Dr. Monika Puri is a young, vibrant medical doctor and a trained public health specialist from India. Having worked for civil society, government, multilateral organization, and most recently the private sector, she has gained wide-ranging experience in developing and implementing healthcare programmes. In her current role as Head of Institutional Relations at Roche, she is responsible for advancing Roche’s role in the global health community as a credible and influential partner in efforts to improve access and build stronger health systems. In her decade-long career in global health, Monika has worked in the fields of deep patient management, essential drugs & medicines, health systems strengthening, epidemiology, reproductive and child health, non-communicable diseases, immunization, and malnutrition. She possesses extensive technical knowledge of key public policy trends and practices in population health service delivery and is a competent strategic negotiator with the ability to achieve time-bound results. She specializes in synergizing the role of the corporate sector in delivery of public health interventions, drawing on her experience in developing and implementing public health programs in India, policy shaping for Southeast-Asia and building credible relationships with Global Health Institutes. Monika first joined Roche India in 2017 as a lead for Policy and Government Affairs. She developed extensive linkages within the higher echelons of power at the Ministries of Health & Family Welfare, Chemicals, Commerce, Finance and NITI Aayog (Policy think tank of India), WHO and industry associations to expand her organization’s business interests in India. She then moved to Roche’s headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, joining the company as its Health Systems Strategy Leader in the Global Access team, before being promoted to the Head of Institutional Relations in December 2019. Monika joined the corporate sector from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) South-East Asia Regional Office where she has worked as a public health professional. She was instrumental in assisting South-East Asian Member Countries of the WHO to develop and implement their National Medicines Policy, strategies and plans on essential drugs and other medicines. Her work at the WHO has deepened her understanding of the importance of health systems development for ensuring Universal Health Coverage. Monika Puri’s hands on training in understanding the health care needs of the people came from the honorary work she began doing in 2009, when she started managing the operations of Chaupal, a healthcare based not-for-profit organization in India. The organization focuses on providing health care to the doorsteps of the rural poor. Her initiative of “Hospital on wheels” delivering health at the doorsteps of the brick kiln workers and poor dwellings is commendable. She currently serves as the organization’s honorary Chief Operating Officer. Monika’s remarkable academic and professional excellence was recognized by becoming a member of the National Academy of Medical Sciences, India, and the Swiss-Indian Chamber of Commerce. Additionally, she is a member of the renowned Indian Association of Preventive & Social Medicine, and the Indian Public Health Association. For her meritorious career, she was also awarded the Chevening Scholarship by the British High Commission, India, to attend the Leadership & Excellence program at King’s College London, UK. In 2020, she was named as a Global Ambassador for the G20 Health and Development Partnership, and she is currently a member of the B20 task force on Health & Life Sciences, and Action Council on Sustainability & Global Emergencies for Italian G20 Presidency.

MONTH	DATE	TIME	SESSION	SESSION TITLE
Feb 2021	02 Feb	19.00- 20.30 (BKK)	PL4	Protecting and Improving Human and Planetary Health - A Syndemic View