical manufacturer and the local healthcare professionals, to bring about the most efficient outcome.”
Eo has been with Samsung Card for a little more than four years, spending time in both business development and marketing. She enjoys working in fintech, which is a fast-growing industry in South Korea and worldwide. But she notes she’s always looking for new opportunities and likes to learn new things.
For instance, she is learning swing dance, is pursuing her international coffee barista certificate and has plans to get a professional translator certificate.
Whatever her next career path, Eo said she will not forget the lessons the WDI summer internship taught her.
“It presented me with gem experiences that I would never have had otherwise, which naturally showed me that there were more roads to take in life besides the one I was used to my whole life before getting my MBA,” she said. “But more importantly, it has taught me that life is not all about working for a big company and making more money. Instead, it is about finding what makes me happier and how I could live a meaningful day every day.”
WDI is part of two separate grants awarded by the Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition (RHSC) Innovation Fund, the organization’s flagship initiative to spur and finance promising new ideas and strategies. The coalition, which is the largest network of reproductive health organizations, aims to ensure that a range of quality reproductive health supplies are available equally to all people who need them regardless of income.
Both grants were awarded in March at RHSC’s meeting in Brussels. The first grant was awarded to WDI’s Healthcare Initiative to study and make recommendations to improve commercial distribution of family planning products in remote and underserved populations in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
Andrea Bare
The project, “Total Market Approach: Private Sector Distributor Landscape Analysis,” is being funded by the RHSC, a global partnership of public, private and non-governmental organizations dedicated to ensuring that all people in LMICs can access and use affordable, high-quality supplies to improve reproductive health. It will be led by WDI Senior Advisor Andrea Bare and Research Associate Erika Beidelman.
Historically, low-income people living in rural areas have less access to family planning products and services partly due to market distribution barriers. Social marketing organizations (SMOs) play a vital role in improving access to, and choice of, an assortment of family planning products at a variety of prices in underserved markets. SMOs provide product-based contraceptive social marketing programs, which are funded in part by donors, making products and/or services subsidized. As donor support begins to phase out and SMOs pursue transition to greater sustainability with less dependence on subsidies, existing distribution models will be impacted.
Erika Beidelman
Global indicators suggest that the donor resource base for family planning supplies will decrease in the future, widening the existing funding gap. Further complicating the market, demand will continue to grow as countries strive to meet global family planning goals by 2020 – increasing total commodity costs required to meet women’s needs. A RHSC gap analysis showed that in 135 LMICs there will be a $238 million funding gap in 2018 which will grow to $290 million for 2020. For the years 2018-20, the combined funding shortfall is estimated to be $793 million. WDI’s research project will address the urgency of engaging the private sector and commercial distributors as part of the global effort to address the widening funding gap and ensure availability of family planning products.
Bare and Beidelman will take an in-depth look at Malawi as an example country with high donor involvement, strong SMO presence and limited commercial presence. They will then contrast what is occurring in Malawi with countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Guatemala or Morocco where donor funds and SMO presence are lower and the commercial distribution sector is more mature. This assessment will map what is currently working and not working for commercial distributors, with insights into their current business and service models, barriers to participation and opportunities for improvement.
By examining Malawi against the other countries, market needs, policy conditions and opportunities can be identified to foster commercial investment and participation within the distribution sector. WDI researchers are then able to develop a set of hypothetical solutions to remedy the challenges and “concept test” them with stakeholders.
The goal is to deliver a final set of potential, recommended solutions for increasing the role of the commercial sector in family planning products distribution to rural and other underserved populations.
WDI has partnered with RHSC on a past project. In 2017, WDI, RHSC and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) collaborated on Market Bookshelf, an easy-to-navigate online platform to facilitate the dissemination and sharing of global health market knowledge. The goal of the platform is to increase returns on donor and other stakeholder-funded research and help advance global health objectives through knowledge-sharing.
In the second project funded by RHSC’s Innovation Fund, WDI will partner with VillageReach on a six-month project to help improve reproductive health supply chains to increase the availability of family planning products.
Many LMIC governments own and directly operate thousands of public health clinics, and spend money to get health commodities out to the clinics. But this becomes a big challenge to reliably get products out there. As a result, governments have paid more attention to more effectively design well-functioning supply chains that align with health policy.
But designing efficient and effective supply chains often requires specialized software and data-intensive analyses, which can be expensive and difficult to manage in LMIC healthcare settings. Additionally, reproductive health commodities are unique because of the need to provide multiple product options to ensure that women are able to choose the products that best suit their specific needs.
