Satish Jha, President, Digital Partners India

Satish Jha consults on management, business strategy, organizational restructuring, information technology strategy, process reengineering, applications development and their implementation. He has worked as a researcher, leader writer, newspaper editor, and head of information management with global responsibilities, head of a consulting firm in India and the US and is currently working as a consultant at executive level supporting large corporate initiatives in integration, process and program management.

Satish is also actively engaged in non-profit activities and over the years co-founded Tarahaat, Baramati Initiatives, DESI Power, and Digital Partners India among others and chairs e-Healthcare Foundation. Four projects supported by him were selected as finalists at the Stockholm Challenge Award and one of them was awarded the honor. He also co-founded PUCL Bulletin, the civil Rights Journal of India in early 1980s and has supported a couple dozen initiatives in ICT for Development.

He also co-founded Jansatta, a national language daily for the Indian Express Group and was the chief editor of Dinamaan, the newsweekly of the Times of India Group and has written for journals across Asia, Europe and the US.

His focus is on using contemporary technologies for improving quality and design of work and efficiency as well as development that improve the quality of life for the common people.

As a management consultant he has supported more than 120 organizations in developing and implementing their information technology and corporate strategy, organizational architectures, business process reengineering and implementing enterprise wide application systems.

Since joining Hoffmann-La Roche in 1990, Satish has been closely associated with managing IT in pharmaceuticals and healthcare sector. Initially as a consultant in developing information strategy to leading its implementation globally and later advising the global informatics on strategic issues, he was recruited to start the healthcare and pharmaceuticals practice of James Martin & Co in the US and also asked to oversee the US operations of Telos Consulting. His clients included Pfizer, Westchester Hospital, Dr Reddy’s Lab, Ranbaxy, Apollo Hospital, Escorts Heart Institute, State of J&K, Employee State Insurance Corporation. Lately he has been supporting healthcare organizations such as Caremark in their integration efforts due to merger of three large Pharmacy Benefit Management companies.

During the past five years he has mentored the development of several e-Healthcare applications including a web-based patient care system, a web-based hospital management system and created the applications and framework for allowing patient care data to be stored outside of hospitals and doctors filing systems for easy access by authorized hospitals or doctors wherever the patient may be. Tarahaat is a pioneering concept that created the possibility of connecting village India or any village to the emerging world of information, services and commerce through the web at locally affordable and yet commercially viable prices.

Among other non-profit initiatives Satish is a founder of FREND (Fund for Renewable Energy Decentralized) and DESI Power (Decentralized Energy Systems India) and these have led to several pilots on biomass based small 100 to 500 KW power plants that can support local village needs. He led the founding of Baramati Initiatives together with The World Bank that launched the ICTs for Development movement in India and brought together the efforts of African, Latin American and Indian social entrepreneurs. Baramati Initiatives launched the social entrepreneurship movement in India and awarded a couple dozen successful initiatives with mentoring, seed funding, arranged venture funding and augmenting their managerial needs.

Satish was appointed Special Adviser to Kofi Annan Center for Excellence in ICTs for Development that was set up by the governments of India and Ghana and support from Kofi Annan to help West African region benefit from appropriate strategies in utilizing ICTs. He was also an Adviser to the Board of Perot System to help them in developing appropriate strategies as well as mentoring their senior management to take up new challenges.

He was first appointed as a chief executive at 30 years of age and led a team of 70 journalists and operations managers. He led a large department of about a thousand professionals globally with a budget of about $100 million and has led several multi-million dollar projects. He is a great connector and has strong relationships. Moreover he builds productive relationships quickly and has a track record of achieving goals strategically.

His primary interest is in non-profit sector, ICTs for development, capacity building and being socially engaged. He has managed to combined that with a corporate career though would prefer to be wholly immersed in the social space.