Vandana Shah is vice president for the Health Systems Strengthening cluster at the Global Health Advocacy Incubator. In this role, Vandana provides overall leadership and oversight of several global programs including Data for Health, Prevent Epidemics, Immunization, and Drowning Prevention programs, as well as spearheading GHAI’s efforts on budget advocacy and improving access to health services for noncommunicable diseases including hypertension control. She leads efforts to position GHAI as a go-to resource for advocacy for health systems strengthening and design. Working across this cluster, she will also support the launch of new initiatives to reduce barriers to health access and care, increase financing for health systems and improve equity in the health care service delivery with an emphasis on primary health care.

With 15 years of experience in public health, Vanessa Candeias is the head of health promotion and disease prevention where she leads the work on health security and noncommunicable diseases. Before joining the World Economic Forum, she worked with the Department of Chronic Diseases and Health Promotion of the World Health Organization headquarters, the Directorate General for Health, Ministry of Health in Portugal and the Institute of Preventive Medicine of the University of Lisbon. She is a nutritionist by training and holds a master’s in public health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Vanessa Holcomb Mann is a senior investment adviser on USAID INVEST, an initiative of the Private Sector Engagement Hub at the U.S. Agency for International Development that mobilizes private capital for better development outcomes.

Vanessa Peberdy is the deputy director of health progress at IFPMA, covering a wide range of topics relating to the access to medicines agenda and health systems strengthening. She has a strong focus on noncommunicable diseases and private sector engagement. She was previously a senior analyst and public policy lead at the Economist Intelligence Unit in Geneva and has a background in public policy and evaluation. She has a master's degree in Development Studies from the London School of Economics, and a bachelor's degree in Economics from University College London.

Vanessa Pizer is the director of Climate Resilience Initiatives at Episcopal Relief & Development, where she has played an integral role in building the organization’s gender-based violence and climate resilience portfolios. Vanessa and her team test innovations at the nexus of long-term livelihood resilience and short-term emergency response. Prior to joining Episcopal Relief & Development, Vanessa was an instructor with the Earth Institute. She has worked in Uganda, Cambodia, and Mali on various natural resource management projects. Vanessa has a master’s degree in public administration & development practice from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Vania Montalvo works for Transparencia Mexicana, the national chapter of Transparency International in Mexico. She coordinates the Climate Finance Integrity Program, which aims to ensure that the financial resources allocated to climate actions are not thwarted by corruption. To do so, the CFIP promotes greater accountability, transparency, openness and integrity in the management of project funds at national and global levels.

Varad Pande is an associate partner in the Mumbai office of Dalberg, a strategic advisory firm dedicated to global development. Before coming to Dalberg, he was special adviser to India’s Minister for Rural Development and Environment and Forests, where he drove the agenda on sustainable livelihoods, water and sanitation, financial inclusion, environment, and climate change.

Vasiliki Koukoulioti is a lecturer in Tax Law at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London. Her research focuses on tax policy, technology and sustainability.

Vaughn F. Graham is an expert in aid and development programming. He specializes in modeling development effectiveness at the country and sectoral levels. He has worked on programs supported by various bilateral and multilateral partners who do work throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. A Jamaican national, he has significant experience working in government, teaching undergraduate and postgraduate programs, being a peer reviewer for leading academic journals on development, and also doing consultancy work. He attended the University of the West Indies, Mona, as well as completed doctoral qualifications in international development at the University of Birmingham, on account of being awarded a U.K. Commonwealth Scholarship in 2010.

Venge Nyirongo joined UN Women's Economic Empowerment Section at the organization's Headquarters in March 2014, to support the organization's strategic and policy focus on Sustainable Development. He builds on his work in gender equality and, particularly, the advancement of women's economic empowerment, from prior experiences in UNEP and UNDP. He is an economist with a research interests in economic modeling of access to products and services in developing countries.