WDI developed two different tools to simplify the process of supply chain design by addressing these software and data needs challenges. Both tools use Microsoft Excel, which is widely available, and are designed to operate without requiring intensive data collection.
The first tool uses benchmark and proxy data to help health program managers quickly estimate the cost of operating their supply chain. It can also be used to examine the cost impact of any design changes they are considering, such as delivering products more or less frequently, or integrating family planning product deliveries with other types of products, like HIV malaria medicines.
“The tool allows health program managers to quickly explore these types of supply chain design questions at a high level – questions that would otherwise require a difficult and resource-intensive analysis,” said Michael Krautmann, a senior research associate for the Healthcare Initiative.
Michael Krautmann
The second tool is more strategic in nature, helping health system leaders quickly assess a wide range of factors in their country that affect supply chain performance – geography, politics, financing, human resources – and identify the types of supply chain strategies that are most aligned with that context. Again, WDI helped minimize barriers to using the tool by designing it in Excel and using data that already exists in the global health space. Together these tools allow governments or donor agencies to quickly get answers that aid in improving supply chain design.
WDI and VillageReach have been longtime partners. VillageReach has supported the work of several WDI summer interns, and the Institute’s Healthcare Initiative partnered with the global nonprofit from 2014-16 to enhance vaccine supply chain performance by evaluating mechanisms to improve accountability of vaccine program staff in three provinces in Mozambique.
Also announced at the Brussels meeting was Bare’s election as chairwoman of the RHSC’s Market Development Approaches Working Group (MDAWG). As one of RHSC’s several mechanisms through which coalition members collaborate, MDAWG is focused on the “total market,” striving to facilitate wider private sector involvement and overall market growth. RHSC uses these working groups, along with several caucuses, to bring members and partners together to build sustained, coordinated action toward specific and agreed-upon goals.
Bare’s two-year term involves several duties, including pursuing the objectives of MDAWG to:
Bare will work closely with RHSC secretariat staff to provide leadership for the group’s workstreams and activities, to ensure the visibility of its work both internally and externally and to collaborate with other RHSC working groups.
“I am grateful for this opportunity and excited to work my coalition colleagues in MDAWG,” Bare said. “Through our individual organizations and together as a group, we aim to contribute to the private sector’s development and sustainability in order to increase reproductive health access and supply security.”
Homepage image credit UNFPA Flickr
Ray Cummings, director of market dynamics for the global nonprofit health organization PATH, recently sat down for a one-on-one video interview with WDI’s Andrea Bare to discuss how it works to improve global health outcomes. The two also talked about Cummings’ career and how U-M students interested in the healthcare field can get involved in global health.
Cummings also spoke to U-M students for the WDI Global Impact Speaker Series on Feb. 17 about how PATH is addressing the challenge of improving coverage rates for many childhood vaccines in low-income countries.
“Ray has deep expertise in healthcare technology development and commercialization in both developed and emerging economies,” said Bare, senior advisor in the WDI Healthcare Initiative’s Market Dynamics group. “He works from the vantage point of several years in biopharmaceuticals business development and partnering, and has brought that expertise to PATH where he has led or contributed to projects for drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics in diseases such as malaria, HIV, and Japanese Encephalitis.”
Cummings’ market dynamics department provides analytical and strategic support for PATH programs that are working with both non-profit and commercial partners to develop new therapies, vaccines and diagnostics for underserved populations around the world. He also has served as commercialization director for PATH’s drug development global program, and senior business officer in its vaccine and pharmaceutical technologies group.
Cummings is the second Global Impact Speaker from PATH. In 2013, Amie Batson, chief strategy officer of PATH, spoke for the WDI speaker series. View a one-on-one interview with Batson here.
Also, PATH has partnered with WDI on several summer internship projects, including 2011 in Bangladesh, 2012 in India, 2013 in Vietnam and Cambodia, and 2015 in the U.S., South Africa, Ghana, and Uganda.
WDI and PATH are currently discussing the scope of a 2016 summer internship with the organization.
Prior to joining PATH in 2009, Cummings held senior business development positions at AVI BioPharma, Inc. (now Sarepta Therapeutics), GD Searle & Co., and Immunex Corp. (now part of Amgen Inc.).
Cummings has a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from Stanford University, a master’s degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from Harvard University, and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley.