Impatient Optimists
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Authors / Biography

Alkesh Wadhwani

Title Deputy Director, Ahavan
Organization Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

 

Alkesh Wadhwani is Deputy Director, India Programs.

Alkesh has been with the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation since 2003. He currently oversees the India based programs of the foundation. Prior to that, he led the Avahan program, a $ 350 million usd HIV prevention program of the foundation in India. 

Prior to joining the foundation, Alkesh worked for five years in McKinsey & Co., where he served clients in India, Asia, Europe and US in the financial services and pharmaceutical sectors.

He co-founded IIT InvesTrust Ltd., with seats on the BSE and NSE, and interests in institutional and retail broking, and investment banking. He has also worked in the Financial Institutions Group of Citibank in Mumbai.

Alkesh received his B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Mumbai and an MBA from IIM, Calcutta. He is married with two young children

Posts By Alkesh Wadhwani

India's Call to Action (Summit) for Child Survival

February 12, 2013 / Girindre Beeharry, Mariam Claeson, Usha Kiran Tarigopula, Alkesh Wadhwani

With the conclusion of the three day Summit for Child Survival in India (Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu) we completed a major milestone for child survival in India – and globally.

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Avahan: The Business of HIV Prevention at Scale

July 21, 2010 / Alkesh Wadhwani

When the Avahan team first went to an AIDS conference in Toronto, we were nervous about presenting our model of prevention to the HIV community.

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  • "Our desire to bring every good thing to our children is a force for good throughout the world. It’s what propels societies forward." —Melinda Gates

  • The Global Fund has helped to deliver more than 190 million bed nets to protect families from malaria.

  • "The world faces a clear choice. If we invest relatively small amounts, many more poor farmers will be able to feed their families." —Bill Gates, 2012 Annual Letter

  • "When it come to global health, Bill and I are optimists—but we're impatient optimists. Tremendous progress is being made. But there is still so much we're impatient to see done." —Melinda French Gates

  • In Senegal, 80% of households now have a bed net, helping the number of malaria cases there drop 50% in a single year.

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