Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, MD, MSc Qualifications & Biography
DR. SHAH IS A RESPECTED LEADER WITH A PROVEN TRACK RECORD IN GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT WITH DEEP EXPERIENCE IN MANY SECTORS, INCLUDING HEALTH, AGRICULTURE, WATER, AND FINANCIAL SERVICES:
• He has led and worked with many of the initiatives that are defining best practice in the field of development - The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, The Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria and The Alliance for a Green Revolution for Africa (AGRA) to name a few. With respect to AGRA in particular, Dr. Shah helped create the organization, build the board, recruit leadership and oversee operations. • He has worked around the world (especially in Africa and Asia), and has deep content and operational experience in global health, agriculture and food security and financial services for the poor. Raj helped launch the Global Development program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and directly managed the foundation’s nearly $1.3 billion portfolio of investments in agricultural development. He also was the founding director of the Foundation’s Financial Services to the Poor portfolio and held numerous leadership roles within the Foundation Global Health program. Dr. Shah has also helped lead and is an important contributor to President Obama’s global food security initiative. • He has worked closely with many organizations who are key partners to the USAID and its mission. These include the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) and a range of innovative public-private partnerships in a variety of sectors in global development. • Through these myriad experiences, Raj has worked around the world – traveling to many parts of Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe. As a medical student, he experienced living and working in South India on a health and development project. More recently, he helped launch, recruit leadership, build the board and oversee the operations of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, based in Nairobi.
DR. SHAH IS AN INNOVATIVE LEADER WHO KNOWS WHAT IT TAKES TO GET THINGS DONE IN GOVERNMENT:
• USAID needs strong leadership from someone who understands the federal bureaucracy and has the capacity to bring best practices in development and a result-oriented approach to the agency. Raj has demonstrated his ability to do that successfully in the private and public sectors • Raj currently manages more than 10,000 federal employees and a budget of more than $2.6 billion, working closely with Congress, the State Dept, the White House, and the international development community on issues ranging from health and nutrition to bioenergy and climate change. • He assumed a role at USDA that required refocusing and revitalizing a large federal bureaucracy. USDA’s research mission area had experienced little growth for decades and was criticized for not being in the same leagues as other federal science agencies. Raj recruited a strong leadership team, consulted with Congress, OMB and White House, and launched the National Institute of Food and Agriculture to pursue problem-focused scientific research in areas critical to the President’s agenda. • He has led USDA’s efforts on the President’s global food security initiative.
DR. SHAH IS A PROVEN TEAM BUILDER AND MANAGER:
• He has developed a strong reputation for recruiting, building and managing very strong teams. He was involved in supporting the tremendous growth of the Gates Foundation from 100-200 individuals to nearly 800. Personally recruited nearly 100 people to Gates and also recruited key leaders to USDA and its science mission area.
DR. SHAH HAS DEEP EXPERIENCE IN FORGING PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS TO CREATE INNOVATIVE, SCALABLE SOLUTIONS FOR HELPING MOVE THE WORLD’S POOREST FAMILIES TOWARDS PRODUCTIVITY:
• Has developed innovative public-private partnerships that stretch the dollars invested and maximize outcomes. This includes partnerships with major technology development firms (GSK, Monsanto), small civil society organizations/local NGOs, and foundations. He has been involved with innovative ideas and programs including helping to develop Advance Purchase Commitments for new vaccines. • Has worked at the highest levels with foreign donor governments (UK, France, and Norway), multilateral institutions (World Bank), and recipient countries in Asia and Africa in particular. He is credited with developing the International Finance Facility for Immunization and helping to raise nearly $5 billion for it from a series of European donors.
DR. SHAH IS AN INNOVATOR:
• He helped manage the foundation’s $1.5 billion investment in the Vaccine Fund. In that capacity he worked with leaders around the world – including health ministers, ministers of finance and heads of state – to develop and implement practical and effective immunization programs. He worked closely with the board of directors, private corporations, donor countries and key UN agencies to help build this alliance and support its functioning. Today, GAVI is a model program that has immunized more than 190 million kids against hepatitis B and saved millions of lives • He is credited with developing the International Finance Facility for Immunization – an effort he developed together with Unicef, World Health Organization and the Vaccine Fund. He led efforts to engage donor governments including the UK, France, Norway and others and ultimately raised more than $5 billion and solved a core challenge in vaccine finance – the lack of predictability – in an efficient way. This work has been cited in the NYT, WSJ, FT and others as an important innovation in global development. • He has worked closely with the World Bank – including helping to lead an innovative partnership with the Rotary Foundation to create “IDA buy-downs” in which the foundations established a trust fund to buy down outstanding debt for countries that had successfully pursued polio eradication campaigns. The program won the Presidential Excellence Award at the World Bank and contributed to the effort to eradicate polio • He built an innovative financial services portfolio that included major program-related investments in banks that serve low income populations in Asia, Latin America and Africa.
