PROVIDENCE, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Maternova, Inc., accelerating advances in maternal and infant health through innovative, accessible solutions, today announced the appointment of M. Gabriela Salvador, MD, MPH, as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors. Dr. Salvador succeeds Prakash Veenam, MBA, who has served as CEO since 2018 and will assume the role of Senior Vice President of Operations with the Company.
“Gabriela has an impressive record of leading the design and implementation of high-impact health business models and programs benefiting women and children living in poverty around the world,” said Jerry Weinstein, PhD, Board member at Maternova. “Her expertise with social enterprises will be vital to advancing Maternova’s mission to improve maternal and newborn health. With such crucial work ahead of us, Gabriela is the ideal leader to drive the Company through its next stages of expansion.”
“On behalf of the entire board, I thank Prakash for his significant contributions to Maternova,” added Dr. Weinstein. “Under his leadership, the Company increased its revenues more than ten times since 2018, broadened the leadership team, and built out its state-of-the-art product platform. We’re delighted that Prakash will remain a key member of the leadership team.”
Dr. Salvador has more than 20 years of experience working in the public and private health sectors as a physician and leader and advisor of global health initiatives and social enterprises. She joins Maternova after serving as the senior vice president of global operations at Americares. In that role, she led the operations of country offices by creating and standardizing operational structures across regions needed to effectively implement global and local health programs and services. Prior to Americares, Dr. Salvador served as the senior director of health at the Grameen Foundation and Freedom from Hunger, where she provided leadership in the design and implementation of a global health strategy to connect women to essential financial and health services, while building empowering ecosystems. Dr. Salvador also served as the chief health and human development officer for Pro Mujer, where she led the operation of 100 health clinics throughout five countries in Latin America. As a medical doctor, she was in private and public practice as a pediatric ophthalmologist in Argentina, the United States and Mexico.
“Too often, health issues that women and children face around the world can be prevented or treated with products that are not available to them. While a wide range of lifesaving medical devices and supplies exist or are in development, the critical step is to make these solutions both accessible and affordable to those who need them,” said Dr. Salvador. “I’ve seen the power of social enterprises as drivers of change for good, and Maternova is strategically positioned to make proven, innovative products available to this historically underserved market by connecting demand and supply in a way that is effective and impactful. I’m very excited to join the Maternova team to help accelerate its global growth and fulfill its mission to save lives.”
Dr. Salvador earned her medical degree from the National University of Córdoba in Argentina. She completed a pediatric ophthalmology fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the University of California, Irvine, and has a master’s degree in public health with a focus on health policy and management from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Salvador currently serves on the Board of Advisors for Care 2 Communities (C2C) and Linked Foundation.
About Maternova, Inc.
Maternova is a global health solutions company making lifesaving, evidence-based innovations accessible to low- and middle-income countries and humanitarian settings to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality and improve reproductive well-being. Founded in 2009, it launched the first-of-its-kind e-commerce marketplace for distributors, governments and humanitarian organizations to research, source and fulfill orders of trusted and rigorously tested medical devices, diagnostics and nutritional products that enhance care. Since 2015, Maternova has impacted the lives of more than 1.2 million mothers and babies around the world. Learn more about Maternova and its mission at www.maternova.net.
