Angela has served as a trusted advisor to members of the U.S. Congress and Executive Branch as well as to CEOs and senior executives in complex, multi-national organizations for over two decades. Angela is currently a member of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World's Board of Directors.

Previously, Angela was Vice President, International Corporate Affairs, at Walmart Stores, Inc. where she led the company’s external engagement in 40+ retail, ecommerce and sourcing countries around the world. She also launched innovative public-private chain capacity building projects focused on transparency, building safety, agricultural development and women’s economic empowerment in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Angela joined the company in 2002 as Director of International Corporate Affairs in the company’s Federal Government Relations office in Washington, D.C. In 2005, she moved to company headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas where she led corporate affairs engagement in the Americas as well as gained operational experience in the supply chain when she was promoted to Vice President, GNFR (indirect spend) and Sourcing Services in Walmart Global Sourcing.

Coming from a family of 3 generations of doctors, Pooja has always been passionate about providing holistic care to patients. Graduating with a first-class from one of India’s top medical schools, she has worked in medical research in Singapore and is now a front line doctor in an inner-city practice, working with marginalized and underprivileged communities in the UK. She is a strong believer in preventive medicine and working with people to help them make healthier life choices.

Along with working as a GP, she is also a clinical director and co-founder of the Centre for Health Research and Education (CHRE), working globally on tobacco cessation with a mantra of ‘Bridging the Policy and Practice gap’. Until now she has upskilled and empowered 100s of influencers in UK as well as in India, as part of the mission of creating local champions, to support tobacco users in their quitting journey.

People with mental health conditions have significantly high smoking rates and die nearly 10-20 earlier than those without mental health conditions. Pooja has been making a positive impact in the challenging area of helping people with mental health conditions quit smoking.

During the COVID pandemic, Pooja has been warning Public Health to pre-empt a surge in tobacco use and work proactively to prevent another healthcare calamity hitting the world. She herself has been at the forefront of creating and disseminating “Quit During Covid” message using innovative ways, during the lockdown period.

https://bjgpopen.org/content/early/2020/04/07/bjgpopen20X101067

Ethan has played a leading role in harm reduction and other drug policy reform efforts in the United States and globally since the late 1980s. He was born in New York City, received his BA, JD, and PhD from Harvard, and taught politics and public affairs at Princeton University (1987-1994). He then founded first The Lindesmith Center (1994-2000, a drug policy institute created with the philanthropic support of George Soros) and then the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), which he directed from 2000 until 2017. His TED Talk, “Why we need to end the drug war,” has two million views.

Listed among the 100 Most Influential in UK - India Relationships, Darshita is Founder & CEO of Maanch and currently a member of the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World's Board of Directors. Her aim is to leverage the power of emerging technologies to address the complex business and societal challenges we face in a more sustainable, conscious, and strategic way. Her experience builds on and blends 3 facets, 'Finance', 'Technology' and 'Planetary Sustainability’. With a professional background as Chartered Accountant, Investment Banker, Executive Coach, Impact Investing and FinTech/ Blockchain Specialist, Darshita also serves on Boards of 'For Profit' and 'Non-Profit' organisations.

Chitra Subramaniam is an iconic investigative journalist from India now living in Geneva. She is recognized for her investigation of the Bofors-India Howitzer deal which is widely believed to have to have contributed to the electoral defeat of Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1989. This ten-year three-country investigation helped change jurisprudence in Switzerland in matters of international assistance in criminal cases. Subramaniam went on to work for the WHO after which she founded CSDconsulting a company at the crossroads of development, trade and media. She has worked with some of the world's top groups including India's TATA group and Sweden's Wallenberg group.

Alumni of Carnegie Mellon, Nilesh Jain is a serial entrepreneur and an advisor for emerging entrepreneurs and start-ups. Nilesh is the founder and managing director of Harm Reduction Research and Innovation Center (HRRIC). He is also a co-founder of Quitx, an application that helps smokers quit smoking and Clinivantage Healthcare, a social enterprise for improving access to care at lower costs. He is focussed in the area of healthcare and tobacco harm reduction, and establish HRRIC to build research capacity in India.

As a Data Analyst, Yuchen Xue conducts research on the evolving tobacco landscape, focusing on industry changes in China. She also performs quantitative and qualitative analyses of relevant datasets, including surveys, government data, company reports, and publicly-available research. Click here for the full bio

Dr. Shlomi Madar, VP of Healthcare Solutions at Signals Analytics, is a seasoned healthcare executive with 15 years of experience and a strong scientific background. He works closely with leading Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals companies to help them become data-driven organizations, embrace innovation, and drive success via evidence and analytics.

In the second episode of the “Global Health Perspectives with Derek Yach” podcast, Dr. Yach speaks with Candida Nakhumwa, PhD, the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World Country Director in Malawi. Candida speaks about her personal journey, the Foundation’s work in #Malawi and the potential ramifications of the #COVID19 pandemic on smallholder #tobacco farmers. Shortly after recording this episode, President Peter Mutharika announced that Malawi has 3 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World has premiered its inaugural episode of the Global Health Perspectives with Derek Yach podcast. Dr. Riccardo Polosa, a respiratory physician and harm reduction expert, is the first guest and he speaks about his first-hand experience with the #COVID19 pandemic in Italy. Listen here.