About our founder

Dr. Yogesh Rajkotia founded ThinkWell in 2011 to support human capital development around the world. Convinced that a break from the status quo of development assistance was urgently needed, Dr. Rajkotia founded ThinkWell to be a disruptive, creative agent for change.

An entrepreneur at heart, Dr. Rajkotia enjoys the relentless pursuit of ideas and innovations to spark transformation in health systems. With this spirit, he has supported major health systems reforms in over 25 countries and served as advisor to ministers and secretaries around the world. Dr. Rajkotia provided leadership to USAID’s global health systems strengthening efforts, where he oversaw the Agency’s $45 million health portfolio in Rwanda and its $125M global Health Systems 20/20 program. He has consulted for many organizations including WHO, GAVI, and World Bank.

Dr. Rajkotia is well published and is frequently asked to speak to distinguished audiences around the world. He was recognized as a Rockefeller Social Innovation Fellow in 2013. He holds a doctorate degree in health economics from Johns Hopkins University and a master’s degree in health policy from the London School of Economics.

Selected Publications and Presentations

Beware of the success cartel: a plea for rational progress in global health, BMJ Global Health

International Development Doesn’t Care About Patient Privacy, Stanford Social Innovation Review

Pragmatism, Not Ideology, Must Drive Health Systems Development, Health Affairs

Is SMART the new stupid? Health worker perspectives on producing PBF indicators, Sociedade e Cultura

The Good, the Bad, and the Disruptive of Performance- Based Financing on the Mozambican Health System: Results from a process evaluation, Sociedade e Cultura

The effect of a performance-based financing program on HIV and maternal/child health services in Mozambique—an impact evaluation, Health Policy and Planning

Scaling Innovation for Strong Upazilla Health Systems in Bangladesh

Does household enrolment reduce adverse selection in a voluntary health insurance system?, Health Policy and Planning

Dai Hozumi is an experienced global health expert with more than 20 years of success in designing innovative health systems solutions and strategic analysis of complex health system challenges. He also brings expertise in deepening collaborative partnerships with governments, civil society organizations, academic institutions, and for-profit corporations in more than 20 countries across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Dai has an outstanding record of organization growth with innovative private foundations, traditional donor governments, and for-profit corporations. He holds an MD, MPH, and MS in Innovation Management.

As ThinkWell’s CEO, he is responsible for driving the firm’s vision, culture, strategy, and approach.

Daniella Fanarof has 23 years of experience in program management and implementation in International Public Health. Over the course of her career, she has worked in increasingly senior roles both in the field and headquarters. She brings a wealth of experience in Program Operations and believes that clear, manageable and efficient systems and processes are critical for high quality program implementation. She has a special interest in enabling technical teams to focus on technical excellence by creating a supportive operational environment and believes that program operations is an exciting and satisfying career path. She brings a Master’s in International Development from American University and was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. She lives in Baltimore with her fiancé and spoiled dog, Zula.

Ritu Kumar is a Program Director at ThinkWell with over 15 years of experience leading complex global projects and programs, managing cross-functional teams, and providing strategic consulting services in corporate and nonprofit environments. She has led and served as technical advisor for a variety of projects within the intersection of health and technology. Most recently, she served as a Senior Principal Technical Advisor with Management Sciences for Health leading portfolio of projects focused on systematic priority setting, health financing, and market dynamics. Before this role, Ms. Kumar worked with PATH as a Senior Program Officer leading the Access and Delivery Project, a partnership between UNDP, WHO TDR, and PATH. She was also a technical advisor and lead on a portfolio of projects focused on technology introduction in LMICs, health systems strengthening, and health policy analyses. Ritu started her global health career at Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), leading programs in India and Zambia. She initiated CHAI’s health financing program in Zambia, growing it to a multi-project portfolio covering infectious disease financing and Universal Health Coverage. Ritu Kumar is a strategic thinker and leader that has experience leading effectively within diverse settings, teams, and fields. Prior to her global health career, Ritu worked in consulting and market research related to industrial, oil and gas, emerging technologies, and manufacturing sectors.

Emily Hanks is a seasoned human resources practitioner with ten years of experience working across multiple sectors and continents. She’s worked on start-ups for multiple global and regional donor funded projects, proposal staffing, and hiring home office staff around the globe. She’s spent the last few years improving talent systems and hiring exceptional talent at other INGO’s such as PSI, MSH, and IRG. Emily brings a master’s in international public administration from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and is a proud Returned Peace Corps Volunteer – Peru. She now lives in Maryland with her husband, two children, and two kittens.

Nirmala Ravishankar is a health systems specialist with over 15 years of experience in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. She has worked on a range of health financing and health systems strengthening projects, including leading a research initiative to measure development assistance for health at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation; managing a technical assistance program at Abt Associates to assist country governments measure and analyze health spending; and coordinating a multi-partner initiative to link the delivery of primary care services through franchised private providers with government health insurance in Kenya.

Nirmala joined ThinkWell in 2018 to lead a project to improve financing for primary healthcare services.  She has a PhD in political science from Harvard University, but picked a career in global health over psephology.

Dr. Anooj Pattnaik joined ThinkWell in 2019 with the goal of supporting countries to assess the real-world challenges facing their health systems and codesign pragmatic paths forward.

Anooj most recently was leading efforts to evaluate how family planning programs, especially those targeting the youth, were being implemented across Malawi using innovate digital health methods at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  Prior to this, Anooj was at the World Bank evaluating how countries were implementing a range of policies and programs related to universal health coverage.  Anooj got his start in public health in post-Katrina New Orleans working alongside local and state health departments to evaluate their health systems and design quality improvement projects.  Anooj has a DrPH and MPH from Johns Hopkins, specializing in health systems and finance.