AT THE GATES FOUNDATION, DR. SHAH RELENTLESSY FOCUSED ON RESULTS:
• He has led effective strategy development efforts, including the efforts to explore new areas of giving at the Foundation that resulted in launching its multi-billion dollar global development program. • He studied a range of potential areas of giving and ultimately focused on efforts to help poorest people move out of poverty and suffering. • Took a very rigorous and quantitative approach – carefully assessing how Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett could get the most value for their committed resources. • Focused on efforts that involved listening to the needs and aspirations of the poor and being very customer-oriented in his work. As a result, the foundation adopted a strong focus on women during his tenure there • Invested in measuring results – through formal surveys, geospatial data collection, auditing of program activity information, and building partnerships with others.
DR. SHAH’S PERSONAL VALUES INCLUDE A LONGSTANDING COMMITMENT TO HELPING ERADICATE POVERTY:
• He has a deep commitment and passion for global development. His family immigrated from India and he spent time visiting there as a child. Prior to medical school, he worked on a TB and health project in rural South India • He has a commitment to education – an important part of the USAID portfolio – and has served on the board of trustees of the 54,000 student Seattle Community College District. • He is trained as a medical doctor and a health economist.
DR. SHAH HAS WORKED WITH AND ENJOYS THE STRONG SUPPORT OF MANY IN THE INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY, INCLUDING:
1. Patty Stonesifer, former CEO BMGF /Chair, Smithsonian 2. Catherine Bertini, former ED World Food Program and U/SG, UN, Syracuse and Chicago Council 3. Nancy Birdsall, President, Center for Global Development 4. Kofi Annan, former SG UN and Chair AGRA 5. Jessica Einhorn, Dean John Hopkins SAIS / former MD, World Bank 6. Helene Gayle, CEO CARE 7. David Lane, CEO, ONE Campaign 8. Dan Glickman, MPIAA, Chicago Council, former Ag Sec 9. Judith Rodin, President, Rockefeller Foundation 10. Marshall Matz 11. Peter McPherson, Pres. Association of Public and Land Grant Universities, former USAID Director 12. Strive Masiyiwa , Econet Wireless (Africa), AGRA 13. Geeta Rao Gupta, President, International Center for Research on Women 14. Sam Worthington, CEO Interaction 15. Jeff Sachs, Columbia University 16. Muhammud Yunus, Grameen Bank 17. Josette Sheeran, ED World Food Program 18. Bobby Shriver, RED 19. Namanga Ngongi, AGRA, former UN Special Representative to the DRC 20. Mamphela Ramphele, former MD of the World Bank, Circle Capital Ventures 21. Bruce McNamer, CEO Technoserve 22. Geoff Lamb, former VP Resource Mobilization, World Bank, Director at BMG 23. Jeff Raikes, CEO Gates Foundation 24. Rajat Gupta, former MD McKinsey / GFATM 25. Bill Drayton, Ashoka
Rajiv J. Shah, MD, MSc
Dr. Rajiv Shah currently serves as Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics and Chief Scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He manages the Agricultural Research Service, the Economic Research Service, the National Agricultural Statistical Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. He is responsible for managing more than 10,000 staff worldwide including 2,200 federal scientists and a budget of more than $2.6 billion. He also leads the Department’s participation in President Obama’s global food security initiative.
In his tenure at USDA, Dr. Shah launched the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) – a new scientific institute created to elevate and enhance the capacity of agricultural research to address sustainable food production, climate change, bioenergy and human nutrition. NIFA adopts best practices from across the federal science community and partners with universities, extension programs, and the private sector. The Institute also includes the 4-H program – the largest federal youth program – which reaches 6 million young Americans and the Cooperative Extension Service which includes extension officers in nearly every county in the United States. NIFA has been developing innovative partnerships across the federal government including the Department of Defense as it works to support military families.
Prior to joining the Obama Administration, Dr. Shah served as the Director for Agricultural Development at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In this role, Raj created and managed a multi-billion dollar portfolio of grants and investments to help transform rural economies throughout the developing world and help families overcome hunger and poverty. He led efforts to create the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, helped recruit its leadership including UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and served on its Board of Directors.
Previously, Dr. Shah served as the foundation’s first Director for Financial Services to the Poor and led the Strategic Opportunities initiative through which he worked with foundation co-chairs to identify, assess and recommend new areas of giving. This process led to the creation of the foundation’s Global Development Program. Raj’s early work with the foundation focused on global health. As Deputy Director for Policy and Finance, he managed the Foundation’s $1.5 billion commitment to the Vaccine Fund and helped create the International Finance Facility for Immunization – helping to transform the global system of vaccine financing and securing more than $5 billion from donors worldwide.
Prior to joining the Foundation, Dr. Shah worked on health care policy for the Gore 2000 presidential campaign and served as a member of Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell's transition committee on health. He is a co-founder of Health Systems Analytics and Project IMPACT for South Asian Americans. In addition, he has served as a policy aide in the British Parliament and worked at the World Health Organization.
Dr. Shah earned his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School and his Master of Science in health economics at the Wharton School of Business. He has attended the London School of Economics, is a graduate of the University of Michigan, and has published articles on health policy and global development. Shah previously served on the boards of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), the Seattle Public Library, the Seattle Community College District, and City Year Seattle. In 2007, he was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and he serves on the Forum’s Global Agenda Council for Food Security.
Raj is married to Shivam Mallick Shah, and they have two children – their son Sajan, and their 15-month old daughter Amna.