Meet the Team

LEADERSHIP TEAM

Nikita Patel

Chief Executive Officer

Nikita started Fortify Health in 2017 with co-founder, Brendan Eappen. As Chief Executive Officer, she oversees operations, communications and governance. During her time at Fortify Health, she has collaborated on three evaluations with major funder, GiveWell, which collectively led to $10 million in funding, and has overseen team growth from 2 to 50. Nikita has a particular interest in learning about people operations, hiring best practices, and building a connected, positive team culture. [LinkedIn]

Tony Senanayake

Chief strategy Officer

Tony is passionate about using data and evidence to help amplify impact. As Chief Strategy Officer, he develops and leads the organisational and programmatic growth strategy. Tony also oversees the open market, partnerships, and monitoring and evaluation departments at Fortify Health, driving Fortify Health's ability to meet ambitious targets and supporting the M&E team to ensure that our programs are high quality. Since joining in September 2022, Tony has overseen rapid scale-up of our open market programs. [LinkedIn]

Dr Prasad Bogam

Director of research, Monitoring & Evaluation

Dr. Prasad Bogam has a background in public health, monitoring, evaluation, and research. With a passion for data-driven decision-making and impact measurement. He has supported organisations in optimising their programs and initiatives in the field of public health and clinical research.
As the Director of Research, M&E at Fortify Health, Prasad is responsible for designing and implementing robust monitoring and evaluation frameworks that drive evidence-based strategies. His understanding of public health programs enables him to identify key indicators, develop data collection methods, and analyze the datasets to assess program effectiveness and outcomes. Currently, Prasad is leading the M&E and Quality team at Fortify Health.

ADITYA Brahmabhatt

Director Of Operations

Aditya is a systems and frameworks enthusiast, with a decade of diverse experience in the development sector. As Director of Operations, he guides the operations team in supporting the efforts of the rest of the organisation. He does this by taking a strategic view of core systems and processes and how they will scale. He also guides the operations team in their day-to-day activities and ensures that the organisation is humming together smoothly. Over the next months, he will focus his energies in ensuring the strong team culture at Fortify Health is maintained alongside the organisation's upcoming rapid growth.

Shakun Sharma

Director of programs

Shakun is a public health professional dedicated to driving impactful change in the public domain. As the Director of Programs, Shakun leads the open market program, ensuring that fortified atta effectively reach the last mile consumers in a cost-effective manner. Since joining in September 2022, Shakun has been deeply committed in empowering teams and optimizing processes. Presently, Shakun is scoping and leveraging creative approaches to expand the reach of open market programs.

TOm Daniels

Chief of Staff

In Tom's role as Chief of Staff at Fortify Health, he supports the CEO and the rest of the leadership team to deliver key strategic projects that fall outside of Fortify Health's core departments. He also works closely with the Operations team to design and implement major changes to Fortify Health's policies, processes and systems. Before joining Fortify Health, Tom worked for the Bank of England (in a policy role) and, prior to that, as a commercial lawyer at an international, magic-circle law firm in London.

Dr Rekharani Sharma

Associate Director of partnerships

Rekha is a dedicated public health professional with over a decade of experience in the public and development sectors, specializing in health program planning and implementation. At Fortify Health, she leads the organisation's partnership building and collaborative efforts with government entities and similar organisations. Since joining in September 2020, she has successfully spearheaded efforts that resulted in signing a letter of support with the Madhya Pradesh PDS and receiving a recommendation letter from the Deputy Chief Minister's Office of Maharashtra for a project proposal in collaboration with the Tribal Development Department.

Ashwin M Balu

Associate director of partnerships

As the Associate Director of Partnerships, Ashwin’s primary focus is to expand the fortification program through strategic partnerships. This involves building relationships and negotiating support structures with both existing and potential partners, enabling them to provide high-quality wheat flour to their customers. Additionally, Ashwin has played a crucial role in designing systems and developing resources within the team, ensuring efficient outreach and effective collaboration with partners.