Dr. Ola Brown: Traversing impact across investment and healthcare services
Dr. Ola Brown is a remarkable British-Nigerian medical doctor and entrepreneur, known for founding the Flying Doctors Healthcare Investment Company (FDHIC) and serving as a director at Greentree Investment Company. Her journey spans diverse fields, from medicine and surgery to finance and economic policy, showcasing a unique blend of expertise.
In her time as the CEO of Flying Doctors Nigeria Ltd, Dr. Ola pioneered West Africa’s first air-operated emergency medical services, reflecting her commitment to healthcare innovation. The Flying Doctors operate air ambulance services, providing emergency medical assistance, rapid patient transportation, and critical medical evacuations. They play a crucial role in delivering medical aid to remote areas, contributing significantly to emergency healthcare infrastructure.
Her impact extends beyond Nigeria, with significant contributions to the African healthcare and wellness sector through FDHIC, covering areas like diagnostics, pharmaceutical retail, and health facility management.
In addition to her ventures, Dr. Ola is actively involved in academia, teaching economics and finance at the School of politics, policy, and governance in Nigeria. Her extensive executive education, including certificates from Harvard University and Wharton, highlights her dedication to continuous learning.
As an international speaker, Dr. Ola has shared her insights at prestigious events like TED Global Conference, the World Economic Forum, and the United Nations. Her work has garnered attention from major media outlets such as CNN, BBC, Forbes, and Al-Jazeera.
Beyond her professional achievements, Dr. Ola contributes to various organisations, serving on the board of the professional women’s network, leading the Health as a business group at the Nigerian Economics Summit Group, and playing key roles in committees like the British Business Group (Lagos) and the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce.
Along with two other directors, Dr Ola co-founded and runs a early stage venture capital firm, Greentree Investment Company, which provides growth capital to some of Africa’s most exciting tech start-up’s.
Greentree Investment Company has invested in start-ups in various sectors mainly fintech, but also media, SaaS, Agri-tech, manufacturing, ecommerce, health tech and Edutech making it one of West Africa’s leading venture capital firms. In 2020, the company exited its investment in Paystack when it was acquired by Stripe.
She is also the founding partner of Healthcare Capital Africa also known as ‘Healthcap;’ a pan-Africa investment company focused on investments that create a healthier world.
Healthcap is a sector specific company that makes investments in healthcare. Healthcap also invests in and operates larger healthcare/clean energy/clean water infrastructure projects.
Healthcap has invested in nearly 30 start-ups in fintech and healthtech. On the infrastructure side, Healthcap has a pipeline of almost $800 million in healthcare, clean energy and clean water projects across the continent.
In her diverse roles, Dr. Ola Brown exemplifies a visionary leader, bridging the realms of healthcare, business, and academia, with a global impact reflected in her engagements across continents.
