Interview By Simeon Onoja
Genevieve Barnard Oni: A Healthcare Visionary Transforming Medical Diagnosis in Nigeria
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Genevieve Barnard Oni is the CFO/Co-Founder of MDaaS Global. The idea for healthtech came to her and her co-founder during their time at MIT. They wanted to make world-class medical diagnoses available to everyday people in Africa. And this desire to impact lives led to the launch of MDaaS.
enevieve is currently running an MBA/MPA dual degree programme at MIT Sloan and Harvard Kennedy School, with a major in finance and operations.
Prior to graduate school, Genevieve worked at the UN Development Program in Uganda, served as Program Manager for Babson College’s Global Healthcare Entrepreneurship program, and was Associate Director of the Kletjian Foundation, an organization working to improve global access to surgical care. She has an undergraduate degree in Public Health and African Studies from the University of Pennsylvania. Business Elites Africa sat with this healthcare visionary on some crucial issues.
98 | Business Elites Africa / ISSUE 116
What inspired the launch of MDaaS lives every single day. That was really Global? attractive to me. I also was drawn to the healthcare space because there’s a I am one of four co-founders, and I lot of interesting innovation from time think each of us has our own kind of to time. connection to this problem and some inspiration for why we wanted to And the impact of that innovation work in the healthcare space. is helping people to address health issues, helping them to live healthier, I think for me, coming out of school happier and longer lives. and thinking about what I’d want to do with my career. I really liked the idea How did you tackle funding in the of baking something impactful into early days of MDaaS? what I do every day and not working another job and saying, ‘Okay, you It all depends on how how much fund know, maybe in 10 years, I’ll get to you’re trying to raise in your seed switch into something that I feel is rounds. really impact-focused’. We started the company while we And so I felt like the healthcare space, were still students at MIT. So two of my in particular, is one area where you co-founders are also MIT graduates. could really have an impact on people’s
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