Bio
Dr. Jeff Blander is recognized for his innovation mindset, people first approach, and deal making acumen to unlock the transformative power of public and private collaboration. Jeff strongly believes that empowering local communities is the essential ingredient to create sustainable solutions addressing our greatest local and global challenges. His professional true north is “connecting the dots” between private investors, philanthropists, and entrepreneurs to scale leapfrog technologies and accelerate game changing business models to create a more resilient, equitable, and prosperous world, by doing well and good.
Jeff brings over 20 years of industry, academic, non-profit, and federal government experiences, where he has provided operational and strategic leadership on the development of drug discovery platforms and clinical trials systems, innovation accelerator networks, blended financing vehicles, and strategic partnerships to deploy and commercialize lifesaving technologies & products. These efforts span across multiple industries and continents.
Jeff currently serves in the U.S. Department of State as the Chief Innovation and Investment Officer, within the Bureau of Global Health Security and Diplomacy, PEPFAR’s Office of Financial and Programmatic Sustainability. Since joining the U.S. Federal Service in 2012, he has supported the planning of annual budgets, culled high impact adaptive practices, and created from the ground up deals cumulatively leveraging greater than US$1 billion across a portfolio of over 50 countries. In these roles, Jeff has earned commendations for outstanding service, including a U.S. Department of State Meritorious Honor Award in 2021. In the Fall of 2024, Jeff is scheduled to be on detail within the State Department as part of an inaugural expanded and highly competitive professional development program. Jeff plans to serve as a senior strategy advisor to support the relaunch of the Human Centered Design (HCD) Lab, within the Diplomatic Innovation Division, Bureau of Diplomatic Technology. The role will explore how applying emerging technologies such as AI and quantum computing can help modernize & advance the Department's diplomatic and foreign policy leadership at home and abroad.
Prior to his federal service, Jeff was founder and president of Bienmoyo, a private foundation supporting commercialization of point-of-care diagnostics and regional manufacturing, expanding access to financing for private health facilities, and deployment of the mMaisha platform, a groundbreaking mobile product suite supporting community health workers to improve maternal health and prevent rheumatic heart disease. Jeff also created and was co-director for multidisciplinary health care innovation and business courses in the Health Sciences and Technology (HST) Division of Harvard Medical School and MIT. Jeff is co-author and co-editor of textbooks on business, clinical management systems, and microfludic technologies and is a best-selling children’s book author. Jeff received his Doctorate and two Master’s Degrees from The Harvard School of Public Health and his Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
During his time as a CGD non-resident fellow, Dr. Blander plans to focus on best practice innovations in global health delivery, enabling policies for private health sector investment, consumer e-Wallets that empower the client experience, and the role of human centered design (HCD) to modernize diplomacy. He is also keen to collaborate on strengthening linkages between local and global stock exchanges to nurture successful scale & exits for “African Unicorns” within medtech, biotech, and edtech.