LIONESS WEEKENDER COVER STORY
Flying Doctors Healthcare Investment Company, investing across Africa’s healthcare and wellness value chain.
Dr Ola Brown is the founder of the Flying Doctors Healthcare Investment Company (FDHIC). The Group invests and operates across the healthcare and wellness value chain in hospital/clinic construction & refurbishment, diagnostics and equipment, health facility management, pharmaceutical retail, drug manufacturing, air ambulance services & logistics and consulting/healthcare technology.
Dr Ola studied medicine and surgery at the Hull York Medical School after which she worked in Acute Medicine in the UK. She then went on to be awarded the Japanese MEXT scholarship which allowed her to further her studies in Tokyo, Japan, the fellowship focused on lab-based research with induced pluripotent stem cells. She is currently completing her Master’s degree in Finance and Economic Policy at the University of London. Her post-graduate areas of study also include Pre-hospital Emergency care, Healthcare leadership and Healthcare delivery. She has a certificate in Economic policy making from IE business school, Spain , a certificate in Accounting for decision making from the University of Michigan in the United States and a certificate in Finance & Investing in Infrastructure (Project Finance) from Universita Bocconi in Milan.
Lioness Weekender spoke to Dr Ola to find out more about this impact driven stage of her entrepreneurial journey.
What does your company do?
Healthcare Investment
What inspired you to start your company?
The gap in the African investment space in terms of financing, infrastructure and knowledge.
Why should anyone use your service or product?
We are a sector specific company, investing across the healthcare and wellness value chain.
Tell us a little about your team
Our team has a total of 40+ years of extensive, complementary experience both as investors, healthcare experts and operating experts. Our investment team are a uniquely qualified team with the ambition of changing African healthcare narrative while our operations team provides adequate administrative, accounting, finance, risk management and legal support role both to FDHIC and our portfolio companies.
Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And do you come from an entrepreneurial background?
My entrepreneurial journey started when I lost my younger sister due to lack of basic healthcare infrastructure in Africa. I thought her type of death could be prevented by creating a service that could get people to hospitals with the level of expertise and infrastructure needed for their care in the time that counts so I created West-Africa's first air ambulance service company but soon realized that the root cause of her death was a complex interplay of fiscal, structural and other economic factors that continues to contribute to under-investment in African healthcare systems.Hence my focus has shifted from just an air ambulance service company to creating a company focused on investment in the Africa healthcare and wellness value chain.
What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?
To be the leading healthcare investment company in Africa and be listed on the London stock exchange.
What gives you the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur?
Making healthcare accessible, affordable and acceptable to Africans through the ecosystem of our portfolio companies while at the same time giving good return on investment to shareholders.
What's the biggest piece of advice you can give to other women looking to start-up?
Against all odds, strive for the best.
To find out more about the work of Dr Ola Brown contact her via email: management@flyingdoctorsnigeria.com. Learn more about the Flying Doctors Healthcare Investment Company by visiting the website: http://fdinvestmentcompany.com/ or on social media: http://twitter.com/NaijaFlyingDr
